‘Yep, those are my boobs!’ our model chirrups as she points over to my sketch. She proudly parades the art room eyeing up the fruits of her labour, a jumper dress pulled lazily over her previously exposed figure. ‘Do you mind if I take a picture of those?’ she whips out her phone, ‘I’m trying to prove to my friends that I actually do this’. I ask her if she finds it intimidating, subjecting her naked body to the eyes of 20 or more students scrupulously tracing her every line and curve. She answers unflinchingly, ‘No. I’m a pro’.
The atmosphere of the class was as natural and professional as the model. I found the two hours sped by and were amazingly therapeutic, despite my initial inhibitions (I hadn’t attempted anything anywhere near a sketch since 6th form). I was also expecting that as in my A-level art class, people would constantly be jealously checking out each other’s talent and the air would be thick with irritating false compliments (‘ahhh babe that’s amaaaazing!!!’ – It’s a picture of a foot. Shut up). However, it was far more grown up than my A-level experience. The class immediately settled into a relaxed yet focused silence and over the two hours my confidence grew; so much so, that in my final sketch I went a little wild with some coloured oil pastels. The result was not quite Picasso, but surely a step in the right direction.
Life drawing takes place every Wednesday, from 2-4 and then again from 4-6 on the 6th floor of the Union.
K.H.
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