Zoom Life Drawing Sessions in Quarantine
These unprecedented times are challenging and we are all trying to cope in different ways. I miss movie nights with friends, sharing a bottle of wine and going out without any idea where we’ll end up.
I cannot imagine what it would look or feel like if these were the 70s or 80s; before endless videocalls and the overwhelming information on the internet.
Isn’t it ironic how the technology that is so despised by the older generation is now the one thing keeping us together?
The highlight of my weeks have been drawing sessions with a crew that is spread all over the world - New York, London, Norway, Switzerland, Croatia. We take turns in posing and drawing with what we have available: sharpies, coloured pencils, pens or do digital illustration instead.
To spice things up, we also started doing cosplays (which explains the knives and Matrix-like badass poses!). I really love seeing how, at the end of each session, everyone’s personal style becomes very apparent.
For the longest time I thought my style was too simple, too plain.
I would look at artists whose work I loved and thought I needed to do something similar. But things don’t really work that way. Looking back, I can clearly see the way I drew when I wasn’t concerned about having a certain style and when I had all the uninhibited creative freedom.
I lost myself along the way. But with practice comes clarity and I am now able to fully embrace the way I draw when I do it for myself. Sketchbooks are, after all, memory keepers. And what a crazy time this has been!
