Illustration Disaster Class

A couple of Fridays ago I was propelled into an illustration masterclass by my friend Kelly. Every Thursday and Friday evening The National Portrait Gallery put on The Late Shift where the gallery opens its doors after hours to enjoy lots of arty excursions from talks and lectures to art workshops and mini pop up exhibitions. Or if socialising is more your bag, rub shoulders with other creative beings (this place was crawling with trendy art students).

Excited to muscle in on the creative hub I arrived wide eyed to enjoy what I thought was a 'spectators' live drawing class (i.e. get to watch illustrators in action) but the ticket  Kelly had kindly spent the last hour scrambling for found me sitting amongst the talent itself, large sketch paper, chalk and pens at the ready! To my horror the masterclass was being watched by an audience of 50 and I was on the wrong side of the fence. Wondering whether to make a run for it - I held fast, chalk in hand and decided to embrace it (wing it). Despite the military style teaching (you had approx 8 mins per sketch) it was extremely liberating (i haven’t put a pen to paper since my art GCSE) and actually kinda fun (until the end when you hold your art up for the Head of Illustration at the LCF to come round and judge!). Of course my piece was a bit of a shocker but I loved seeing the results of all the other illustrators and getting an eyeful of them in action during the whole debacle. Take a look at the results below, as well as my friend Kelly with her favourite piece.

If you get a chance to go down there, look on the master classes with glee or if you are any good at your scribbles be brave and give it a go yourself...