An arts salon for queers to practice and share their creativity.

VFD is holding life drawing classess twice a month (second and last Tuesdays of the month), led by and for the queer community, allies are welcome as well.

Open to all levels of proficiency the classes are a starting point for participants to make new creative connections, a hub of ideas, a salon for relaxed exchanges.

We are not fully accessible and there is a small step of 5 cms and our bathroom is down a flight of 12 stairs.

Our model for each class will be annouced in advance and we will book diverse models who represent and glorify all bodies, a mix of queer creatives… models to sex workers, artists and performers.

We will have a mix of nude and clothed /character modelling

When / Every first and third Tuesday of the month and from 7pm to 9.30pm you are more than welcome to arrive from 6.30 pm

What we supply / Tutor feedback / materials provided – news print ( 5p per sheet ) , Cartridge paper ( 20p per sheet) , coloured paper , Pencils , markers, charcoal, inks and brushes / soft drinks and alcoholic beverages can be pre ordered / water available for cleaning of brushes

Bring your own drawing board.

Your host for the evening will by Lyall Hakaraia

The Running Order

Dynamism / Making quick marks to give an impression of movement, capturing form and pose. For this section broad strokes are encourged using brush, marker pens, charcoal and ink.

We will start gently by warming up both the artists and the model with quick action poses lasting  1 minute for the first 10 minutes. We will then have 4 poses at 5 minutes each in quick succession. The last set in this group will be a dynamic pose of 10 minutes.

Form / This section encourges you to start looking in more detail at the body, proportions and perspective. Looking to capture and outline of the whole body in proportion or look to ‘crop’ the body and capture details such as hands, feet, muscles and form in the back and torso.

This is a chance to get your eye in and to start concentrating in more detail on the figure. There will be a pose of 20 minutes.

Break / 20 minutes

Composition / This is a longer held single pose of 30+ minutes. This is a time to create a more finished piece that is proportionally and figuratively finished with details of hands, feet and face included. OR you may want to create a series of images of this single poses. The final pose will have a five minute break in the middle and then resumed the pose will be held comfortably by the model and they will be elevated on a dias to give a new persepctive.  

To finish the class we will invite everyone to share the evenings work, for those that can stay, this is a chance to chat, and unwind.

Ticket link