Life-Drawing to Thrash Metal

The normal problem with life-drawing venues is that there's never enough space. Everyone is usually crammed up together, desperately trying to find a spot where they can see over someone else's head or drawing board. Not so at the K.I.A.C. sessions I've been trying out in Kelham Island for the last couple of weeks. 

The space is in a massive disused factory, so big that the organisers pitch a small, family tent in one corner, complete with sofa, cushions, heaters and lamps, where the model poses. The front of the tent is left open and we all huddle round just outside, with the achingly empty space at our backs.

I say 'huddle', as that is the best description. The drawback to the venue is that it is FREEZING. K.I.A.C. are slowly mending windows, but there are still a few broken ones left and the room has no heating (hence the model's cosy tent). The rest of us have only our multiple layers of clothing to keep us warm: we work in fleeces, hats, scarves... I even wear fingerless gloves!

There's a great feeling of camaraderie though and we all warm up at half time with free mugs of steaming tea and bourbons. They have some great models too. So far they've both had great bodies to draw, struck some fabulous poses and kept very still. It's always interestingly lit too (thanks Sam). The drawings here are sets of 2 mins and then 20 mins.

The other surreal thing, if all the above strangeness were not enough, is that the next-door space is used as a rehearsal room by musicians. It is very odd indeed for our little band to be silently concentrating on drawing a naked woman, with thrash-metal screams blasting through the wall!

Oh - and there is a massive model of a pair of scissors suspended from the ceiling behind us: part of Sheffield steel-making past. Weird but wonderful.