Captain Two Swords

The first class at The Standard this year.  But it's not called The Standard any more - it's called Mother's.

The place has been refurbished, but it's still recognisably the same old place.  Still got the same charm and the same personality.  Different name, but the identity's the same.

I had a new temporary tutor for this class.  Amaundine - a French girl came along and helped out.  She did a bit of drawing of her own, but I didn't let her participate in the competition.  I still accused her of cheating, though, when she misinterpreted the rules of one of the challenges and didn't draw in straight lines.

Some of the girls were running a little late for this event, so the beginning was very slightly awkward.  A few of them were sitting and chatting among themselves, while a couple of them were getting drinks at the bar and trying to find out where the latecomers were.

I spoke to the girl who had booked me, though, and she told me that everybody knew what was happening, so there were no surprises in store.  Given the circumstances, this made everything a bit easier.  It meant that I could relax and not have to worry about inadvertently spoiling anything.

I was still unsure of where to pitch the showmanship, though - for lack of a better term.  I didn't want to start the event before everybody was present or before the first girls were ready to get started.  But I did feel like I should be at least a little bit active.  Engaging with them, somehow.  As opposed to looking bored or ill at ease.  After a moment's thought, I produced the books of drawings that had been left over from previous classes.  I had salvaged a lot of pictures that had been left over, photocopied them and bound them together to serve as an example of the kind of thing that other girls had done.

Once the two girls returned from the bar, they told me that their friends - the four who were running late - had just told them to get started.  By this time, we were running nearly half an hour late.  I asked if they had any pressing need to go anywhere after the class had concluded, then told them that Amaundine and I were in no hurry to move on, either.  So we could relax and make up time at the end.  Then we kicked in and got on with the show.

It's a good job I'm not a slave to the rules of these classes.  I always feel that improvisation is an important element, so if there's a good enough reason to shake things up, then I'll go for it.  One of the girls spotted the bag of props I took along and wanted to use one of them for the second challenge.  I normally don't introduce those until the third challenge - which is generally when I start asking for volunteers from the crowd to pose with me.

This time, though, the blindfold was utilised and when I was looking at the pictures, I was quite taken with the one with the very red lips.  Someone said it reminded her of Eddie Izzard.  I've never looked like him before, but I liked the comparison.

So in the end, the third challenge didn't really use any of my props.  But one of my favourite drawings of the entire day came from that one.  It made me think of 1950's American sitcoms - although one of the girls compared it to a character from a Disney film.  Of course, the presence of a naked man destroys the logic in both circumstances, but apart from that, the comparison is definitely an accurate one.

This was the first of the two drawing challenges using a volunteer model from the girls.  Her friend posed us together and told us to look like we were dancing.  I can only hope the look of delight on her face isn't entirely down to the artist's imagination - that would definitely flatter the ego.

It wasn't until the fourth challenge that I really felt like I was on top form, though.  Sometimes the girls can take a little while to fully settle into the concept and start enjoying themselves, and this is the one where the laughter and innuendo really started to kick in more freely.  We used another girl from the group as a model and her scarf was improvised as a prop.  The idea was that she was catching me and I was fighting her.  I think there was definitely a sense of conflict in the winning picture, this time.

It got very hard to choose winning pictures from a couple of the challenges.  The straight lines challenge produced a few truly great ones - even if Amaundine didn't follow the rules properly.  Ultimately, the best one was definitely the red one.  Both that one - and the runner-up - had a slightly shy look that I really liked.

Even then, though, there was a third one that was definitely worth a mention and that one didn't look even remotely shy.  I couldn't help commenting that the penis looked a lot like a sword and one of the girls called it "Captain Sword".  I said it was a pity there wasn't another penis, because then it could have been "Captain Two Swords".  Sometimes puns don't go down too well, and the groans told their own story when I came out with that one.  I tried protesting that it might have lacked wit, but at least it had some spontaneity, but that cut no ice at all.

And there was still a fourth picture from that challenge, that I thought was worth a mention.  In fact, it reminded me of a similar picture from a different class I held in August of 2013.  Four winning pictures from one single challenge would have been too much, though - especially since there are only three points at stake each time.  Not that I have any problem with breaking my own rules.  But in the end, it had to be the red picture.

So... from being slightly reserved group and gradually transforming into a bunch of girls who were fully engaged and completely enjoying themselves - this turned into one of my more ego boosting classes.  I loved that I was able to get them to relax and have so much fun.

And, of course, there was still room for a picture that has become something of a tradition at these events.