Although drawing and I have a rocky relationship, I have always loved figure drawing. Particularly gestural figure drawing done with charcoal (what a surprise, I know).
When I first moved to Boston I spent some time looking for figure drawing classes that I could take part in. I went to a could drop-in pay $10 for three hour deals and they were pretty good. I found one in particular that I went to for a while, until my teaching schedule conflicted with it. But in that time, I remembered just how much I love figure drawing.
During my Drawing 2 class in college, where we were introduced to figure drawing, my roommate was the model. We would walk to class together and then I would set up my easel while she took off her clothes so me and my classmates could draw her. Whenever there was a break she would put on her robe and come look at the drawing I had been working on, of her, while we talked about whatever college roommates talk about.
I would have loved to model for a figure drawing class. Unfortunately I was a minor the entire time I was in college so that would have been illegal. Ah well. But I’ve continuously played around with the idea of being a model so that I could understand yet another part of the art world.
When I moved to Boston I worked hard to convince my best friend, who is also an artist and can kick my ass with her drawing skills any day, to move up here with me. One of my arguments? We could sit naked around the house and draw each other! It made us both laugh and we came up with various scenarios of future roommates walking in on our artist scene. But truthfully, I’ve still wanted to do it.
The other night, my friend (who did indeed move up to live with me) was working on a painting in the living room and I casually asked her if she would do it naked. Being the incredibly self-confident, don’t-give-a-shit person that she is, she happily obliged as long as she didn’t have to move. After being friends with her for four years and living with her for about half a year, I wasn’t looking at anything new. So while she sat in her birthday suit and painted I circled around the living room, lying down, sitting at the coffee table, sitting on the couch, to get different angles on the strange contortions she made while painting.
I still aim to have a night where we are figure drawing each other figure drawing, but this definitely a step in the right direction. And it makes for a good story, doesn’t it?