It was fun. I mean I haven't talked with fellow artists IRL for like, a year or two? I'm surrounded by engineering students all the time so no one knows shit about art. It was really refreshing, except that the people who went to the class were almost of the same type as the ones who went to the last class/workshop I went to. Namely, old people who complain too much and paint too little, middle-aged wives doing pretty and decorative paintings, and an old half-mad teacher who's fun to talk to. Oh and to break the monotony there was a 14 year old girl who really, really looked like Kristen Stewart.
One thing I noticed is how everyone seems to have top-of-the-line art supplies. Like, really expensive graphite sets, charcoals, oils, etc. And it's funny, because they all have this wide arrangement of materials to work with, but they're practically amateurs. Not to be mean, but if there's one thing I've learned about the learning process when it comes to art is that you shouldn't bite more than you can chew. In my opinion, before you ever invest in life drawing classes you should have already a year or two of experience with still lives. Then you know enough about composition, colour, and structure to tackle the human figure with some ease. You know what to look for, and from there it's only a matter of months before you can draw it with ease. Like my old teacher used to say, 'you have to learn to draw with your hands what you draw with your mind'.
So, they were inexperienced. And to add to that, they were also working with materials that were out of their league. When you start to draw, you should use the simplest materials - charcoals, graphite. Because, as any other craft, learning to draw also means learning how to use the medium of choice, and that can be a pretty difficult thing if you don't even know how to draw in the first place.
There's also the fact that most people think that expensive supplies = better quality of work, which is a total fallacy. If you know your craft, you can draw with orange juice and it'll turn out like the motherfucking mona lisa. I mean, all artists at some point have bought into that crap, but mostly because nobody ever says this. So, to put it bluntly, if you're drawing with normal sharpies and it sucks, it doesn't matter if you buy 200 copic markers, it'll still suck. So people should first concentrate on learning how to take on a drawing (think of making art as a problem to solve, good artists don't know the solutions to all problems, they just know how they can find the solution) then concentrate on experimenting with different mediums.
Also the teacher said my work reminded him of Felipe Noé, only that he liked mine better. A compliment? I hope so.