Drawing Club - How it's going
Drawing Club is seven sessions deep and we have momentum!
I held the first Drawing Club on Saturday 6th July with a single workshop. Since then, I've booked them in about every two weeks and every single table of eight has been full.
Every session has had a combination of returning students and brand newbies. Our experience levels have ranged from "can't draw to save myself" to "I'm a graphic designer", from students who have dabbled in art classes over the last couple of decades to white-knucklers who just want to try something a bit scary.
My approach to planning is a lucky dip - the only thing students know for sure is they'll be drawing.
We start nearly every DClub session with a thing called "blind contour drawing" (which I'll call BCD) and we do it in a continuous way, ie once the crayon or pencil is on the paper, we don't take it off til the timer goes.
We draw the person across the table from us. It's an excellent icebreaker and it gets us drawing without thinking about it, no judgement, all curiosity and focused attention. Eventually, that is: sometimes the vulnerability makes us a little giggly to start with but everyone calms down after a minute or so.
Contour (line) drawing was the star of the first few sessions. We drew the plants and flowers in front of us and used little viewfinders to help us reduce distractions and play with how we wanted to frame what we saw (composition).
Reflection was also part of the early sessions - especially when it came to having a look at the work other people had made. Instead of harsh comparison, everyone could see that we each have our own style, our own way of making marks. Blind drawings make this obvious and are a marvellous leveller - no matter how much drawing experience you have, the only way to be "good" at it is to pay attention and stay connected.
One week, we made folded books which showed us how large gestures have their own special energy when they're made into smaller compositions. Some people took those books home feeling like they were the best "art thing" they'd ever made. Some showed their loved ones how to make them. Children stole a couple and wrote stories and poetry inside.
I decided I wanted to give Drawing Club members the opportunity to break out of contours and monochrome so recent workshops have focused on colour. (Btw Drawing Club is not an actual membership, you just buy a ticket and turn up). Colour is deceptively complex - we go beyond ROYGBIV and into saturation, shade, tint and so on, learning how to mix our own colours so that we can have greater agency in our work but also so we can appreciate colour out in the world.
Drawing Club will continue through to the end of 2025, culminating in a short series of sessions in December. We will be able to build momentum, bring our understandings into the next working session, and maybe even make our Christmas presents this year.
I don't know what the plan beyond Christmas will be but I'd really like to continue to offer Drawing Club in 2026. I want it to become an extension of my own drawing practice, so it'll probably get a little weirder and a little more "arty". I also want it to be a springboard to people signing up to classes at Browne School of Art, just down the road.
You can stay up to date with Drawing Club sessions and blog posts here on my website.
I'd love to see you!
xAB
