October 31 Life Drawing workshop

Today is Halloween or the day before All Saint’s day - the eve of trick or treating when the kids dress up in scary costumes and ghosts and spirits are abroad, if you wish to believe it. Such an uncanny coincidence then that ten of us are here in the Dewsbury studio ready to create magic and mystery in this unique teaching session. Casting their spell over us are Jane and Sumi who are passing on their experiences of using out of the ordinary tools and working practices.

Most of the equipment we need for the day is set out before us and other ingredients are added as we progress.

To start with we have A2 and A1 pieces of thin butchers' paper and cartridge paper; a thin and a thick brush; a thin pointed stick; some black ink and water.

The first exercise is to make as many different and creative marks as we can in about three minutes for each of the three thin sheets. After this rapid limbering up period our lovely model, Orla, steps in to begin her beautifully poetic, slow and continuously moving poses. Gently, gracefully and almost imperceptibly she transitions from one dance position to each following one. This sets the mood and ambience for the day as we then complete three pieces of observational drawings from the moving figure in front of us. Various strategies are then employed using cartridge paper and always drawing from our model as extra tools and processes are gradually added. These include adding colour, tearing up and sticking completed drawings as well as ripping up pieces of black and brown paper to also use as collage.

After a convivial lunch the materials for the afternoon are set up with long continuous pieces of lining paper, more paint colours and Orla ready to perform again. We stand almost elbow to elbow in a line and each start to sketch Orla from our own stationary position. After a short three minutes we take a step sideways and begin the collaborative approach of working on top of the image already created by our neighbour. This continues until we are almost back to our original starting points. The end result of this is quite enchanting as we sit, discuss and survey the long, laid out joint production in front of us at the end of the day.

I hope the accompanying photos illustrate the magical spark which connected us on this lovely drawing day so well produced and directed by Jane and Sumi.