Life model training workshop

Information

Hello
I'm Topaz and I have been drawing since I can remember, and life modelling since 2011. In this workshop I will create a space where you can explore how life modelling feels in your body; what it feels like to be observed and drawn.

We will switch between drawing and being drawn - because one will teach you so much about the other. There is no need to be 'good at drawing' to participate; it's about switching on our capacity to notice, rather than draw accurately. Likewise, no body is unwelcome; all bodies are good, valid and worthy. The group will be small and contained to allow it to feel safer.

This won't be a 'how to get over body hang-ups' workshop, because that's a whole huge process - those niggles might always be there. But rather, a taste of gentle acceptance, and maybe appreciation for the shape you make in space, and the resulting shapes you can inspire on paper. Learning how to pose in a way that harnesses and showcases your 'vibe' - whether that be an aesthetic or an energy - is what makes you a potentially beguiling subject for art. As they say, it's not what you've got, it's how you use it.

We will pose for 'real time pose lengths' and I will support you in

• exploring the boundaries of your body's strength and stamina
• listening to and trusting what your body is telling you
• beginning to explore its inherent, infinite creative potential
  We will do this by practising standing, seated, and reclining poses, through the lenses of terminology you might hear in a tutored art class such as 'gesture' and 'negative space', asymmetry and relationship.

This session will require that you be nude. Non-nude modelling opportunities do exist if you're shy of showing your body, but if you're gonna, why not go the whole hog in a safe space? You are brave. Bring a comfortable dressing gown and slippers - it will be Sunday after all.

Tickets are priced £20/27. Up to 3 free spaces for BIPOC or trans models, simply select that ticket type.
We are on the top floor of the Heart of Newhaven Community Centre, in the lovely space curated by Look and Draw.

Disclaimer: work may come out of this fairly immediately - and it may not. You may attend want it to, and you may also not be participating for that reason.

Artwork by the inimitable David Shrigley.