The famous Northern Ireland artist and political cartoonist Rowel Friers recounted the tale of his first ever life drawing class in his autobiography, ‘Drawn from Life’.
He was only in his teens at the time, too young for naked ladies you’d think but the story went that his nervousness caused his left leg to shake. And in this instance you must of course remember that at life drawing class the artist draws on a board which rests on their knee. So as the knee bounced the board kicked up a rhythm against the chair in front which drew the attention of the rest of the classes.
The resulting collective stare was recounted as the “most embarrassing moment” of Rowel Friers’ life.
Fortunately my first ever experience of life drawing wasn't as traumatic. The class was taken by Mike Bass and the teaching was directed more towards animation students. So for someone like me who draws with loose lines I actually found it a little prescriptive. Anyway you can see an example of the work I produced in the image above.