Life Drawing

I went to my first Life Drawing class this week. I’ve never been very good at drawing; my level is generally in the area of stick figures. If I draw a picture, people often comment, “wow, did Littletree do that?”

So I was pretty sceptical about the possibility of me getting anything out of the class, or not embarrassing myself, but I gave it a go anyway, and the results were amazing.

The first pictures were done on short poses, and I was thinking, ‘this is terrible, what am I doing here.’ As you can see – nothing really to be proud of

But the next ones were getting a bit better

Then we did some longer poses – 5 minute ones, and I could really get into it

 

I got a few tips from the teacher and started working more on shading

 

Then we worked on some longer poses – this one was 15 minutes so I had time to really develop it

 

Finally, we spent 20 minutes on one pose, and I’m so amazed by the result. The teacher put on some trance music, and I started really grooving to it, not worrying so much about drawing a “perfect” picture, but just flowing with the moment. I spent ages shading in time with the music and the end product:

I’m so proud of myself for letting go of my fear that I can’t draw, and plunging in, risking looking stupid, and surrendering to it. And I love this picture! I stuck it up on my wall. Every time I see it I marvel at how I could have possibly created such a thing. It’s been such a transformational experience on so many levels – I can’t wait for the next class!

Though I will miss next week’s class, because tomorrow I’m leaving to drive to Canberra for the Homebirth Rally