TIM BAKER

Many years before the pandemic I intended to check out the sessions at the Canela Cafe in Hampton Court but never did – the longer journey put me off. They do a variety of life sessions and portraiture, and I’d been at the previous week’s private view and scoped the place out – I really enjoyed it, so resolved to go the next week.

Turns out I struck lucky – this week was a male life model called Maurice. Although I restarted life work in August, the model was a woman, so this was the first male life session in over 2 1/2 years. I wasn’t even sure if I could remember how to draw men!

So we started with some quick 10 minute sketches in fountain pen and wash – wasn’t happy with the first, but I thought the second was good – foreshortening fun with the second, proud of that one. I had some trouble getting the back right though. Also less of a likeness, but I got his hair.

Then we had a single longer pose of 25 minutes which I did two pieces – the Lyra graphite first for 20 minutes, and then the paintstick for the last 5. I like both – although the graphite looks more like the model. Not sure if there is some shenanigans with the knees – I did measure but to me it looks a bit off. I like the pensive mood in the graphite piece.

Then there was a long 30 minute pose which I’ll get to in a minute – but at the end we did a pose where the model kept moving, and you had to draw movement. I am used to drawing moving things because of all the geese, swan and duck studies I do (and indeed deer, cows and sheep on occasion) so I just picked a pose and then worked on it from memory and waited for it to come back around again! It’s fun.

I did a quick graphite as well that I wasn’t happy with – these are very much ‘study’ pieces and the kind of thing I actually threw away from the Cass Art class, as they don’t make much sense as pieces themselves. Great to do something different though – and yes the paintsticks are ideal for this sort of fast working.

My favourite has to be the A3 watercolour I did second to last – yes not only was I really out of practice studyng a male life model, I decided to make it really hard and try a watercolour piece – something I have stopped doing at the Portraits at the Pub because there simply isn’t time or space. Painting really needs 25+ minutes, especially if like me you draw first. Abstract free-form painting for me can work for life sessions but less so for portraits where it’s more detail orientated. It’s actually far harder to do clothed portraits, you get lost in the detail!

Luckily the pose was a long one – 30 minutes, and I had access to a table, which makes all the difference with watercolour – even if it was just to place a palette and water like here, that’s a big help.

I really have forgotten how to do skin tones! I think it worked well, although I know of some proportion/foreshortening issues around the thighs and the left arm. And likeness could be better – I did the classic model time-travel by making him look younger. But I think this really is a step in the right direction. And a very productive session!