Thursday Night Drawing Club

Before my move to LA, I had stumbled upon a drawing class in the LA area. It was different then any I'd seen before. This one meets every thurs night, has pop and refreshments for the students and has a variety of artists from the greater LA area that attend. But the biggest difference for me was the fact that each week is a different theme. This past week was James Bond, circa Casino Royale. It's run by a guy named Bob Kato, who teaches at a local college. I was awed by some of the artists work that I saw on the site's blog. Great stuff!

So, I get an email when I arrive in LA announcing the next weeks theme. I look at my schedule and decide I'm going to attend. The day comes...I'm both excited and unsure. Normal feelings for me when I am entering into an unknown situation alone. I sit in my car for a few minutes, because of course, I'm early by 15 minutes. Another thing that I happen to do when I'm new to a situation. I then decide on streamlining my art supplies, and opt NOT to take in my entire "art store" supply and just take in some trusty pencils and erasers and pencil sharpner, as well as a cheap pad of drawing paper. I walk into the industrial type building and up some stairs. There are props and things along the stair, such as a holiday lawn snowman. I get to the top of the stairs and find a large room with a desert scene surrounded by drawing horses and chairs. In the back, a few people were sitting on couches talking. A man stands up and walks towards me, introducing himself as Bob Kato. After some small talk and directions to the refreshments, I found my chosen station and started to set up. Soon, the model arrived and more and more artists walked up the stairs. With each new face, I was feeling more and more unsure about being here. It's been months since my last life drawing session and years since the ones before that. Rusty would put it mildly. But no stopping now. When the model struck his first pose, the James Bond soundtrack was playing in the background and the film "Casino Royale" was being projected on the wall.

Three hours and two cokes later, the movie finished and I had roughly ten 5-10 minute sketches. Through the time, Bob had given suggestions to those that wanted them and even had some mini teaching times with others. He was really friendly and helped make the time really worth it. After the first couple 5 minute sketches, I felt a little more free. A little more confident. When I went into this I was searching for someone to tell me what I needed to do to create drawings that studios wanted to see. During the session, a light flipped on. I started to understand more of what my drawings were lacking and even getting a better idea of how you have geometry and form in any drawing. No matter if your goal is realistic or totally stylistic. I didn't want the time to end..I was just getting into my groove. I was feeling like I could hack it with these people. I didn't want to wait a week to come back. But this is something I have to do...wait.

Until then...take a look at some of my sketches. Like usual, click on an image to open up a larger version.








Until laterz!