In which I sing the praises of Studio Escalier.

You know, I haven’t written much yet about the whole reason I’m here in Paris right now, that being the figure drawing class I am taking with the good folk at Studio Escalier. Part of the reason for this is that I’ve been so busy with the class that I haven’t really taken the time yet to reflect upon the class; the other reason is that my classmate Sadie Valeri has done a waaaaay better job of explaining, articulating and, to be frank, learning and absorbing the approaches being taught in our class, as you will see from her blog. So once again, I recommend going there...

Anyway, as for my impressions in a nutshell, allow me to say: these people really know their stuff. Better yet, they are extremely adept at communicating said stuff, and uncannily skilled at being able to go up to anyone’s drawing and having really insightful, helpful, constructive critique not only about the drawing but also about the way one is seeing what’s in front of them, and approaching the drawing. They are amazing. This, indeed, is heaven. I keep asking myself, why couldn’t I have found these guys 15 years ago? Damn.

As I feel as though I am still learning and still hopelessly clumsy with new approaches (old habits die hard), I don’t have any stunning examples of drawings from the class which exhibit the principles in action. I guess, though, I could show you a couple of short drawings from last week, sorry for the poor quality of the photos. Be prepared, the first drawing was done from the human nude. Look away now if you are easily embarrassed by such things...

here's one from class... the next one is from the Louvre, a sketch of a bust of 18th-century French painter Elisabeth Vigée-Lebrun:

More soon...