Sketch and Sip

Sketch and Sip is a figure drawing session organised by the Fashion & Design students at Northumbria University. It's held in a small bar called Nancy's Bordello, with an intimate, private room upstairs where you sit in a circle around a model who will change poses after a set amount of time. I have been to this event a couple of times and always enjoy it! There is a no-judgement policy and people of all skills and welcome so the atmosphere is very friendly.

While there, we would start with some short warm-ups of about thirty seconds or a minute. Then, the intervals periodically increase up to the final sketch which is thirty minutes. The model changes poses for every new interval, and we are given a short fifteen minute break in the middle.

I also think the figure drawing class is great for developing my skills and improving my drawing. By referencing the figure in front of you, you are able to understand proportions of the human body and practice the expression. The most important part is to try capturing the form, as you can then recreate this in other drawings to make poses and expressions more life-like, or still stiff, for example

Usually, my initial sketches are a little rough as it takes me a while to warm up, however, that is what these short poses are made for. I find life drawing more difficult than I always expect it to be, but I think that with time, and with more of these sessions, I'll be able to capture the form a lot better and will hopefully find that my future work will become more fluid and the poses will look more natural.

In future sessions, I would like to try making some drawings a little more stylised, as my friend has been doing this with his and they look great. I have been trying some sketches in pen, rather than just pencil as usual, as I think it's good because it forces me to get the lines down without constantly rubbing them out if I've made a mistake.