Life Drawing Materials: What to Bring

Life drawing punishes fussy materials. Poses are timed, the light is fixed, and there's no space to spread out — so the right kit is small, fast and forgiving. A complete beginner setup costs under £20.

The starter kit

Willow charcoal (a box of assorted sticks) — the classic life-room material: fast, bold, erasable. A putty rubber — lifts charcoal for highlights rather than scrubbing. Soft pencils (2B–6B) for when you want line over tone. A3 cartridge pad — cheap paper in quantity beats good paper you're scared to waste; you'll fill ten sheets of gestures per session. A bulldog clip and board if the venue doesn't provide boards. Optional but transformative: fixative (or cheap hairspray) so the charcoal survives the journey home.

What to skip at first

Fine liners and hard pencils (too slow, too precious for 1-minute poses), expensive sketchbooks (inhibiting), coloured sets (one value range is enough while you learn), and easel boxes of equipment you'll carry once. Add materials when a specific pose length demands them — pastels and ink wash come into their own at 20 minutes and up.

Charcoal, properly

Most beginners buy the wrong charcoal. Willow (thin, light, grey-black) is what the life room runs on: it moves fast, breaks harmlessly, and lifts off the page almost completely with a putty rubber, so you can rework a drawing repeatedly. Compressed charcoal is denser and far darker — excellent for final darks, nearly impossible to erase. Buy willow first, add one stick of compressed later.

Work with the side of a broken stick, not the tip. A two-centimetre piece laid flat covers a torso in one gesture and stops you drawing outlines — which is the single most useful habit short poses can teach you. Save the tip for the last few marks.

Charcoal transfers onto everything it touches, so plan for the journey home: fixative (cheap hairspray does the job), newsprint between sheets, or a flat folder. Spray outside or in an open doorway — never in the life room, where the smell and the overspray are everyone else's problem.

Matching material to pose length

A useful default: charcoal or a big soft pencil for gestures and 5-minute poses; add an eraser and mid-tones for 10–20 minutes; switch to tonal work — conté, pastel, wash — for the long pose. (New to the pose structure? See what to expect at your first class and the glossary.)

Sharing the room considerately

Life rooms are close quarters, and a few materials cause genuine friction. Solvents and oils are restricted at most venues — the smell fills a small room and lingers for the next hirer. Fixative belongs outside. Very large boards block the view of whoever is behind you; if you work at A1, take a spot at the back or the edge.

Charcoal dust is the other one. It travels, and community centres notice. Tap sticks over your own board rather than the floor, don't blow dust off your paper towards your neighbour, and leave the space cleaner than you found it — the fastest way for a group to lose a good cheap venue is a complaint about mess.

Drawing online

For online sessions the same kit works, with one addition: put your screen at arm's length beside (not behind) your board, roughly where a model would stand relative to your easel — it keeps the head movement between subject and paper natural.