It’s been a long time since I did any life drawing. In fact it’s almost 20 years ago since I sat in my art class wondering why the room was so hot and why the small fan heater in the corner was on full blast, when to me it wasn’t that cold. It wasn’t until my teacher counted down and a woman pranced into the middle of the room before unveiling her naked form by letting her floral silk dressing gown fall to the floor, that I realised why the heating was on! The class gasped before swiftly holding their head down to their paper to refocus on the task at hand… Draw the lady in the middle.
Fast forward to today, where I was invited by the #JiggyTwins Emma & Estelle Tiller to join them in their life drawing class at VIA University College, Denmark.
I was slightly apprehensive about doing it as I have lost confidence in my ability to draw over the years, as well as feeling a little bit scarred since my first (and at the time last) experience, but I did it anyway as I always say to Emma & Estelle to “just embrace it”!
On entering the studios there was no time to be anxious about what was going to happen or how I was going to perform or if my drawings would be good enough. The girls took me into the room, collected our drawing tool and into the studio where other artists were gathered awaiting the model arrive. At least this time I knew what was about to happen!
The posses started off quick with about 30 seconds given to draw the first sketch, and the getting longer towards the end of the 45 mins. This meant that my initial sketches looked more like stick men… and progressed to something which had a bit more detail (although not anatomically correct).
In the end I was so happy I did it and embraced my stick men!
It was so good to be in the company of such talented and inspirational artists who had come from all over the world to be there. A massive thanks to #JiggyTwins Emma & Estelle for making this happen.
You can follow Emma and Estelle’s amazing work on Instagram and Tumblr here:
Emma – Instagram @emellex06 , Tumblr @emellex06
Estelle – Instagram @esterellda , Tumblr @godgivenfox
The session lasted just under 2 hours – two 45 min sessions with a 15 – 20 minute break in the middle.