Drawn from life at Candid Arts Trust Islington, October 2019.

Drawn as part of a Hallowe’en special event (I took the day off work for it to attend in the afternoon; my other blog at Rewind will probably explain better why I love the festival so much), this pose felt really powerful. I added a few little flourishes – blacked out eyes for Sugar, whited out for Sofia, to emphasise their preternatural calm. I loved working with the contrasts and the similarities, and the way they seemed to complement each other so easily.

Available.

• 

• 

Drawn from live online life drawing session with LiveArtOnline and finished from reference images, June 2020.

Natsumi is a tremendously athletic model, able to hold almost impossibly graceful poses for great lengths of time. I’ve often struggled a little when sketching Natsumi in person because I tend to get intimidated by these wonderfully balletic angles that I’m not sure my clumsy hands can interpret properly. Even here, with the benefit of being able to draw from reference videos at my own pace, I don’t think I was light enough to entirely do these justice, but I was inspired by the coiled energy followed by the energetic release, the tension held within the limbs even when seated.

Available as a pair.

Drawn from life at The Moon and Nude Clapham, September 2019.

A longer pose captured, with great luck, on a 12″ x 12″ square scrapbook that proved very unforgiving when trying to erase mistakes, of which there were (for once) relatively few. Sprawled across a sofa and a bar stool, Carla absolutely transcended the mundane pub function room surroundings and looked like a total megastar.

Available.

Drawn from life at The Moon and Nude Clapham, May 2019.

Sol is always so generous in these sessions, and even in longer poses will seek to offer something to latch on to and create interesting shapes. This was probably around 30 minutes, using a Derwent dark sanguine pastel pencil on an unusual piece of very thick dappled card I found somewhere. The surface was remarkably smooth but had a very nice off-white staining across it.

Available.

Drawn from life at The Moon and Nude Clapham, February 2019.

This pose felt so self-possessed, and I was lucky to have such a great diagonal angle to try and capture. This was an early experiment with sanguine pencil, and with pastel paper which created this rough dappling effect.

Available.

Drawn from life at The Moon and Nude Clapham, March 2018.

Carla is always such a vibrant and friendly sitter, and while this piece is very rough and sketchy, I do like that it manages to catch a facial likeness, and shows the effort and dynamism that she puts in to all of her poses with the tension in the back and arm.

Available.