By Janet Dodrill
Because of Covid-19, it has been safer to stay at home. As an artist, the art life drawing groups that I once attended have not met since early March, 2020. A couple of the groups have moved to Zoom or Facebook Live. I have found dozens of additional art groups online, both out of state and out of the country. I have been fortunate enough to stay busy with these drawing sessions, while meeting people, and fulfilling the sense of community that I seek in addition to improving my drawing skills. The life models have their own remote cameras and setups at their homes or studios, and these sessions have brought people together from all over the world.
I am especially impressed with the talent, professionalism, athleticism, and creativity of the models. Additionally, the organizations have been offering theme-inspired live drawing sessions on Zoom. In the past couple weeks I participated in a Picasso’s Vollard Suite inspired session featuring models Andrew Crayford @andrewcrayford1 and Annie Mae @amlifemodel both of London, a two-day live performance by Juliano Hollivard @julianohollivard of Brazil with constant movement by the model with lighting, music, poetry, video, props and masks, and most recently a session in the style of Matisse, the Odalisques, with model Valentina Rock @valentinarocklondon. Another group simply draws each other’s portraits. Most of them I discovered on Instagram, and there are many more yet to be discovered.
Some of my favorite (online) life drawing groups during the pandemic, on Instagram:
Adrian Dutton Life Drawing, London @adriandutton_life_drawing (Zoom)
https://www.adriandutton.com
The Renaissance Workshop, London @therenaissanceworkshop (Zoom)
https://therenaissanceworkshop.com/product-category/life-drawing
2 B Or Not 2 B Collective @2bornot2bcollective, London (Zoom)
https://linktr.ee/2bornot2bcollective
London Drawing, London @londondrawing (Zoom)
https://londondrawing.com
Life Drawing Barcelona, Spain @lifedrawingbarcelona (Zoom)
https://linktr.ee/lifedrawingbarcelona
Amanda Achen @theartache, California (Zoom)
https://linktr.ee/amandaachen
On Facebook:
Murray Hill Life Drawing, Cleveland, Ohio (Zoom)
https://www.facebook.com/groups/65156305856
The Pretentious Cleveland Portrait Artists, Cleveland, Ohio (Facebook Livestream)
https://www.facebook.com/groups/347696515301192
Website:
Shoal of Art Meetup, London (Zoom)
https://www.meetup.com/London-Shoal-of-Art-Meetup
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Matisse, the Odalisques, theme with model Valentina Rock, by the collaboration of Adrian Dutton Life Drawing and Madhouse Studios, watercolor and ink by Janet Dodrill.
An ink drawing by Janet Dodrill of Juliano Hollivard’s Day Two, The Sacred, performance life drawing session through The Renaissance Workshop.
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