Creative themes for life drawing sessions

Interested in adding variety to your standard life drawing session? Here is a listing of creative life drawing sessions from around the world to give you some ideas.

Please feel free to provide other examples to add to this list!

Macabre / “Death” Drawing

• Art Macabre Drawing Salons (London) “Death drawing” sessions. Life drawing with goulish and theatrical themes. See article: Nude Life Drawings with a Deadly Twist (NSFW)

Creative / Artistic

• Cardiff Art Models Collective (Cardiff) Provides a constantly changing variety of imaginative workshops. See their gallery of past sessions and their Facebook page for more ideas.
• Tate Modern (London) Life drawing sessions in the Tate Museum from 2006 to 2011 that used the human figure as a visual prompt through which participants could interpret the artwork in the galleries and aim to radically reinvent the traditional concept of drawing from life. Sponsored by London Life Drawing.

Theatrical / Multimedia

• The Drawing Theatre (London) A fusion of theatre and drawing in a creative workshop that combines elements of performance and movement, light and sound, to explore the human figure in hidden spaces and beautiful architecture. Sponsored by London Life drawing.
• London Life Drawing (London).  Classes and workshops that combine performers, sound, lighting, props, visual effects, drawing techniques and exciting materials to create an unforgettable visual drawing experience. See also their Facebook, Twitter, Flickr, and blog  pages.
• Skin (Manhattan). Discontinued (?) monthly life drawing session with rock bands and multiple models, sponsored by Artists 4 Israel.

Draw-A-Thons

• Bay Area Models Guild (BAMG) (San Francisco) – Sponsors annual extended drawing marathons with many life models.
• Draw Till You Drop (Calgary) Annual life drawing draw-a-thon sponsored by the Calgary Art Group. See, for example, the DTYD II Facebook page.
• Visual Arts Center of Rockville (Rockville, MD) – Periodically holds full-day life drawing sessions with many models.

Theraputic

• White Hands (Niigata Prefecture, Japan) – Hosts weekly life drawing sessions as therapy for middle-aged Japanese virgins.

Cultural initiatives

• Get Nude. Get Drawn. Illustrator Mike Perry’s global initiative to invites members of the public to pose nude for artists. See BBC Culture: Naked in Front of Strangers.

Specialty Interest

• Brixton Life Drawing (London). Each class is mostly dedicated to the black-African themes regarding African dance-poses, African style, Head-scarves – cloth, dreads, wooden food utensils, Tribal monuments, Traditional wear, facial expression, muscle, lips, rear, skin, breasts, thigh, bone-structure and sensuality
• Gay Men’s Male Figure Drawing Group at The Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual & Transgender Community Center (Manhattan)

Specialty Models

• Life Drawing at the White Horse (London) Life drawing sessions using pole dancers as models.

Multiple models

• Holborn Life Drawing & Covent Garden Life Drawing (London). An example of life drawing sessions with one male and one female model every session.
• Spirited Bodies (London) Creative life drawing sessions that often provide many nude models at once.

Collaborative Efforts

• SF Art Modeling Trade: Free Figure Drawing Group (San Francisco) Free life drawing sessions where the artists take turns serving as the nude model.
• Men’s Naked Drawing Group (New York City). Life drawing sessions where the artists are also nude.

Nightclub

• Draw-Mania! (Manhattan) Life drawing sessions with dynamic music and lighting, interspersed with short performances from the cutting-edge musicians, comedians and storytellers. See also their YouTube video and Facebook pages.

Burlesque

• Dr. Sketchy’s Anti-Art School (Worldwide). The world’s premier alt.drawing movement. Artists draw glamorous underground performers in elaborate costumes in an atmosphere of boozy conviviality. Found in 2005 in a dive bar in Brooklyn, Dr. Sketchy’s has now spread to over 100 cities around the world.
• TNT Magazine article Travel Guide: Glasgow’s burlesque life drawing classes

Drink-N-Draw

• Austin Drink-n-Draw (Austin) An example of life drawing sessions in a casual pub environment.
• See London Evening Standard: Drawing and drinking… it’s London’s hottest new night out for an article about drink-n-draw sessions in the United Kingdom.

 Specialized locations

• Glasgow Botanical Gardens (Glasgow) Life drawing sessions in a green house in the botanical gardens.

Specialty training

• Xcentricity Arts & Entertainment (Denver) Body painting workshops.

Girls Night Out / Hen Parties

• Art Works Studio (Los Angeles and Culver City) US “girls night out” life drawing sessions, similar to “hen parties” in Commonwealth countries.
• Artful Hen Parties (United Kingdom)
• Chicago Tribune: What it’s like to pose nude for a roomful of women. Article about regular “ladies night out” sessions at Bottle & Bottega in Chicago

 

Outdoor nude sessions in major cities

Here is some links to YouTube videos of nude figure drawing sessions that took place outdoors in the centers of major cities:

Downtown Ljubljana [contains nudity]

Downtown Barcelona [contains nudity]

• La Plaza del Pi
• Sin Verguenza

New York City Body Painting Day (Full Nude Body Painting, Columbus Circle to Time Square) [contains nudity]

30 body painter painted 40 fully nude models at Columbus Circle in Central Park, then marched down Broadway to Time Square for a photo shoot. Then boarded a double decker bus and toured the city, followed by an art exhibition of Andy’ Golub’s creations at Jerry’s. The festivities ended at Times Square. This event made headlines around the world!