Life drawing: let me try to convince you why every student must try it before they graduate

 

Life drawing: let me try to convince you why every student must try it before they graduate  

Before I came to university, one thing that I was certain I wanted to do was life drawing. Though I had studied art in school, and did lots of painting in my spare time, I had not yet branched into the life drawing realm. At the time, it seemed like this cool, edgy, and ever so slightly scandalous art form which I just had to explore at the first opportunity. Suffice to say, I have now attended plenty of life drawing classes which have been run by students and artists and enjoyed them so much that I have now even tried out life modelling a couple of times. If you’re a life drawing sceptic or not sure if it’s your ‘thing’, read on and let me try to convince you why you should go to the next life drawing session.

My first experience

I can still remember my first life drawing class. It was at the start of Michaelmas ‘21 at St Catz. My friends and I had made the long and treacherous journey in the wet November weather from John’s to Catz. When we arrived, I found out that the model was going to be someone that I knew. Not weird at all, right?

Manywho haven’t done life drawing before always say that they would probably feel weird to draw someone nude. Uncomfortable, awkward, embarrassed. These are all words that people have used to describe how they think they would feel. In response to this, I always reply with the same answer below. 

When I sat down for my first life drawing class, for the first 5 minutes, I remember feeling slightly out of place, like it was wrong to be looking at someone who was naked. Though I feel very comfortable with nudity myself, it felt different to look at someone else. But very soon after these 5 minutes, I settled into the swing of things and no longer focused on how I was looking at a person. Instead, I viewed them as a body within a space, and was focused on the contrast of light and dark, the angles between body parts, and getting my sketch finished in time.

By the end of my first life drawing class, I didn’t feel the slightest bit awkward about the nudity aspect of the process, and instead saw it like any other of my art, as an object which I was attempting to represent on paper. 

What I love about life drawing

Over the past 7 months of life drawing, there are many things that I have grown to love. Firstly, I have enjoyed experimenting with different materials and mediums. With time, I have found that my favourite thing to do is to draw in graphite and paint with 1 light and 1 dark colour in watercolour.

One of my biggest goals with life drawing has been to conquer my fear of drawing faces. In the past, I used to only draw landscapes, cityscapes, or objects. Anything that had a face – be that human or animal – I veered well clear of. There are a series of pieces that I made in which I attempted to paint faces, but instead left them blank and free of features because I was too scared to butcher them. Since starting life drawing classes, I have become more confident in drawing faces and expressions!

A really cool aspect of life drawing is that you are fully immersed in the world of the model. Not only do you see them in their most vulnerable state, but you also get to truly get into their head. Most models will play their favourite songs, or make a playlist composed of their music taste. I personally find it super fun to listen to new music, and think about how they relate to their songs, and how their songs relate to them.

Life modelling

Some drawings of me in a college life drawing workshop by Selena!

Back in Hilary, I felt that I had now been to plenty of life drawing classes, and so it was time for me to give it a go myself. I booked myself in to model at a class in Catz, and thought I ought to try out a few poses with my friends and get feedback from them on what would be interesting to draw.

So, there I was in my room, stripped in front of my friends and attempting to find a pose where I didn’t feel too exposed – needless to say this was pretty much impossible. Initially, of course I felt awkward. Funnily enough, the most awkward part wasn’t even being naked, it was getting undressed.

A few minutes in, I settled into it and realised that, just like I always was when drawing, they weren’t staring at my naked body in a scrutinising or judgemental way, but rather were flitting between my body and paper, trying to get down as much as possible onto paper in the 10-minute pose.

By the time an hour had passed, I had completely settled down into modelling and found it an enjoyable and empowering experience. As someone who is also an artist, I felt that I was also in a good position to judge what would be an interesting pose to draw in terms of angles and lighting.

Overall, life modelling was a liberating experience which I would recommend to anyone who is thinking about it.

On top of that, it is a great activity, hence why many student societies love organising them for socials! I recommend anyone and everyone to go to a life drawing session. Especially whilst we’re at university, the sessions are super chill and usually free, and no, the artist is not going to be offended by your piece. I challenge you to try out a life drawing class, especially if you are someone who thinks it could be awkward. I bet you will be pleasantly surprised.