Life Drawing in London

I moved down to London a couple of weeks before my course started to settle in and get my bearings. During this time, I took advantage of all London has to offer- galleries, yoga, sports classes, restaurants etc. You name it, I probably tried it! Obviously, as a poor student, waiting for her loan to arrive, I searched for free activities and was pleasantly surprised at how much you can actually do for nothing! One such activity was an artist led drawing session on a Friday evening at the National Portrait Gallery. As expected, the place was packed so the poor artist barely even spoke to half of the budding picassos'. I however was lucky enough to have a quick chat with her and told her of my longing to improve my figure drawing. She recommended life drawing classes at the Prince's Drawing School which is handily located just down the road from my halls. Every Monday they have a free life drawing class for any UAL students! Perfect.

Ok, admittedly my first time was rather daunting. I did a couple of life drawing sessions during my foundation year and did around 4 this year at my local art gallery back in Wales but I find it such a challenge and struggle quite a bit. I'm more comfortable with simple fine liner line drawings and so expressive charcoal marks do not come naturally! The tutor gave me some handy advice- "Draw from the inside!" In other words, instead of drawing the image by outlining it, build it up using different patches of tonal shade. I can definitely see the advantage of this. instead of obsessing over shape, you instead gradually build up a recognizable form. Here's my attempt. More practice needed I think!