Life-drawing at Candid Arts, Islington

Life-drawing at Candid Arts, Islington

Life-drawing at Candid Arts, Islington

Life-drawing at Candid Arts, Islington

It's been almost a year since I last went to Candid Arts. My favourite drawing from this set is the eighth one.

Life-drawing at Candid Arts, Islington

Life-drawing at Candid Arts, Islington

Not much to say. It's been a while, hasn't it?

Life-drawing at Candid Arts, Islington

Life Drawing at Candid Arts, Islington

Normally I just use charcoal when I go to the Candid Arts life drawing classes, but today I used a mixture of pencil and charcoal. This is why the first image, which was done entirely in pencil, is practically invisible.

Life Drawing at Candid Arts, Islington

Life Drawing at Candid Arts, Islington

It's been about six months since I last went to a life-drawing class and as a result every drawing I did today looked like the model had three extra vertebrae. You can see ghostly, incorrectly-positioned heads in almost all of these pictures.

"Sleep"

Life Drawing at Candid Arts, Islington

Not much to say about the class this evening. I must have been in a bad mood about something - I seemed to be unable to stop myself from grinding the charcoal into the paper all evening.

top left = 15 minute sketch; remainder = 5 minute sketches

10 minute sketches

20 minute sketches

Life Drawing at Candid Arts, Islington

As I'm currently on holiday I went to the Tuesday morning class this week. The daytime class is much quieter, so if you're looking for a session with more space and more individual tuition this is a good one to attend.

It was also the first male model I've had a chance to draw! Barry was an excellent model who went through a really varied range of poses. We had about an hour of 5 minute poses, a break and then a final 40 minute pose. I've erased and drawn over a lot of my 5 minute sketches, hence the relative lack of pictures.

Life Drawing at Candid Arts, Islington

The Thursday evening class has a different tutor to the Tuesday class. It also seemed to have a slightly slower pace, with fewer poses held for longer periods of time.

Life Drawing at Candid Arts, Islington

Entry: £7 (charcoal 25p a stick, paper 25p a sheet*)

The Candid Arts Trust in Islington runs regular life-drawing classes, both during the day and in the evening. Evening classes take place 7pm 'til 9pm from Monday to Thursday and daytime classes take place 11am 'til 1pm on Tuesday and Wednesday. As I'd been advised to work on my observational drawing at my interview, and as these classes are conveniently close to my office, I headed there on a Tuesday evening after work.

These are drop-in classes, so there's no need to book a place, but they do stop letting people in at about 10 past. The classes are held in a large basement room and are clearly popular – there were probably between 20 and 30 people that evening. Despite the size of the class the teacher made a valiant attempt to go around and talk to everyone individually.

There was a huge range of abilities on show, so there's no need to feel intimidated at all. The teacher had the model go through 14 poses over the course of the class. These were of different lengths and the teacher suggested different drawing exercises for each pose, though you could just do your own thing if you preferred.

15 minute pose (no stipulations)

5 minute poses (no stipulations), followed by 5 minute poses (continuous line)

5 minute poses (continuous line drawn with off hand), followed by 5 minute poses (drawn with both hands simultaneously)


1 minute poses (not looking at paper), followed by 1 minute pose (not looking at paper drawn with off hand)



15 minute poses (no stipulations)

The session was split by a 10 minute break when you could look at other people's work, or head to the cafe upstairs for food or drink. It was an intense session - I'm not used to drawing for such an extensive period of time or working so quickly. But it was definitely useful and I left looking forward to going the following week!

*Or you can bring your own materials.