This is a figure drawing from I guess about 20 years ago or more. It looks like it’s probably just a 30 second croquis, done in purple crayon at the YWCA on 14th and Pico in Santa Monica. My friend, Tim and I used to go over there on Wednesday nights. Was it Wednesday night? I’m not certain it could have been Monday nights – I can’t remember, but I know they had a weekly figure drawing session there. It was a three hour session, I think, and it was held in the gymnasium or the basketball court area. So during the breaks, we could shoot some baskets and that was fun. I’ve always liked shooting baskets.

The first hour would usually be 30 second and one minute – maybe two minutes, maybe sometimes five minute – poses. Then we’d have longer poses for the second couple hours. I think it was only like $10 or so to go drawing there. I paid ahead and had a card that they would punch holes in to mark how many sessions I’d attended. and I think I’ve still got a big drawing board with that card binder-clipped to the top of it because I don’t think I ever used it up. That thought brings to mind my lifetime membership to Vidiots, the card for which I stumbled upon not too long ago – we all miss Vidiots – that was a good era. That lifetime membership might not have been a great investment – but it was a worthy cause. I can’t quite remember why we stopped going to those figure drawing sessions though, but things like that happen. 

Oh! I just realized I must’ve stopped going when I went down to Guatemala – maybe I went a few times after I returned, but I never got back into the routine of it – and it’s possible that they stopped doing it at some point – I’m not sure.

I got some good drawings out of it though. I think that the drawings, if I’m not mistaken, are in a stack of drawings that are underneath my bed right now. I should pull those out and see what they look like. 

I remember I had a rough time taking the photos of those drawings. I didn’t have, at the time, a good place to hang them and photo them vertically. So what I remember doing, is laying them on the ground outside and standing on a chair and taking photos of them from above. I remember the breeze would come by and blow the corners of them up and then I’d get a bad photo because I couldn’t keep it flat. I remember putting rocks on the edges of them to keep the breeze from carrying them away. It was kind of a mess, but I finally ended up getting the photos taken, so things work out. They’re not great photos, but they give you a pretty good idea of what I was doing in those days, so there’s that. That’s about all I think I know about this drawing. I think it’s an all right drawing, for what it is.