Fueled by Clouds & Coffee: New Digs for Drawing Jam

12/7/24 I don't often get to draw a bunny in a
Liberace-inspired tux! So frustrating not to be able
to see his face or the front of his outfit well.

Except for the pandemic years, I’ve been attending Gage Academy’s Drawing Jam annually since 2012. Last Saturday was the first time the event was held at the school’s new South Lake Union facility, and it was also my first visit since it moved last summer – an exciting first for me!

My personal tradition has always been to arrive at least a half-hour before the opening so I can get a prime seat in the costumed models’ life-drawing studio, one of the most popular attractions. I recall many cold and rainy waits outside Gage’s door and one particularly memorable year when the temp was 20 degrees. Per tradition, it was pouring Saturday morning, but when I arrived around 15 minutes before opening, no one was waiting outside the door – I was the first attendee to arrive! And they let me in early! That set the right tone for the rest of my visit, which was more relaxed and less crowded than all previous Drawing Jams.

Oof... first sketch felt very rusty.

I don’t know if it was actually less attended or if it was just that the new building is so open and spacious that it just felt less crowded. (I’ve heard that the square footage of the new building is actually smaller than the old school.) In any case, I enjoyed the relaxed vibe all day. Even the most popular costumed-model studios didn’t feel uncomfortably packed.

Hallway and gallery lighting is much brighter so that student and instructor art on all the walls is easier to view. The previous facility was a very old building that was either roasting or freezing, and the toilets were scarce, delicate and unreliable at best. Hallelujah – the new school offers a long bank of unisex restroom stalls containing reliably functioning toilets!

When I got frustrated with the poor lighting, I focused
on limbs that had some light on them.

My only complaint (and it’s significant) is that lighting in the life-drawing studios was not directed properly: The backlit models’ faces and fronts were completely in shadow, while the artists had lights glaring in their eyes! Frustrated, I didn’t spend as much time drawing models as I usually do and had more fun sketching the artists and musicians.

Finally I got so annoyed with the lighting that I stepped to the back of the studio and had more fun sketching the other artists. Meanwhile, the model was in the dark. :-(

It was fun sketching Ask Sophie, a band that was familiar from sketches I made at Drawing Jam in 2019.

I’m not sure what’s up with the lighting – Gage has been offering life drawing for all of its years of existence and certainly knows how to light models optimally for drawing. I have given them feedback, and I’m hoping it’s just a fluke of Drawing Jam and not a reflection of typical studio experiences. I would love to return to a regular life-drawing practice again – I have sorely missed it (and I sure felt rusty on Saturday).