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jenn schiffer's live laugh blog

figure drawing session - april 2, 2025

i went to my first live model figure drawing session in over 5 years last night! the host, jc print room, was great and so was everyone else there. it felt like my first day at school, except i wore grubby sweats because i make a huge mess no matter what media i'm working with. overall, a+ vibes and will come back. the following are my pages from the 3-hour session.

photo of my sketchbook showing the first page from my figure drawing session. there are two 2-minute sketches in blue and yellow marker of standing poses

when i talked about trying to learn to enjoy markers, i was serious. while it would be uncouth to bring the magic scent markers, i did bring some regular alcohol markers with the intention to make them my primary medium of the night.

page 2 from my figure drawing session showing 3 2-minute standing post sketches in black ink and a 5-minute standing pose with black ink and some blue, red and yellow marker. the 5-minute pose has the model introducing a bamboo pole as a prop

the way figure drawing sessions usually go is that the model goes from several short poses and increasing as the night goes on. tonight we did 5 2-minute poses, 6 5-minute poses, 2 10-minute poses, 2 20-minute poses, and wrapped up with a 15-minute pose.

page 3 from my figure drawing session, showing 3 5-minute poses in black ink and blue, red and yellow marker. the third pose i broke down into 3 parts because i couldn't fit her from the bust, up.

i find quick poses to be more fun but i think that's more because there's less pressure to be detailed and "perfect". i do need to get outside my 1-5 minute pose comfort zone, and that's why i - unlike a lot of the folks at the beginning - stayed until the every end of the session.

page 4 from my figure drawing session, showing 2 5-minute seated poses and a 10 minute pose where the model is sitting on a stool. next to that one, i did a second shot at her legs in the pose and started her face before the timer went off

that's really just to say that if you like really long poses, you're likely to get you choice of angle - chairs are often in a circle or semi-circle around the model on stage.

page 5 of my figure drawing session showing one 10-minute seated pose where the model is on a stool and holding onto a long bamboo pole

when a model comes back from a break with a prop, i want to give them a standing ovation. once in berlin, i looked up figure drawing sessions and joined one that was "technology" themed which just mean the model used different props that plugged into a way - if i recall correctly, one of the props was an iron.

page 6 from my sketchbook covering all the sketches from 2 20-minute poses the model did laying on the stage. i sketched smaller parts of her around the poses to practice details

i stopped typing this to look at my first figure drawing sketchbook. my first session was january 2015 - 10 years ago! i've only done figure drawing sessions in jersey city, nyc, and berlin. i think i'd like to add more cities to that list. i was going to say "i wouldn't say my drawing has improved" but it absolutely has and i need to give myself credit: i've learned to be more versatile with my tools, i've studied anatomy, and i think i'm finally coming into what my "style" is.

the 7th and last page of my figure drawing session that was a 15-minute pose of the model laying on the ground upon a couple of pillows. it's kind of a tough angle to see

there's a lot of room for improvement on the hard parts: hands, feet, face. there's a reason why ai is so bad at generating hands: they look so different at event slightly different angles. anyway, that's why you see me making hands around the longer pos drawings; when i get bored i shift to studies of those more difficult body parts.

for the month of april, i'm trying to draw every single day to build the practice into my muscle memory. i look forward to attending more of these live figure sessions regularly and sharing them with you.

xoxo jenn

this was published April 3, 2025 under art living figure-drawing jersey-city markers ink