Drawing (a) Life Essay
‘The intensity with which a subject is grasped - still lifes, portraits, or pictures from one’s imagination – is the beauty of art’
- Paula Modersohn-Becker, March 1905
The scratching of charcoal, the flipping of the paper, the ‘umming’, ‘ahhing’ and of course the sighing. These are all sounds that are familiar in the life drawing room. The sounds that make the life drawing room like no other place on this Earth.
Painting people is at the core of my practice, specifically concerning my relationships with others, that I couldn't possibly put into words. It helps me to make sense of things that are happening, to ground things emotionally and physically. This for me is what painting is all about, it is a language in its own right, a form of communication that is beyond words. Life drawing classes at Arts University Plymouth have helped inform my work, the way I look, think and see the world creatively when approaching my paintings imaginatively back in the studio.
A common misunderstanding for art students is believing that if their practice doesn't concern people, then life drawing is a waste of time. Yet our lives are not isolated, we are constantly, directly or indirectly being involved with relationships with others. Drawing a human being teaches you many drawing skills which can be applied to, for example, a landscape or a completely abstract piece. It teaches you about sense of place, how shapes fit together within an artwork, where the border of your drawing is going to stop, and so much more. Everyone’s interest may not lie in life drawing; however, these classes are often beneficial for all artists as it allows you to increase your artistic skills. Proposed exercises within these classes often include transferable skills, such as drawing a piece in a short amount of time, which is a skill that students can later implement into their work in the studio.
But above all, life drawing is more than training your perception. It is in fact more than creating a successful drawing. Of course these are the foremost reasons as to why you would attend a life drawing class - to better your skills in your looking and how you observe. And the drawing skills you develop in life drawing are extremely beneficial if you’re attentive to the classes. But drawing human beings is much more than this. It offers the development of emotional skills in empathy, which is important for all students within art education to progress as artists and as individuals. It is especially important for 21st century art students living through a society which is changing. In a climate that is more inclusive to differences where all are respected regardless of gender, colour or ethnicity. We learn in a life room that there is a direct presence of somebody being in the same space which discusses dignity and being confronted by the ‘other’ person who is distinct and different from ourselves. It is about recognising their need to be alive and themselves. ‘Otherness’, a concept by French philosopher Emmanuel Levinas, is something to celebrate. He explains in his concept that ethically we are responsible for the other person in a face-to-face relation. He believed that theodicy was a way for people to comfort themselves about others suffering and that God does not hold responsibility. We are responsible for each other, no one nor God will save us; we must act ethically. The female gaze is an important term in which life drawing is encouraged as it focuses on intelligence and feeling rather than what the eyes can see through a heterosexual male's perspective of sexual objectification. People are seen as human and relatable, showing both strength and vulnerability which I explore within my own practice. I am turning the gaze on myself, enforcing the female gaze within painting my self portraits which evidences my curiosity of looking inwards, rather than how I look in the mirror or to other people.
Where else on Earth would anyone be able to experience such an enriching event if life drawing classes were not present in art schools?
A THIRD GAZE: LIFE DRAWING WITH PARIS COLLEGE OF ART
On Friday 11 February, in time for 8am, myself and students from various years and courses raced to the Drawing Lab to participate in a virtual life drawing event with Paris College of Art. I decided to draw predominantly with charcoal for the day as this is the medium I feel most confident with - there is so much variety to the medium which I really enjoy. I also started using ink but applied this to the paper with a pencil as it gives you such a sharp, deep line.
The aim of this session was to experience the differences of drawing the body from life with our life model; in comparison to drawing Paris’ life model through a digital live stream. When students were offered the opportunity to be a part of this event I jumped at the chance. Life drawing is a major part of my creative practice and is something I believe is incredibly important within art education. Life drawing is not just about training and honing your skills in perception and being able to translate this onto paper, it is also about connection, empathy and dignity.
For half of the morning, all of us in Plymouth drew Paris’ life model through their digital live stream onto paper. I personally found that the impact this had on my drawing was that I created more expressive drawings due to the detail that gets lost through the live stream. The border of the screen was also already set up, you couldn't see any more than the camera was providing. Therefore, when it came to drawing from our own life model in the second half of the session, I could focus more on the details and make my own decisions on how much I wanted to include in my own drawing; and where I wanted the border of my drawing to stop.
As part of these experiences, we also downloaded digital drawing apps to use on our phones to draw the life models on screen. For me, digitally drawing a life model was very dissatisfying due to the lack of physicality in materials. Neither digital nor physical drawing is better than the other; they are just different.
With Paris College of Art, we drew for five hours; from 8am until 1pm. This was undoubtedly exhausting but equally rewarding and challenging. After lunch, we continued our life drawing without Paris for another three hours. There were clear differences between drawing a life model who is in the room with you in comparison to through a screen. One key thing that was clear to me is that there is absolutely no hiding in real life. When the model is in the room with you there is a direct presence that encourages empathy and you find yourself being confronted by the ‘other’. It is about recognising their need to be alive and themselves. In a life drawing room, you are inhabiting all senses of the environment by not only looking; but listening and smelling too. You can hear the breath, see the gaze and sweat. Online, however, there is a clear separation from this.
Since the Covid-19 pandemic, our relationship as a society with the digital world has changed. We have heavily relied on the digital world to carry our lives as much as possible through video calls and other online communication in order to keep in contact because physically, we couldn't. As a result of this, we have developed another way of looking. This third gaze is separate from the male and female gaze and is more about viewing somebody through the digital world. I felt this when drawing from the screen of Paris’ life models, in the Drawing Lab in Plymouth we never received a returning gaze, which is something you do experience in life drawing physically. Although the life model in Paris knew we were drawing him, the lack of physical presence and returning gaze was quite strange. I felt it expanded the separation between us and the life model.
Richard Kenton Webb, the Subject Leader of my course BA (Hons) Painting, Drawing & Printmaking, Véronique Devoldere, the chair of Fine Art and the MA/MFA in Drawing at Paris College of Art, and Jan-Philipp Fruehsorge, the director of The Drawing Hub in Berlin and a lecturer at Paris College of Art; led this event.
The aim of the event was to question how we can harness these experiences of drawing through the digital and physical space. In October 2022, Richard is holding a Drawing Conference at Plymouth College of Art based on this event which I am really looking forward to. Students that participated in the event in Paris are also flying over to join the conference which is incredibly exciting.
As a group in the Drawing Lab, throughout the day we as a collective held a sense of unity and therefore were understanding ourselves through the other. You are not only looking at the model but at yourself.