Lessons from Life Drawing

I recently started life drawing. You show up, grab a glass of wine at the bar, and sit in a room filled with people from all walks of life. In walks a model, who removes their robe, and you start drawing. First it’s two minute poses, then five, increasing to ten minutes, and finally, two twenty minute poses. There is no other option but to draw. The people are mostly silent- there’s a great playlist, and the sound of pencils on paper, and occasionally somebody says a sentence or two to the person next to them. There’s no show and tell at the end, I’ve met professional artists, students, people just looking for something to do on a night out. Everybody is there to just fucking draw.

I’ve spent the last few weeks feeling stuck, unable to take action on something that felt big and scary. I’m very into big scary action, but something about this particular action felt difficult. I wasn’t getting started, I wasn’t making a single move towards getting it done.

It occurred to me that I wasn’t drawing. I was sitting in the metaphorical room, and staring at the metaphorical model, and not putting a single line on the paper.

2 Minute Poses

In the life drawing room, every time I draw out that first two minute figure, I hate what I’ve drawn. There’s not enough time to get the lines right, the proportions feel wonky, and the shading is non-existent. But it doesn’t matter, because each subsequent drawing, you get into the rhythm, you learn more and more which shapes matter, you allow yourself to just vibe.

Invariably I return home, look at what I’ve created, and feel proud. It doesn’t matter how messy those first lines were, how off the proportions felt, or how unhappy I was with what it looked like at the time. I put pencil to paper, I took messy action, and I created something I was proud of.

I know (logically) that big messy action pays off - because doing it scared, unsure, and still just doing it will inevitably pay off. But it’s those first lines that had me stopping. I logically new that I could take that action, but I was hung up on the first draft, the quick sketch, on getting it on paper no matter how I feel. So the answer was easy I suppose. Just draw a line. Any line.

It doesn’t matter if the lighting isn’t perfect, or the music is wrong, or the proportions are wonky - just get something on the fucking paper. You’ll be proud of what you’ve done regardless.

Oh, and if you really fuck it up - call it abstract and move on to the next drawing.