by Charles Reeve
Leeds is known for its culture in the fields of art and even within the smallest backrooms of it’s pubs and boozers art still manages to find its way in. Life Drawing can come across as a pretty daunting experience for even the most experienced at the craft, it’s the practice of drawing a living person in their most natural form. A model will perform different poses in front of a group and it’s the groups duty to recreate them on their canvas. For years the concept of it had always seemed like a bit of a mystery to me, so as someone who hasn’t properly tried their hand in drawing, or any kind of art in general for quite some time I thought what better way to dedicate some time into relearning the joy of drawing than to book myself into a life drawing class.
The class I’d chosen to attend was run by Bare Canvas, an untutored group that meets weekly, in the Fenton – a small and probably to some, dingy pub just tucked away off Blenheim Terrace. The class takes place upstairs and anybody is welcome for a small fee, all sessions are informal and friendly and they urge you to grab a drink from the bar beforehand to which I happily obliged. Admittedly I was a little nervous leading up to 8 o’clock when the class was to begin. I felt as though Life Drawing was for expert artists who use these opportunities to hone their craft in an intense environment. However, my nerves were soon settled when I entered the room and was greeted by Anne who ran the class, making me feel very welcome. She showed me the array of equipment I was welcome to use, easels boards papers and so on and also described to me how the evening was to go. The class lasts for around 2 hours, beginning with four two-minute warm up poses from the models to begin and then a couple ten- and fifteen-minute poses to lead up to a short break. After a chance to replenish everyone’s pint glasses the class would resume with two slightly longer twenty-minute poses to see us out until the end of the session. I was surprised with the turnout of the group and the demeanour of the room in general, how excited everyone seemed to be about the class and getting underway. Conversation between fellow participants mainly seemed to be centred around other classes they’ve attended in the past and how much they all loved to take part in life drawing, even coming from different classes that same evening and a few others discussing how they’d modelled in a class themselves. The model for this particular evening was a girl named Ellie, she regularly models for other groups around the Leeds area and seemed to have no issue with getting nude for the sake of art. Perched doing different poses on a makeshift box, the class got underway.
Although I was slightly unsure myself about how I felt about a naked body being posed in front of me and it was my role to recreate it on paper, once the class began it really did feel like there was nothing strange about it whatsoever, not often do you really get the chance to appreciate the human form in a non-sexual manner. But all my mind was really centred on was trying to get my artwork correct. At the beginning of the class I was caught off guard about how quick you had to be with the warm up poses as the two minutes really did fly, as I took my time to attempt to get the thickness of Ellies arm correct I looked over my shoulder and saw more experienced artists already detailing the whole of the models body on their canvas’. Admittedly my drawings were terrible, I found difficulty in getting the proportions of limbs correct to the body, how to depict shadows and don’t even get me started on hands or feet. But even after one session, and from my first drawing to my last I could definitely see an improvement, although the classes are untutored fellow members were more than happy to lend a hand and show you where you could improve and give little tips as to help you deal with the time restraints. One particular useful tip that I found helpful was to try and get the majority of the body out the way first, then pin point the fine details you want to excavate out. As I said before, coming from a completely non-artistic background, I was under the assumption that life drawing was just for artists, and that I felt like I was intruding on something. But what I really did find was a relaxing and calm environment where all you had to do was draw. Everyone was extremely friendly and I didn’t at all feel unwelcome. It was definitely a different kind of night out for me, but definitely one which I’ll be attending again.
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