Your First Life Drawing Class: What to Expect and What to Bring

Walking into a life room for the first time is mostly a matter of logistics, and what to expect is simpler than it sounds. You find the door, put your bag down, set up a board, and then someone says that the first pose will be two minutes. Everything else is drawing. This page follows a typical evening so that nothing in the first class comes as a surprise, and it ends with a plain list of what to bring.

For the bigger picture, the main guide to life drawing explains the history and the different kinds of session. This one concentrates on the first night.

What a life drawing class is

A life drawing class is a session in which a group draws a person who holds a series of poses, timed by a tutor or host. The nude life drawing class is the most common kind, because the unclothed figure shows how weight, bone and muscle work, and that is the point of the exercise. Clothed and costume sessions exist too, and the listing will say which kind it is.

The person posing is a paid professional. In the UK many models are on the Register of Artists’ Models, which recommends a rate of £20 an hour and publishes guidelines for the rooms they work in. You will not be asked to do anything except draw.

Booking your first life drawing class

Pick a session that says beginners or all levels, and one with a tutor if you can. A taught first life drawing class has a person who sets exercises, tells you what to look for and corrects the common early errors, such as a head that is too big. Short courses at art schools and adult education colleges usually fit this description. A relaxed drop-in evening is also a good first class if you prefer to pay for one night and see whether it suits you.

Read the listing for three things: the start time, whether materials are supplied and whether the model is nude or clothed. If any of these is unclear, send a short message to the organiser. Venues differ, and the listing is the only reliable guide. The page on life drawing in London explains how to compare venues in the capital and lists current prices.

What to bring to a first life drawing class

The kit is short, and a lot of it is cheap.

Item	What to look for	Why it helps on the first night
Paper	A3 (297 x 420 mm) or A2 (420 x 594 mm); newsprint or cheap cartridge	Big sheets let you draw from the shoulder, and cheap paper means you will use plenty of it
Willow or vine charcoal	A few thin and medium sticks	Soft, quick and easy to knock back with a cloth when a line is wrong
Soft pencils	One or two, such as 4B and 6B	Better for smaller drawings and for measuring against
Putty rubber	Also called a kneaded eraser	Lifts charcoal to make highlights without tearing the paper
Board and clips	A light board a little larger than your paper, plus bulldog clips or tape	Many venues lend these, so ask before buying one
Cloth and bag	An old rag or wet wipes, a bag for rubbish	Charcoal gets everywhere, and clean hands keep the paper clean

Some venues lend boards and sell paper on the night, and many beginner courses include a starter kit or list the exact items. Do not buy a lot in advance. One sensible approach is to arrive with the basics and add only what the tutor recommends after the first week.

Bring water, and a layer you can take off. The studio is usually warm.

Charcoal, pencil or graphite?

Each one behaves differently, and the first class is a good time to find out which suits your hand. Willow charcoal is the usual starting point. It makes a dark, broken line, it smudges with a finger into grey tone, and it rubs away almost completely, which takes the fear out of a wrong mark. Compressed charcoal is blacker and much harder to remove, so leave it for later. A soft pencil gives more control but tempts beginners to draw small and fuss over outlines. A chunky graphite stick sits between the two. If you only bring one thing, make it a box of willow charcoal and a putty rubber.

Arriving and setting up

Arrive ten to fifteen minutes before the start. That gives you time to find the room, hand over any fee, hang up a coat and choose a spot. The model’s platform is the centre of the room, and the best places are rarely the front row: a position a few metres back, slightly off to the side, gives a view of the whole figure without a distorted angle. Sit or stand so that you can see the model past your paper.

Pin or clip your paper to the board and keep your drawing materials within reach on a stool or the floor. If there is a donkey, the low bench with an upright at one end, the tutor will show you how to prop the board against it. If the room is arranged around the model, take care not to block anyone’s view.

What to expect from the first poses

The model usually steps up and holds the first pose while the room settles. Many sessions begin with gestures of one or two minutes each. The task is to put down the movement of the whole figure, not the details of a face or hand. Use big arm strokes, hold the charcoal loosely and look at the model more than at the paper. In a taught class the tutor often starts with a short demonstration on a board at the front.

After a series of short poses, the next step is usually a five-minute pose and then a ten-minute one. Take these as a chance to check proportions. A common first-night result is a figure with a large head and short legs, and measuring is the cure.

If a drawing goes wrong, do not rub it out at once. Turn to a fresh sheet and try again. Quantity matters more than polish in the opening hour.

Measuring with a pencil

Measuring sounds technical, but it takes a minute to learn. Hold a pencil at arm’s length with your elbow locked, close one eye and line the tip up with the top of the model’s head. Slide your thumb down the pencil until it meets the chin. That length is your unit. Keeping your arm at the same distance, count how many units fit into the torso, the legs or the width of the shoulders, then check the same ratios on your drawing.

The same pencil can check angles. Hold it upright or level against the model to see how far the line of the shoulders or the hips tilts away from horizontal. When a model stands with the weight on one leg, those two lines usually tilt in opposite directions, and getting that right does more for a drawing than any amount of shading.

The break and the long pose

Halfway through there is a break of ten to fifteen minutes for the model and everyone else. It is a good moment to look at the drawings on other easels if people invite you to, to ask the tutor something and to get a drink.

The second half is usually a longer pose, from twenty to forty minutes, held with short rests. Here you can add tone, correct your first marks and think about the weight of the body. Do not worry if you cannot finish. A long pose is meant to be a slow drawing, and half a good drawing teaches more than a rushed whole.

First-night problems and quick fixes

Most early drawings go wrong in the same handful of ways. Knowing them in advance makes them easier to spot while the pose is still on.

What happens	Usual cause	Quick fix
The head is too big, the legs too short	Drawing the face first and in detail	Mark the top of the head and the feet before anything else, then measure in head units
The feet run off the bottom of the page	Starting at the top without planning the whole figure	Make two small marks for the full height first and fit the drawing between them
The figure is tiny in the middle of the sheet	Nerves, or drawing from the wrist	Stand back, hold the charcoal further from the tip and draw from the shoulder
The figure looks stiff, like a doll	Outlining each part separately	Find one long curve through the spine and the weight-bearing leg before any outline
A long-pose drawing turns muddy grey	Rubbing and redrawing the same area	Choose two or three tones, keep the lightest areas clean and lift highlights with the putty rubber

The model’s side of the room

It helps to know how the evening looks from the platform, because much of the etiquette follows from it. The Register of Artists’ Models asks venues to provide a cubicle with a chair, a mirror and hooks, so that models are not changing in front of the group, and a heater that can keep the platform warm. It also backs a model’s right to insist on a timer for short poses. Long poses need rests, and RAM notes that an old rule of a five-minute break after every twenty minutes of standing is now thought too soft in the UK, so rests are agreed between the model and the organiser.

That is also why photography is such a firm rule. RAM says models may refuse to be photographed or may charge a fee, and many venues simply ban it.

Etiquette, briefly

The main points are easy to remember. Keep your phone away and silent. Do not photograph the model. Do not talk to the model during a pose. Do not comment on the model’s body. Leave other people’s work alone unless asked. A tutor or organiser will normally go through these rules at the start. The longer list is in the guide to life drawing.

Coping with nerves

Almost everyone arrives feeling a little nervous. Some things help.

Arrive early, so that you are not rushing in as the model steps up. Sit near the back at first. Start with gestures and do not look at what the person next to you is drawing. Focus on a single task: where is the weight, where is the line of the spine. The nerves tend to fade after the first few minutes because the room asks for attention.

If a drawing disappoints you, remember that early life drawings look awkward to nearly everyone, and the lines that matter, such as the main curve of the body, often come with the second or third class. The principles of anatomy for artists can also help, because they give you something concrete to look for in the figure.

If a room full of strangers is the real obstacle, a live online class is a gentler first step. The Royal Drawing School, for example, broadcasts one- and two-hour Digital Studio classes from its London studios at lunchtime and in the evening, and you draw at home with the camera pointed wherever you like.

After the class

Take your drawings home flat, in a folder or between two sheets of card. Spray fixative is optional, and a plain sheet of tracing paper over charcoal prevents smudging. A few days later, look at the drawings again and pick the best two or three. The first ones will show clear faults, and the same faults will show up in a lot of people’s early work, so none of this is a verdict on talent.

Between sessions, ten minutes of still life drawing at the kitchen table or a few gestures in a pocket sketchbook on the bus keep the hand moving.

Book the next class before the week is out. Going weekly for a month does more than a single burst of effort, because the hand learns from repetition. If the first venue did not suit you, try another, since the model, the light and the group change the feel of the room more than people expect.