Nick Cassleman - Figures from Drink n' Draw

After college, I moved to New York to find my fortune. I lived in Brooklyn, and my then-roommate Anna invited me to a figure drawing session called Drink n' Draw. Wednesdays at the Bat Haus, just off the Jefferson stop on the the L, you got unlimited beer and a nude model for $20. What a steal!

These two dozen draws come from like ten or more notebooks. I've never had a drawing teacher, and so most of the drawings are no bueno. Still, practicing something for 2+ years will lead to a lot of improvement.

Context & relief

Curtain from April 20, 2016. It's drawn with blocks of shadow and highlight. Curtain from July 1, 2016. It's draw with simple lines. Curtain from March 9, 2016. It's drawn with smooth shadows.

I was pretty shy during this part of my life, so I didn't make any friends there for about a year. Instead, I would sit quietly by myself and sketch the curtain while we waited for the session to start. I'd pick a spot in the back near the middle next to a handsome man with a beard and a name I've forgotten. I crushed over this straight man for months before attempting to strike up conversations that went no where. Eventually, I did make friends with two other regulars who are legit good at art: Anna Rosenfeld and Sara Sarmiento.

Line & gesture

A person is hunched over with long hair. They look like a sea creature. Drawn with gestural lines. Half of someone's body and their boob; their hip is popped. Drawn with gestural lines. A person's hand propped up on their lower back. Drawn with a gestural lines. A person standing on one leg. 'I'm a flamingo!' their body says. Drawn with gestural lines. Someone with their arms up in the air. Maybe they were leveling an imaginary painting on the wall. Drawin with gestural lines.

Sessions began with 15 second gesture drawings. These came out better when I was confident with my lines and drew from the heart. The best ones felt zazzy. The worst ones were cautious and precise.

Shape & figure

A man's full body, posed like Michaelangelo's David. Drawn with clean lines. A woman leaning back in a chair. Drawn with clean lines and a white pencil for highlights. A woman's mid section, standing. No arms, no head, just the tops of the legs. Shadows and highlights drawn in blocks. A woman's torso, leaning backward. Drawn with large blocks of shadow and highlight. A man's mid section, hands on hips. Drawn with simple lines and stylized.

After the gestures, we'd move onto a series of shorter poses. Again, when I didn't focus on details and drew with confidence, I liked my work better. I'd focus on proportions and do simple shading if at all. Things always went downhill when I attempted faces, hands, and feet. Boobies were always an easy place to start.

Form & depth

A woman with her arm squishing her boobies. There's a gleaming highligh on her shoulder. Drawn with smoothed shadows. The sliver of a woman's front side. Drawn with several values but without a lot of smoothing. A circumcised penis! Well-trimmed public hair! Drawn with smoothed shadows. A woman half hidden by the edge of the page. She has a lovely collarbone. Drawn with smoothed shadows. A woman and the wonderful folds of her skin. Her face is blank. Drawn with smoothed shadows.

The sessions ended with longer poses and this is when I'd practice shading. I never felt like I got the hang of this because I wasn't really following a process; I'd try to drew what I saw, but I never understand why I saw it. I had a drinking problem, so I'd be several beers in at this point. The line for the bathroom would be tremendous, and I'd often skip one of the poses to pee and occasionally make small talk.

Style & interpretation

A cartoonishly skinny woman, sitting in a chair turned away from the viewer. Her body is drawn with smoothed shadows while her hair and chair with parallel lines. An old man sitting in a chair holding his funny little hat. He's got bug eyes and a flipper for a foot. The shadows in the drawing are scribbles. A person looking over their shoulder. Their outline is drawn with loopy lines and the smooth shadows drawn between the lines serve as artificial gradients rather than shadow. A big bearded boy sitting with his arms crossed. He has a chode and ghostly eyes. The shadows are mostly realistic but his arms kind of fuse together. Two models, a woman sitting in a chair with a man standing beside her. They are drawn as cats: the woman has six tits and the cowl of a nun, the man has three tails and a fencing foil.

I liked these stylized drawings the most because I could cover up my lack of technical expertise with my creative spirit. "It's supposed to look like that!"