Life drawing

Since becoming involved with Letter Exchange I’ve been acutely aware how poor my drawing skills are compared to the wonderful artists within the organisation. So I decided to do something about it and signed up for a life drawing class at the Mary Ward Centre.

I’d done life drawing at college but didn’t really enjoy it and frankly, was not very good at it. It was with great nervousness I went to my first class. Fortunately the tutor John Close was great, his teaching method suited me and I've made good progress.

I went to the class to improve my drawing skills but I’ve got far more out of it than that. Learning to draw is really about learning to see, to look at what is actually in front of you rather than what your brain thinks it’s seeing. The concentration involved is like meditation, the three-hour class on a Friday evening is a wonderful way to relax at the end of the week.

When developing concepts in my design work I need to go through a hand-drawn stage. This helps produce thoughts and ideas that wouldn’t occur just in the head or on the computer screen. For me, this is an essential part of the creative process it really is thinking with my hands.

The works here are all about A1 in size and produced using charcoal and chalk pastel.