Last Saturday, I organised and taught a themed life drawing workshop set up to coincide with my big mural drawing at the Sasson gallery for the Visions of the Walkworth Jumpers exhibition.
By the original enthusiastic response I got from the class description I had written that was posted on the website, I expected the event to go well. And I was not disappointed! A large crew came along with the type of attendees being dedicated and very talented life drawing enthusiasts.
The International Alternative Press fair provided the papers, people brought their own drawing materials and colours were highly encouraged! Oh, and tea, coffee and bruschetta came courtesy of the life drawers. I provided the kettle!
2 of my illustration students came along- excellent drawers Helen Parsliffe and Gosia Kackmarczyk.
It was the first time I was working with life model Philip and I will definitely use him again. His quiet professionalism went down a storm, with the gallery owner's daughter very happy to pose as baby Jesus on Philip's Virgin Mary's knees. We had such a laugh!
It was a proper class where I taught a number of precepts such as drawing from the left side of the brain. Diverse props were used such as a big woodden cross or the photograph of Jesus.
The idea was to make life drawing creative and enhance the student's experience. To that end, I used a playlist ranging from Nine Inch Nails, Depeche Mode and Dvorak among others; all songs were to convey emotions related to life, death, heaven or any other religious issues.
The idea was for participants to think in terms of drama and on how to add colour to create this dramatic effect... and have fun!
The event was so successful we are looking to do it again! More info on this blog soon.
