While I have dabbled in nude portraits before they have always been quite restricted to working from a reference photograph or my imagination as opposed to a live situation such as life drawing. I think possibly the closest I’ve got to this sort of group art event is way back to when I was an art student drawing shells and dead butterflies in a still life class so this was a very new and exciting experience for me.
This workshop was run by Body Love Sketch Club founded and hosted by Rosie and Ruby who are both “utterly f**king lovely”. These workshops are all about creative empowerment, body positivity and celebrating bodies in all their natural (and naked) glory fostering a joyful self accepting environment where everyone is free to express themselves more freely. The workshop is suitable for all artistic abilities which is also rather lovely because I find some art classes to be quite formal and the relaxed and friendly atmosphere of this little club was really rather refreshing. The option fo attendees to pose as well as draw is something I found really wonderful and unique to anything I’ve come across before in the creative world and something I definitely feel we all need much more of.
The entire workshop was incredibly relaxed with a focus on artwork being imperfect and abstract rather than ultra realistic to challenge perfectionism with one activity specific to this utilising the use of our non dominant hand as a warm up sketch.
I spoke a little bit about art and mental health earlier this year and once again this applies to such workshops as this – this is particularly true for those who have issues with eating disorders or struggles with body image that regular exposure to life drawing and thus seeing a diverse range of naked bodies is proven to have a correlation with a more positive body image overall.
I found the whole experience so welcoming with one of the most accepting, inclusive and supportive atmospheres I’ve come across with body positivity and empowerment at the heart of all they do – Body Love Sketch Club is overall such a truly beautiful space to be part of.
Check the Eventbrite website or their Instagram for details on how to join their future sessions.
