Before, the thought of life drawing always used to make me giggle. The immature 16-year-old me would have thought to never even go to a class let alone do a whole A-Level project on it.

My first encounter with life drawing was when I was 17. As part of my portfolios for my university visits, it was strongly suggested to include some. I was lucky enough to start my life drawing journey in the art studios at my old school. My art teacher had arranged for a lady to come and sit for us.

Of course, at first, I was very nervous. The thought of drawing someone’s body terrified me because I didn’t want the sitter to be offended by my unproportioned sketches.

Secondly, I was drawing with other Fine Art students. I was a Textile Design student so we never really got taught about shading, painting and proportion, whereas these Art students did.

I settled into the lesson and the teacher helped by giving step by step advice, especially on how to proportion using a stick. She also advised us on the use of media, just because we were all so new to the experience.

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Once I let my insecurities about drawing a naked person with great artists surrounding me go, I really got into the session.

Working on larger paper such as A2/A1 really helped me to get more detail into my drawings. I also figured out that drawing with charcoal was my new favourite medium. I love the number of marks that you can create with such a simple tool. You can get very creative with it by adding other mediums such as oil pastel or acrylic paint.

I recently rediscovered my passion for life drawing at university. The Art Society here has weekly life drawing sessions that get filled very quickly, but to be in a space with other creative minds is so inspiring. I have attached some photos from my recent session so you can see some of my work.

I thoroughly recommend the experience at least once in your life if you are an Art and Design student. You never know you might love it, like I do.