TRYING NEW THINGS IN HACKNEY SPECIAL: Getting that shrinking feeling: Life drawing

I am not in the habit of staring at naked men, claims Andrew Wander

I'm in the basement of a pub in Hoxton, and the naked man seems rather nervous. I don’t blame him. I suspect he has been down here a while. His eyes follow me into the room, but his body remains motionless. The position he has adopted looks deeply uncomfortable, but at least he is being paid. This is life drawing, Hackney-style.

Twenty pairs of eyes flick from paper to person and back again. A cheap CD player plays fin-de-siecle French accordian music, and artists are busy at work. After a quiet word with the friendly organiser, I am given an easel, pencil and paper. I find a place to perch in the crowded room, and the quiet atmosphere is restored. Only the music and the scratch of pencil on paper break the silence.

There is something relaxing about sketching the human form. Considering the body in a new way, you appreciate a complexity and beauty that is usually taken for granted. In the reverential silence of the pub basement, among a crowd of bright young things wearing Converse trainers and skin-tight jeans, I feel like I’m actually learning something.

You wouldn’t think so from my drawings. One looks like an Easter Island statue, another like the bastard offspring of Frankenstein’s monster and Mr. Potato Head. It is a sad testament to my lack of talent. But in a way that is the point: you don’t need to be Monet to enjoy this. It is the process of production, rather than the production itself that is valuable.

Mind you, when the model asks to see what people have drawn, I make my excuses and leave. No-one deserves to suffer for their art that much.

Life Drawing Classes
El Paso Café, 350-356 Old Street, EC1
Mondays, 7pm

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