On a personal level, something positive has transpired as a result of the pandemic - the emergence of online life drawing sessions. I attended a lot of life drawing classes as part of my foundation art diploma course, some during my undergraduate degree in illustration, and one random session in London when I lived there, but nothing since.
I don’t like being the new person, felt daunted by the prospect of joining an established group of advanced life-draw-ers in Cambridge, and am more comfortable in my own space; drawing people out and about. Online life drawing gave me the opportunity to be in my own space whilst drawing from life, and participating in a small community as much or as little as I pleased. Participants ranged from never-drawn-before to trained/untrained and established artists.
Ophelia-inspired life-drawing session with host Miss Muse Melbourne & model in bathtub with water & plants.
See my Figure Studies gallery for more of my life drawing work.
If you’re interested in online life drawing sessions but haven’t tried one yet, here’s a glimpse of what you can expect (from my experience anyway!) Scroll to the end for a round-up of life drawing organisations that offer online sessions!
Through Instagram I discovered that Henley School of Art were organising online life drawing sessions.
I signed up for a pre-Christmas session by purchasing my ticket through their website and receiving an email with the Zoom link and event details. The website shows which model will be posing on specific dates and indicates what their theme or costume will be.
In that session, the female model was in costume with a gift box attached to her head, a cloak, striped stockings, and a string of Christmas tree lights draped around her.
It was a 2 hour session with festive music and a really fun community feel. The host was entertaining and professional - she took time to ensure the model was in a good position and pose, no feet or fingers cut off by the camera! There were timed poses e.g. a few short ones, a couple of longer full length figure poses and a longer close up portrait pose, with a break somewhere in the middle.
The model was in her own home, with webcam on, and posing as instructed. It was an unguided session, so we did our own thing, though Henley School of Art do also offer guided sessions. One important thing to note is that for these sessions you do need to have your webcam on, at least for a bit so they can ensure for the model’s privacy that there’s no funny business going on.
At the end of the session we were invited to share our work by holding it up to our cameras, but there is no expectation to do this and you won’t be put on the spot. You can also choose to share your work on Instagram and @mention and tag the relevant people. Organisations may then share a selection of work produced in the session on their own Instagram account feed/stories. It’s a great way to find new friends and other artists, and see what others produced during the same session!
One of the best things about these online sessions is being able to choose a session with the model you’d like to draw. For those past in-person classes we’d have no idea who the model would be, though it was always a slim white person, or an older model with a few wrinkles to draw if we were lucky. There was an incredible lack of diversity. I’m looking forward to participating in all manner of sessions now, with a wide range of models and themes.
The ticket costs support not only the independent organisers and established life models, but also actors, fashion models, circus & burlesque performers, artistes, etc from anywhere in the world who are turning to life modelling in these tough economic times. There are even animal life drawing sessions with funds going to animal charities!
If funds are an issue, you can always find free life-drawing videos online, for example the Royal Academy ‘Life Drawing Live’ session can be found here. And some of the live online sessions are by donation - pay what you can. Occasionally you may even see a free session such as this one from Drawing Life who are hosting free sessions throughout February.
Even if you’re drawing from a video where the model is sitting still, it’s so much better than drawing from a photo!
Online Life Drawing Sessions
I hope this post has suitably informed anyone thinking about participating in online life drawing sessions, and I really hope they continue post-pandemic times! Have you participated in any? Or can you recommend any for the list? Please do comment below!
PS this is not an affiliate post, even though I go on about Henley School of Art a lot, they were just my sweet introduction to figure drawing online and I recommend them!
