Sunday scribbles #20: Getting drawn for the first time.

By now many of you already know that besides my regular job and working with paint in my arena I have another source of income: events. Most of the time the jobs I'm doing for this event model agency are jobs as a host or as a helping hand in the coordination. Now since this isn't the only thing they are doing, I got the chance to do quite a special one this week. A couple of weeks ago the agency sent out a mail asking for women to pose as a nude model at a drawing workshop. My girlfriend, who is also signed to this agency, signed up for the job. It's some nice money after all, especially for the 'work' you have to do. About a week after she signed for the job, we, men, also got the email. Apparently it was the same event. At first I told her I wanted even more money for posing naked, but after thinking about it this was a win-win situation. We could have a hang out together at Durbuy here in Belgium, a beautiful place we had yet to visit, and even get paid for it. So I also signed for the job. One week on forehand she then got a mail saying the job for women was cancelled.. great. Now the one who mainly took the job to enjoy a nice (paid) day with his fiancée in Durbuy had to go alone. Oh well, there are worse things in life I guess.

Last Friday it was time for the event. After a 2.5 hour drive I arrived in Durbuy to meet up with our contact. At this point I wasn't too nervous yet. The weather was beautiful and upon arriving at the event, all the attendees were enjoying a barbecue outside. Where I first thought this was going to be a workshop for people already in the artistic world, I noticed the flags who were put up and the potential attendees. This was a corporate event for an employment agency. Yes, this meant only one thing: many, and mainly only, giggling women. I have to be honest here and say that I was starting to get a little bit nervous. I am not ashamed of my body or certain parts, but as this was my first time posing naked, where everyone in the room will study and draw your body, this did feel kind of... special to say the least. After waiting half an hour my contact drove me up to this fancy hotel where the workshops took place. I met up with the drawing instructor, which I have to say was so cool. I mean, he will probably be trained in feeling models feel welcome, but you could tell he was just a really nice guy in general. We also talked a lot about art, about what he is doing and about what I have started recently (and yes: he is a new follower on my Instagram, pretty cool huh??).

Okay, the moment finally arrived. The idea was that when the attendees were seated, he was going to start and talk about a fruit basket which was displayed on a chair, after which I had to interrupt him, say fruit wasn't on the agenda for today, and take of my bathrobe. Funny thing is: I once got a Superman bathrobe as a gift, so obviously I wore this one. Can't help it, but I like to embrace my inner child. When the moment was finally there, I have to admit I was surprised by how chill everyone was. Maybe because the first group consisted of nine people, and the second of only three, the giggling was quite absent, thank god! Where I thought the hardest part of the job would be giggling women and gazing eyes, the hardest job was actually keeping a pose for twenty straight minutes. At first I had to take several short poses for either three, two or one minute, which I could choose. Maybe it was best that my girlfriend wasn't around, because my final poses in those first rounds were dabs, something she isn't a big fan of (see picture below). Apparently the move died several years ago, what I am still refusing to believe.

Now the workshop itself was pretty fun though. Okay, the part of posing several times for twenty minutes straight wasn't, but the vibe and joy people had in drawing was. There weren't people who engage in creative activities like this a lot, if I can take their word for it. There was one woman who used to draw occasionally in the past, and it showed in her drawings, but the rest wasn't familiar with drawing anymore. The first drawings they had to make were full body drawings, where the results were very different. I don't want to say they weren't the most successful, as everyone in the room enjoyed the workshop a lot. So the results don't even matter, it were already two hours well spent. After the full body drawings they had to make a square with their fingers and draw the part they wanted. No, there was no one who fixated the crotch area. Most of them actually drew my chest area, which was pretty awesome. There was this one woman who wasn't the best at putting my whole body to paper, but man, I was surprised by how she finished this last task. I mean, look at the picture below. Knowing this was drawn by someone who only remembers touching pencils or charcoal during her childhood, I'd say this is pretty good! I mean, maybe I am biased and I see what I want to see, but it's definitely clear I am doing push-ups and bench-press exercises, no?!

Oh well, I'm happy with the result, and I had fun engaging in a creative workshop this way. I pushed some boundaries again, and it was nice to see people have fun doing something they aren't familiar with. This only boosts my idea of organizing workshops myself and invite people to play with paint in my arena. We aren't there yet, there's still some stuff that has to be done before I'm at that point, but it's definitely something I will do. So be sure to stay on the lookout, and hopefully you'll soon also be able to make a painting yourself by using the technique I do. If it's up to me, you will have the chance to do so in the future ;-)