A new teacher recently took over the Wolverhampton Society of Artists life class, I say teacher but although she is a teacher she doesn’t teach during that class, it’s more of an organisational role.
She opens the room, books the model, chooses the pose and picks the breaks.
But in comparison to the former teacher I had a revelation, I had never been able to get a good drawing, I blamed it on being the same model every time and my lack of enthusiasm for her form but it hit me after the last class that it was all down to the position that the model had been put in. A body in tension was an interesting body. A dynamic pose makes a dynamic drawing and it is very difficult to get a dynamic drawing from a limp body. It was not that it was the same model every week it was that the body was never challenged to hold a pose that said anything interesting.
I thought I would share this as I have been running a portrait class and although the head is the focus I can use my elevation to make the poses more interesting and not have a limp lump of a body just sitting there.
And for all those who may already or are planing to run a life or portrait class, think outside of the box, look at recreating some of the great poses of the past, put a body in tension, take inspiration from the greats. What ever you do don’t let the model just sit there like a lump.
