One of the challenges i set myself was to attend a life drawing class to practice my drawing skills. I've always felt too shy and self conscious about my level of ability to go to a class before so it was with a significant degree of fear that i attended my first ever class last Thursday.
The class was nothing like i expected, firstly i didn't find myself feeling awkward when the young male model bounced onto the modelling platform in all his youthful glory. I gave myself a pat on the back for that. The first few poses were only held for minutes at a time. By the time i had sketched a hand (i needed to build up courage) the class leader was already asking the model to change - i broke out in a sweat trying to keep up. Fortunately, the poses got longer and I was able to relax into it (second pat on the back). Being able to really look at the naked human form was fascinating, the thing i noticed most was the muscle definition and how beautiful just one feature can be.
Having to draw quickly as a warm up was a great exercise, it made me realise that i am far too precious over the details. By the end of the session i managed to produce something i was vaguely happy with and I also felt a sincere gratitude to the young model for affording me such a great experience.
I have a long way to go before i master scale and perspective but i will definitely be doing more classes, having seen the improvement i made in my sketches just in that one short hour i am sure i can create something to be proud of after several.
Take a look ..... (apologies for the darkness of the photos)
