Creative Habits and Life Drawing
Sometime in that hazy period between Christmas and New Year last year, when thoughts seem to turn almost obligatorily to resolutions, I made the decision to try to attend my local life drawing class every week. On the 6th of January this year, I made a start on realising that resolution, and I am glad to say that, three and a half months on, I am still attending this class weekly!
Before starting these classes, I am lucky enough to have had some positive experiences with the practice. The college I studied my Art Foundation degree would hold two-hour long life drawing sessions every Tuesday morning, and this was my first real experience with the practice. I remember feeling as though I had unlocked some sort of cheat code for improving my drawing. With every week I could see improvements, slight at first, but as I accumulated enough of these weekly ‘slight improvements’, and after a year of this practice, I had significantly upped my drawing game, not just in capturing the figure, but across the range of my practice.
After finishing my time at college, and moving on to university, I had hoped to continue this practice. My course had intentions to run such a programme, but that would be starting in the March of my first year, which unfortunately happened to be the March of 2020. Whilst I missed the opportunity to continue life drawing at university, it was the absence of it on campus that drove me to seek out local life drawing sessions. Once things had begun opening up again, I was able to attend some of those classes, and I would sporadically attend when I could fit it to my schedule.
The class I have been going to holds two-hour long sessions every Monday, with a single pose (meaning the model keeps in the same position for the entire time) and usually three or four breaks throughout to allow the model to rest and give the class a chance to look around at each others’ work. Those two hours on Monday evening are quickly becoming some of my most anticipated of the week; not only is it a tried and tested form of artistic exercise, it’s also a really friendly and welcoming community.
If you have even the slightest interest in art and drawing, then I would encourage you to seek out a local life drawing class, even if only to try it out once or twice. In what can feel like an ever more isolating digital world, I think in-person events hold all the more value to communities. My experience of these local classes is that they are truly meant for everyone and anyone. Often available as pay per session, and sometimes even with varying price points to make it as accessible to as many as possible, the tutors running these sessions are true pillars of the local arts community in my view.
Like so many of us do, I try to have high expectations of the person and artist I strive to become. I want to be as good an artist as I can be, I want to produce the best work I can, and I want to be proud of that work. However, it is not the wanting that makes it so, it is the doing, and even more-so the doing regularly.
“Watch your thoughts. They become words. Watch your words. They become deeds. Watch your deeds. They become habits. Watch your habits. They become character. Character is everything.”
As best as I can tell, this quote is attributed to 6th Century Chinese philosopher Lao Tzu (though in trying to verify this online, I found a long list of people who have been credited with saying this throughout history including; an American supermarket CEO, a 19th century bishop and even Maggie Thatcher’s father).
Perhaps this comes across as overtly earnest, but I truly do feel those two hours I spend drawing from the figure each week are two hours very well spent. They reaffirm habits I want to nurture, like engaging with my community, practicing my art and appreciating the work of other. Will life drawing alone make you a great artist, or a model member of the community? Probably not, but there are certainly worse ways to spend a Monday evening!
Thanks so much for reading, I have linked the page for the life drawing class that I have been attending this year here, Stroud Life Drawing run by the wonderful Keith Symonds. As I said above though, if you have any interest in trying similar classes out yourself, have a look around in your local area and hopefully there will be classes near you. I plan to write some more about other creative habits I try to nurture, so please do check back in the future to read those if that sounds interesting to you.
Speak soon,
Ed :-)