Portrait club

The Concept

I like drawing and painting portraits from life. Sometimes the only person available is myself, but I don’t find my own face endlessly fascinating. So I have to find a class or hire a model; but I’d also like to gain experience drawing the ‘everyday’ person, who is not so skilled at sitting as a professional model, or willing or able to sit for many hours.

What if…I could meet up with like-minded people and we could take turns to draw each other, or any friends they can convince to come along?

The Plan

I have a good space available (at no cost) in a convenient Edinburgh location. The space is suitable for up to 10 people to work in, at comfortable distance from the sitter. There is a regular time in the week (Friday afternoons) that works for me. I don’t want to deal with any finances, so this will be a club where no-one pays to attend, and no-one gets paid to sit for their portrait.

If people are interested, they can contact me to join the email list. This will announce the next session, about a week in advance, with details of time and location (this should be the same each time, but the information will only be shared via email). People on the email list can respond to say if they are coming, and each week, two of the participants will voluntarily spend half the session (one hour) as the sitter, for the others to draw (if there are only two of us, we take turns to draw each other, and if no-one comes, I do a self portrait!) I’ll provide tea and coffee for a mid-session break, and you can bring your own biscuits.

THe Details

To make this work there will need to be a few ‘ground rules’:

1. The session will last 2.5 hours with a 30 minute break in the middle. There will usually be a different sitter for the first and second half of the session.
2. You will need to bring any materials required with you. I have one spare easel, some small tables, a few drawing boards, and some ground sheets to protect the floor, available only if requested in advance. There are plenty of chairs.
3. The first time you attend, you have to be willing to act as the sitter (or to supply a sitter, see more on this below) for half the session. If there are more than two people attending who have not yet sat, random lots will be drawn. If everyone there has sat, whoever has done the fewest sittings to date will be expected to sit again.
4. If you really prefer not to sit, you can supply a substitute for yourself, e.g., bring along a friend interested to have their portrait painted. You should explain clearly to them what this involves.
5. The sitter can use unobtrusive in-ear headphones or ear-buds if they would like to listen to something (music, podcast, whatever) while sitting. But otherwise they should be prepared to hold a fixed pose (including gaze direction) for one hour, with short breaks to stretch as needed.
6. If you have said you will come, but change your mind, you should cancel by email as early as possible, so that someone else can take your space.
7. If you say you will attend, but don’t cancel, and don’t turn up (especially if you were expected to be the sitter) you will be demoted to a ‘reserve’ list for all future sessions and only given a space if there is one still available on the day. You will need to act as the sitter at least once to get off this list!