Getting into these “60s Nudes”
So, I heard about this thing, “60s nudes.” Sounds a bit dodgy, right? But it’s actually an art exercise. The idea is simple: you try to capture the essence of a nude figure in just sixty seconds. Quick gesture drawing, basically. That’s what I got myself into.
My First Go At It
I kicked things off thinking, “How hard can it be? A minute is ages!” Man, was I wrong. The first few attempts were a total disaster. I’d grab my cheapest paper and a soft pencil, set a timer on my phone, and find some reference poses online. Then, go! I’d barely get a wonky line down for the spine before the timer buzzed. My figures looked like sad, squiggly aliens. It was rough.
- First, I fumbled for the pencil, like it was coated in butter.
- Then, I’d stare blankly at the reference pose on my screen, totally panicking as the seconds ticked down.
- Most times, I ended up with like, three lines and tried to pass it off to myself as some “minimalist interpretation.” Yeah, right.
It was pure chaos at the start. I remember actually sweating, sometimes cursing under my breath. My cat just sat there, looking at me like I’d finally lost it completely.
Pushing Through The Mess
But here’s the thing, I’m pretty stubborn. So, I kept at it. I told myself, just do ten a day. Session after session. Slowly, I started to get a tiny bit better. Instead of trying to draw everything – which is impossible in 60 seconds – I forced myself to focus on just the main line of action, maybe the tilt of the hips, or the angle of the shoulders. You just gotta go for the big shapes, forget all the tiny details.
My brain was screaming at me, “This is too fast! You missed the fingers! What about the face!” But you can’t. You physically don’t have the time. And that’s the point, I guess. It forces you to simplify, to really see the core movement and energy of the pose.
What Came Out Of It All
After about a week of this self-inflicted torture – I mean, practice – my regular drawing actually started to feel different. When I had more time, my lines felt more confident. I was faster at spotting the important parts of any pose, not just figures. It’s like it rewired my brain to cut out all the fluff. My 60-second sketches weren’t going in any gallery, not by a long shot, but they had life. They had movement, which they totally lacked before.
It’s not about making pretty pictures in 60 seconds. That’s not the goal at all. It’s about training your eye and your hand to work together, super fast. Like a weird, intense workout for your art muscles. You feel the burn, but then you feel a bit stronger.
Now, Why I Even Bothered With This Craziness
You’re probably wondering why I’d put myself through this. It’s not like I’m aiming to be some famous artist or anything. The truth is, I got into it because of this online art forum I used to hang out on. It was full of those know-it-all types, you know the kind. One guy, some self-proclaimed “art guru,” was constantly going on about how modern artists are lazy and can’t even do basic figure drawing anymore.
He kept pushing this “60-second challenge” as the ultimate test of skill. Said if you couldn’t do it, you were basically a hack. Most people just ignored him or told him to chill out. But it kinda got under my skin. See, at the time, I was working this really dead-end job, stacking shelves at a massive, soulless supermarket. Night shifts, those horrible fluorescent lights, the whole depressing package. My only real escape was doodling on old receipt paper during my fifteen-minute breaks.
So, I saw his posts and thought, “What the heck, I’ll show this clown.” I wasn’t really trying to prove anything to him, not really. It was more for myself. Could I actually do this thing that sounded so ridiculously hard? It became a way to fight the monotony of my job. Something to actually focus on that wasn’t the current price of canned beans or the squeaky wheel on aisle five’s cleaning cart that nobody would fix.
Turns out, that “guru” was an idiot about a lot of things he spouted, but this one exercise? Yeah, it actually helped me. Not in the way he probably thought, with all his talk about “discipline” and “classical skill.” For me, it was about finding a tiny spark in a really dull period of my life. And, okay, maybe a little bit about proving an online loudmouth wrong, at least in my own head.
So yeah, “60s nudes.” Sounds weird, can be frustrating as hell when you start, but it definitely shakes things up if you’re an artist. Give it a try if you’re stuck in a rut. Or if you just want to feel the sheer panic of a ticking clock while trying to create something. It’s an experience, that’s for sure.
