Today, even though I sketched at a life drawing open studio, I was strongly reminded of my past years in schools. First of all, in the midst of artists who could sketch for three hours, I felt like the reader who lacks the stamina to read independently during class, the one who needs an intervention. And then there was something about the intense scrutiny and non-stop recording by the other artists that took me back. In schools we used to take a team approach to observing teaching and learning so that we could pool our thinking about best practices. We would go in with clipboards and record our observations, encircling the teacher, much like we encircled the model today.

I somehow managed to sketch the 19 poses, mostly using watercolor, pen and pencil. Although I intended to deliberately practice using ambient light to strengthen my sketches, I became confused about the lighting in the studio setting. The lighting was not natural, all the windows and doors were draped, and a few spotlights illuminated the model and cast strong shadows in multiple directions. I ended up just putting down color as best I could.