“There’s a life drawing/speed dating night on tonight. Wanna come?” came a text from an arty (and attached) girl-friend early on the first Thursday of the month. ‘First Thursdays’ are always ripe with unusual art events to coax people out of their hum drum habits, but this one really had me intrigued. How would it work? Would potential partners draw naked models, secretly wishing they were drawing one another? Would the promise of free wine and an arty environment quickly turn in to an orgy of love, nakedness and charcoal?
These thoughts not only ran through my head, but also through the head of my boyfriend. He was not best pleased that I might be partaking in a singles night. But it had been a long time since I had done any life-drawing and I missed it like mad. Fellow intern Tanya felt the same and, with promises of faithfulness (and the website assuring that you could ‘come with friends’ and that the night could also be an innocent way of ‘making friends with people who share your interests’), we went along to The Prince’s Drawing School.
3 floors up we entered the wonderful roof space of the school. The nostalgic art college smell (all sugar paper and dusty floor boards) went straight to my head but wasn’t enough to make me feel quite at ease. The absence of a bath-robe clad model quickly made me aware that we would be expected to draw one another! I guess the clue should have been in the event title… A glass of wine (for an optional donation) helped to calm my nerves. A wee bit worried that we had ‘Fresh Meat’ written all over us, Tanya and I snook into a corner and started warming up our dusty drawing skills by drawing one another.
I’ve never really drawn a portrait of a friend before (well, except for a time when I was very drunk at Glastonbury, but the squiggly cider-influenced lines I managed could never have really counted as a portrait) so I left the face ’til last. Can you tell?
Tanya’s portait of me was much more flattering!
It was then time to take a deep breath and find a new partner to draw. The first gent I was paired with was Darren, who worked in IT but had a passion for art in his spare time. He had enrolled on the life drawing course at the school and was attending the ‘Drawn To Each Other’ night to brush up on his skills before enrolling. I’m not sure if he was looking for love as well, as our conversation never strayed into that area. Instead, we simply chatted along merrily (so merrily that Darren couldn’t draw my chin straight, it was wagging so much!) and hoped that our attempts at portraits would not offend one another.
At the end of our time slot we were each left happily unoffended and went on to find partners new. Tanya had not been so lucky…
…and had somehow been depicted as Kanye West! Here’s a tip for all you budding portrait artists; If you have a bespectacled sitter, draw their glasses last!
Not all the portraits were bad, of course. In fact, most were pretty damn good. It makes sense really, since the dating game is fraught enough to make most people wary of speed dating events. At this event, attendees may still have been shy when it came to affairs of the heart, but most were pretty confident arts-wise.
The thing that struck me most about this event was that, in a city where people barely make eye contact, it was so refreshing to actually be allowed to study a strangers face. And not just that, but talk to and find out more about these people. I met some lovely, interesting people – including Graham (drawing my friend, Steph, below) who dealt in antique maps, if I remember correctly.
Still, no matter how interesting all these people were, I’m not sure that (had I been single and looking) I would have found the love of my life. The crowd was a little older than us (late 20s/early 30s), which might make it difficult for young whipper-snappers to find a partner. Still, I’m sure a few mobile numbers must have been swapped since it was a great premise under which to meet someone. There’s automatically a shared interest, for a start, and then the whole atmosphere was so relaxed. I never felt any pressure from anyone I sat for to get more personal than I felt comfortable with, everything was friendly and fun.
As the night drew to a close, Tanya and I had amassed some interesting drawings of ourselves. There was a strange etiquette surrounding the swapping of portraits at the end of each time slot, which was rather endearing. With the hosts calling out “5 minutes left!” an over zealous French man began to circuit the room, asking if we had all found somebody to love. It was strange because this was the only reminder all night of what the event was supposed to be about! Of course, we told him we were happily paired off and hurried out of the door.
Tanya came away from the night with something much better than a slimy sleazeball; this wonderful portrait! Although we both felt that we might never find a prince charming at Prince Charles, we both agreed that we would love to attend another ‘Drawn to Each Other’ event. Sorry, boyfriend of mine!
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