Drawing from Life
Today I enter a Live drawing class at the Art School for the first time . It is a large room with lots of easels in a semi circle . At one end against a curtained wall is a small elevated area with a couch . Soon a model steps out from behind the curtain and drapes herself on the couch.
I am shocked and quickly avert my gaze. She is nude ……
Surreptitiously I glance at my neighbours and the model. They are busy drawing and she looks as though she is lounging at home fully dressed .
I try to get on with my drawing but my mind is distracted with questions –how can anyone just shed their clothes and sit still for so long in front of strangers? How can she not move , I would be fidgeting in 5 minutes? What is she thinking ?
After every 20 minutes there is a break for 5 mins for the model to stretch before she resumes the same pose. Amazing …
I now am only concentrating on the human form ---a dip here, a buldge there , a long curve . She seizes to be a living being and has become an object that needs to be represented on my paper in 2 dimensions . Strangely I am taken back to my days of studying Anatomy in Medical College .
During a break I ask her what goes on in her mind while she is posing . She answers that she meditates, leaves her body and blends with the air in the room, sometimes she does mathematic calculations , sometimes she composes poems .She does not focus on anything.
My respect for this lady is genuine .
Today I enter a Live drawing class at the Art School for the first time . It is a large room with lots of easels in a semi circle . At one end against a curtained wall is a small elevated area with a couch . Soon a model steps out from behind the curtain and drapes herself on the couch.
I am shocked and quickly avert my gaze. She is nude ……
Surreptitiously I glance at my neighbours and the model. They are busy drawing and she looks as though she is lounging at home fully dressed .
I try to get on with my drawing but my mind is distracted with questions –how can anyone just shed their clothes and sit still for so long in front of strangers? How can she not move , I would be fidgeting in 5 minutes? What is she thinking ?
After every 20 minutes there is a break for 5 mins for the model to stretch before she resumes the same pose. Amazing …
I now am only concentrating on the human form ---a dip here, a buldge there , a long curve . She seizes to be a living being and has become an object that needs to be represented on my paper in 2 dimensions . Strangely I am taken back to my days of studying Anatomy in Medical College .
During a break I ask her what goes on in her mind while she is posing . She answers that she meditates, leaves her body and blends with the air in the room, sometimes she does mathematic calculations , sometimes she composes poems .She does not focus on anything.
My respect for this lady is genuine .
Carbon on paper By Rati Vajpeyi
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