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Qué Pinto Yo Aquí

Community Life Drawing Events

That I spend a lot of time thinking about how attention can equal affection and having a penchant for life drawing are not unrelated. Focusing on someone, looking, and being looked at often have a soothing effect and can even be healing for some. It’s an excercise in a minor form of love.

Qué Pinto Yo Aquí is a not-for-profit community drawing event (and a pun in Spanish). I’d always been fond of “drink and draw” events when I lived in the U.S. and was having a hard time finding something simmilar in Spain. In 2022 I hosted a Qué Pinto Yo Aquí at the little slice of Berlin we have on Tenerife, Equipo PARA. Days later we began to host them weekly at Espacio Colombia with the amazing collective Mamachama (one of my favourite projects ever, check them out).

Our community was enthusiastic about this and since those first couple of months the drawing events have taken a life of their own and have been held in other spaces. Anywhere between 10 and 35 people participate each night. The spin on the traditional “drink and draw”" system is that 1. we take turns posing and 2. the focus of this is more on community-building - no one is profiting.

There are so many advantages to taking turns to pose. Constantly changing the subject is simply fun and good exercise for your hand and eyes. It’s fun to strike poses and in a way act. You can pose with attrezzo, two people can pose together, we have theme nights, different excercises, etc. Everyone is welcome to bring their creativity to the act.

Do you want to host an event like this where you live? If so, below is a rough guidelines of how ours run + what I’ve learned. If you want me to help you promote your event or want it to to be a Qué Pinto Yo Aquí event, just reach out.

  • in principle, the event is free: we ask for people to support the space we’re in if they want to and can, as spaces have to cover rent (bookstore, community center, bar), by consuming a snack, a drink, maybe getting a postcard or buying a book if they need a present for someone. But know that sometimes people do, sometimes they don’t. Make this clear to the space you approach to host the event.

  • this event is amateur: be welcoming to people that have never drawn before! Pretty much everyone can enjoy doodling, slowing down to look at the form, etc. And sometimes it’s the most amateur drawings that have a great naïf and fresh style. This means that if you’re promoting the event on socials, don’t just post things drawn by art school grads. That’s intimidating.

  • we do not hire a model, we take turns posing but do not force anyone to pose. That you are comfortable with it doesn’t mean that everyone is. It might be a real ordeal for someone and they still should be able to enjoy drawing in a group. It’s also good to see if people are picking a hard pose. You can remind them that they have to hold it for X-amount of minutes. Or if you see them in trouble when there are still a few minutes left, remind them that they can always change if they’re uncomfortable.

  • That said, sometimes gettting people to pose is like pulling teeth. A dumb, cheap trick for this is to literally bribe people with candy to pose. I’ve come to learn that adults do pretty much anything for candy after 8pm, it’s wild. Don’t worry, you’re not luring them into a van, nobody will judge.

  • it’s a social event not centered around alcohol: depending on where you live, it can be hard to find these.

  • music: I can’t overstress the importance of vibes and I adore making playlists for these events. Here are some of mine. Lots of Spanish indie electro in there :-)

The loose structure of an event is as follows:

  • 5 1-minute poses to warm up

  • 2 5-minute poses

  • 3 10-minute poses

  • BREAK (between 15 and 25 minutes)

  • 3 5-minute poses

  • 3 7-minute poses (these are shorter as people will need to start heading home)

  • END OF POSES: 10-15 minutes where we everyone that feels up to it can share their drawings on a large table, or we lay them out on the floor.

As I said, this is a loose structure. When you’re facilitating it’s good practice to read the vibes. When you call out for volunteers before each pose, if people are feeling shy, you can haggle on times (nobody is up for 10 minutes? Try another 5-minute pose). If people seem to be getting bored and many stop drawing before the timer goes off, consider lowering the pose times.

Starting out: people can be really shy when these start out. The easiest thing is for you to be the one posing the first 5 minutes, to break the ice. Don’t worry, eventually people get into it.

Keeping time: be mindful of the time at which the event is held and the time the space needs to close. If the space needs you out within 2 hours of the start time, do not let the break run over 15 or 20 minutes. Remember that it’s nice to have at least 10 minutes at the end for people to share drawings.

Have fun!