BBC launches its TV nude school: a program to learn how to draw with models

The BBC will soon launch the program Life Drawing Live!, a special “art lesson” that will allow viewers to participate in a real nude school: in a two-hour broadcast, some of Britain’s most experienced draughtsmen will guide the audience in discovering drawing techniques, creating works in real time, with models posing and being filmed from different angles and points of view, slowly, to allow the audience to practice and draw as well. The goal of the program is precisely to encourage viewers to draw along with the experts who will take turns in the program.

Life Drawing Live! will be hosted by Josie d’Arby, while the draughtsmen guiding the audience will be Daphne Todd and Lachlan Goudie. Several models will pose, and the class will consist of basic exercises and practice so that anyone in the audience can try their hand at creating their own work of art. The date on which the show will be broadcast has not yet been announced (it is known, however, that the channel will be BBC Four). The program, moreover, is intended as a kind of “accompaniment” to the successful Shock Of The Nude program, a documentary series during which writer Mary Beard narrates the most famous nudes in art history.

“BBC Four,” says Cassian Harrison, the channel’s director, “has always hosted bold and innovative formats, and this year we want to help our loyal audiences indulge their passions and creativity. And what better way to start than with a national art class, featuring great drawing experts, and the opportunity to get real-time feedback as your work is being created?”

"Life Drawing Live! will encourage viewers," says Jonty Claypole, director of BBC Arts, “to learn more and more and take part in a nude art class right at home.”

“I’ve always enjoyed watching artists at work, seeing people’s expressions and creating something inspiring,” says host Josie d’Arby. “Here, we encourage artists, whatever their skill level, to have fun and hopefully create something that they and others can enjoy. In live drawing, the process matters as much as the result, and that means you can experiment or aspire as much as you want-it’s all up to you. The idea that the whole nation can come together in a vast shared drawing class and everyone can learn from each other in a noncompetitive way is really exciting. So whether you want to join or, like me, just want to watch, it promises to be something really fascinating and worth watching.”

"I am delighted to be part of Life Drawing Live!“ says Daphne Todd, ”because it will give me the opportunity to teach skills that are not always taught in art schools. Drawing makes one happy and everyone can do it. Every person’s point of view is different and everyone creates something important for themselves."

“The act of drawing the naked human body is as old as art itself,” Lachlan Goudie points out. "All great painters, from Michelangelo to Lucian Freud, have grappled with this challenge, striving to master the most familiar and extraordinary of all subjects: one’s own body. Without the ability to interpret and understand the shapes and proportions of the human body, you can never fully paint the world around you successfully. Life drawing is, in my opinion, the most important principle in the history of art and is the basis for every visual artist, so it is wonderful to emphasize this in Life Drawing Live."

BBC launches its TV nude school: a program to learn how to draw with models

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