Life Drawing

Why does life drawing mean 'drawing people with no clothes on'?  Anyway that is what I have been doing this week - 6 hours a day for 3 days.
No pics of course because I am still camera-less. It was very tiring not just because

• I'm not used to concentrating to someone else's schedule any more
• Standing still at an easel gives you either a bad back, sore feet or cramp in your calves
• Working at an easel makes your arm ache

but because you have to think so much too. The teacher, thank goodness, believed in challenge laced with instruction and advice, so tired I might be but really stimulated and enthused too so I've signed up for a five week course.  Not with the same tutor, she doesn't do it, what she does do is at http://www.axisweb.org/artist/louisaparker. It starts straight after the Easter holiday, so I will still remember what she said to weigh the new bloke against.
There was a range of styles among the people, one more beginner and several who'd done some and then one who was studying fine art and another who made a living drawing so there was a lot to look at once I'd realised it wasn't rude to look at other people's pictures.  The downside to that is that people do tend to want positive comments from you, although that does make you look hard at the pictures.
Sat on the step last night I had this idea linking the bible with life drawing - not as in 'velvet Elvis' but in the making of marks on paper to represent what is much larger than that.  Whether it is in words trying to grapple with something that is more than verbal labels (ask me to describe the skin of Terri yesterday and how it was similar to and  differed from that of Leslie the day before or Alan on Monday and I couldn't do it in words and that is one little thing) or trying to describe 3 (or 4) dimensions in two, it is the struggle to do it that is, complete with frustrations and failures and back tracking, rewarding and illuminating.  One of the people had this searching line travelling through his drawing so that you could see him working out what he was doing - thinking on paper, Louisa called it, so that you could see him searching for the form.  I found the whole thing a battle between what I 'know' and what I see and kept setting myself agendas force/weight/solidity or tension/muscles/skin to try and find a flank to fight on.