….and I have discovered that there is more than one way to run a life-drawing class. This week is the half-term break for the class I normally attend, so last night I tuned in to the televised version that the BBC broadcast recently. It was an interesting experience. (I still have to watch the second half.) It works like this.
A group of people have been assembled as members of the class, and they are directed to do a succession of drawings of two models, under the supervision of two teachers. Viewers are able to watch their progress and hear the comments on their work provided by the teachers. Meanwhile, the session is broadcast on the internet, with a stable view of the model, so that it is possible for viewers to participate as if they were members of the class.
At intervals during the session an art teacher provides short asides, addressing particular problems experienced by some members of the class …. for example, the well-known problem of how to tackle the drawing of a complex shape such as the hand.
The programme is interesting as a means of introducing people to the discipline of drawing from a live model, and I guess could well encourage some people who have been reluctant to take the plunge to actually sign up for a class.
I was struck by the difference of approach taken in comparison with the group I attend. The BBC sessions were directed very much at the task of how to go about drawing a human figure accurately. The group I attend tends to be concerned to a much greater extent with the fact that the task of drawing can be addressed in a great diversity of ways and with a wide range of media. It sets out to extend and develop the appreciation of the participants of what it means to draw, how to extend one’s own “vocabulary” as an artist, and how to understand more fully the diversity of ways in which other artists have approached and used drawing. The important thing, of course, is to draw, and to do it often.
There is room, of course, for both approaches, and as the old English folk saying puts is, “There is more than one way to skin a cat.”