I’ve been taking part in the Life Drawing sessions on Wednesdays. There have only been 2 sessions so far, but it’s already proven to be worth continuing; I’ve never done any life drawing of any kind before, if we’re not counting all the times I took references of my body to draw character poses. Most of the art knowledge I had before starting university was self-taught, so my style and form are still far from perfect. One of the things I notice I’m lacking in is anatomically correct designs, and I strongly believe that life drawing is helping me get a better understanding of the human body.
The two sessions have had two different people posing, the first covered and the second nude, and each session had us experiment with different ways of drawing and time to draw in. From 10 minutes to 30 seconds, from a regular drawing to using our non-dominant hand, using both hands at the same time, without looking at the paper and more. It’s all new territory for me, and it took some getting used to, but the challenge is welcome and useful: it’s helping me branch out and try new things, which I’m very grateful for.
Granted, the experience isn’t perfect: due to lockdown measures, we have to do it all online, which removes a big part of the life drawing feeling, as a lot of the depth of the model is lost on a 2d screen. But it’s still been quite fun, especially with up to 90 people participating at once. We got to share our works if we felt like it, and occasionally chatted with other participants, which is fun and desperately needed in these times.
Overall, going to life drawing has been great so far, and I’ll certainly keep attending.