Taz and Tom run Tottenham Art Classes focusing on life drawing sessions at the Beehive Pub off Tottenham High Road on Thursday evenings. Having moved to South Tottenham several years ago, to discover there were no local life-drawing classes, they decided to set one up of their own. The untutored sessions have a good mix of people of all drawing abilities who are extremely helpful and encouraging. A beer, life model and drawing makes for a great creative evening.

Through the autumn of 2018 I attended several drop-in life drawing classes at Candid Art behind Angel Islington, London. They were busy sessions with interesting and good models. Typically, as with lots of classes, they started with quick 5 minute poses and drawing warm-ups, that gradually extended. After a coffee break there would be a longer pose of 45-50 minutes and the drawing above is the result of one of these.

Initially the model seemed difficult and uninteresting to draw because of their slight frame. This can sometimes make a figure’s appearance look disproportioned with too long legs and arms. However, somehow I managed to capture this elongation and angular form, with a good likeness. The model was a delight to draw, with interesting folds and a slightly collapsed position on the studio’s chair.

We spent much of last Wednesday’s class at RDS using our non-drawing hand for mark making and swapping our work from 20 minute model poses with others. The above is a joint effort from myself and Veronica using our good hands.

It really provokes a different way of working and thinking when trying to interpret another’s drawing. For me using someone else’s work felt like using a road map where some of the picture’s journey had been outlined and I was adding to it by helping give direction. A kind of filling-in or fleshing out of another’s work. It also showed how others observe shapes and form and how technically they work, challenging you immediately to look more closely and differently and to adjust the ways you’d usually draw.

I’ve just edited and cleared out most of my 2017-18 life drawing class scribbles. They made three big drawing rolls ready for recycling. The remainder drawings are posted elsewhere here.

The life drawing sessions were with Judy Purbeck at Hornsey Library and Taz and Tom at Tottenham Art Classes. Looking now for further challenges to fit in between my architectural and interior design tutoring I’ve enrolled at the Royal Drawing School (RDS) in Shoreditch, London. The course is called ‘The Unpredictability of Form: Drawing the Unexpected’ taught by Orlando and Cherry.

It is wonderful. Mind expanding.

I’ve not been so questioned before – to look differently, to let the marks do the talking, to draw on the floor, on such large expanses of paper, with a long stick attached to a messy piece of charcoal or inked sloppy brushes.