Tonight Elektra, Jessica and I headed to 3rd Ward in Bushwick for a life drawing class – something I’ve been meaning to do since I started this blog. And while it didn’t disappoint, my drawing did a bit.

The $10 class – named Drink and Draw – is long. With the help of free cans of PBR, scores of attendees draw the same nude model in different poses. The first session was a warm up – she moved continuously as our pencils swept across the paper again and again. It definitely loosened me up.

The model then held poses for 10 seconds, then 30, then five minutes, 10 minutes and 20 minutes. I definitely preferred the quicker poses. I felt like there was only so much someone with my limited skills could do in 20 minutes, and I kind of hit a wall halfway through. But I did get better and I felt that with more practice, I became more capable and confident at knowing where to start each time.

We all agreed that although there was a naked lady prancing around in front of us, we didn’t really see it like that. I started looking at her body in terms of shadows, shapes and ratios.

Elektra and Jessica are naturals, and we also caught a glimpse of other attempts around us. People were working with ink, water color and pencil.

Although the class stretched a little long, it was so fun and I was engaged the entire time. And I felt that old familiar competitive flare – the idea that I want to go every week and get better and better. I think that’s how it works. I mean, I can’t surely get too much worse!