About Us
What is Body Love Sketch Club?
Our workshops are an artistic adventure in body positivity and creative empowerment - a joyful and tender tonic to feeling disconnected from each other and ourselves, a celebration of bodies in all their (optionally naked) glory, and a place for creative play without shame or judgement.
Body Love Sketch Club was founded in 2018 by Rosy Pendlebaby and Ruby Rare. This life drawing class was born out of the transformative experiences we’d both had as life models, and our desire to create a life drawing space where participants can experience both drawing and posing for others.
Meet the team
Rosy
Rosy is a queer performer, workshop facilitator, and activist, and life model working in the UK and internationally, making work that explores the intersection of creativity, empowerment, pleasure, and change-making. After working as a life model and being in life drawing spaces played a huge part in their eating disorder recovery journey, they co-founded Body Love Sketch Club in 2018 with Ruby Rare, to support others in becoming better friends with their bodies, and learning to meet them with greater love, care, joy, and acceptance.
You can follow Rosy on socials here, as well as their own project, Revolting Arts Club.
Director & Co-Founder (She/They)
Bethany
Bethany is a sex-positive creative professional: sharing knowledge about intimacy, kink, and sexual pleasure as liberation, expression and empowerment. As a podcaster and performer, they founded The Sassy Show, a multimedia digital platform, focusing on creatives and aiming to transform the portrayal of women and gender in the media. Having first met Rosy in a festival field in 2022, they joined the Body Love Sketch Club team in 2024.
You can follow Bethany on socials here.
Workshop Host (They/Them)
Porscha
Porscha is an artist, music director, drag performer, and facilitator. Their art plays with the grotesque, using clowning, drag, music and character work to push boundaries and playfully address the ego. Porscha fuels their performance holistically, with an aim to generate connectivity between performer and audience. They also mentor performers and have 10 years experience in teaching piano. Having cameoed as a host in 2019, they joined the regular Body Love Sketch Club hosting team in 2024.
You can follow Porscha on socials here.
Workshop Host (They/Them)
Ruby
Ruby Rare is an award-winning sex educator, creating spaces to learn, celebrate, and overcome shame on social media, and beyond. She's the author of Sex Ed: A Guide for Adults, and The Non-Monogamy Playbook. They've been a life model for well over a decade, and co-founding Body Love Sketch Club with Rosy is one of her proudest achievements. After six years co-facilitating BLSC with Rosy, Ruby has now stepped back from running workshops, but is still involved in an advisory role.
You can follow Ruby here.
Co-Founder (She/They)
Frequently asked questions
Attending a class
What do I need to bring to a class?
For our regular classes, you don’t need to bring anything - we provide a drawing board, A3 paper, and a selection of drawing materials for you to use (charcoal, lead and colour pencils, chalk pastels). You’re welcome to bring your own drawing materials if you like, but there’s no obligation to.
Both our venues have a bar serving tea, soft, and alcoholic drinks, so bring cash/card if you’d like to purchase any refreshments.
We may sometimes ask you to bring additional items to our one-off workshops (an envelope, a notebook, a yoga mat), but this will always be listed in the eventbrite description and in email confirmations and follow ups.
Do I have to know how to draw?
All artistic capabilities and confidence levels are welcome! Creative empowerment is a cornerstone of Body Love Sketch Club, so many of us have been told we weren’t ‘good enough’ to pursue art when we were younger, and we passionately believe that is absolute rubbish: art is for everyone.
We’ve had folks attend the class who haven’t drawn in 30 years, we’ve had professional artists who relish the opportunity to play with their creativity and it not be tied to work, and everyone in between. We talk through any nerves you have about drawing during the class, and are here to support and celebrate your creativity throughout.
What happens during a class?
In our regular monthly events, we begin by doing some housekeeping and explaining the framework of the class. After some warm-up drawings (where we the facilitators pose), we put everyone in small groups (between 4-6 people) and invite each group to find a space in the room for the next section of the class. Each person will do a pose for their group (this can be fully clothed, fully nude, or anywhere in between), while the hosts chat away about topics relating to the class that we feel passionate about - we find it’s nice for models and artists to have something to listen to while they pose and draw.
Once everyone has posed, we have an art tour, looking at everything we’ve created, and gather back in a circle at the end to debrief as a whole group, sharing any thoughts or feelings that have popped up, and then end the class with a closing squish (an opportunity for us to give our own body a hug and send some love out to everyone in the class). The bar usually stays open at both of our regular venues, so you’re welcome to stick around and have a drink afterwards if you fancy it.
Participation & Posing
Can I model?
In our regular classes, the invitation is for everyone to pose!
In some of our occasional bespoke events we have a handful of models posing, rather than inviting everyone in the class to pose. There is always the opportunity to volunteer in these classes, and we endeavour to have any many people pose as possible.
We’re unable to offer professional life modelling work, or longer poses for individuals, it’s just not how our classes are set out. If this is something you’re keen to explore we recommend getting in touch with the Register of Artists Models.
Is nudity required if I pose?
Not at all! We welcome everyone to pose in a way that feels right for them, this can look like posing fully clothed, fully nude, or somewhere in between (if it’s a cold day you’re welcome to add some more layers on if you’d like!). There’s no competition with how you choose to pose during the class, and there are always people who pose fully clothed and fully nude in every class, so wherever you land on that spectrum you won’t be the only one.
Do you have any posing tips for first-timers?
During the class we share some tips for posing, and we’re on hand to help anyone who’d like some more guidance. This is not a professional life drawing environment but a relaxed space where you can give posing a go in a way that feels good for you, around other people who may be trying this out for the first time too. No acrobatic poses needed here, we recommend finding a position either seated, reclining, or standing that feels natural and comfortable to hold for around 6 minutes (and if you need to stretch and arm or scratch your nose, that’s ok!).
Scheduling & Booking
How often are the classes?
We run an in person class in London every month, alternating between a weekday evening at and a Sunday afternoon. Tickets are released a month in advance, you can sign up to be notified when tickets go live on Eventbrite, and we also post our upcoming dates on Instagram. Our classes can sell out quickly, so if you’d like to come along we recommend booking early!
We also run occasional special events in London, online, or further afield. You can sign up to our mailing list to keep in touch with these one-off events.
How much are tickets?
Tickets for our regular classes are £15, which includes drawing materials (but you're welcome to bring along your favourite things to draw with too). Prices may vary for special events and online classes.
Body Love Sketch Club is founded on a principle of inclusivity and has a NOTAFLOF policy (no one turned away for lack of funds). We know it's a difficult time financially for many, so if our ticket price is prohibitive to you, please contact us prior to the event.
Can I get a refund or transfer for my ticket?
Refunds must be requested through Eventbrite (not by emailing or messaging us directly). You can apply for a refund up to 72 hours ahead of the event.
Please note, if you apply later than this, we will not be able to refund or exchange your ticket.
Accessibility & Inclusivity
Are the venues accessible?
For classes at New Cross Music Rooms and Jamboree in Kings Cross, we are located on the ground floor. Both venues are accessible to wheelchair users. Please get in touch with us if you'd like to discuss any access requirements, or if there’s anything we can do to support you in coming along.
Who can attend your events?
Due to this being a nude-friendly space, our monthly workshops are for adults aged 18+.
Whilst we welcome all genders to our events, our priority is holding spaces that feel welcoming and supportive to women and queer folks, who can often experience marginalisation in nude-positive spaces, and we organise our ticket allocations accordingly. If you have any questions on this, please feel free to reach out to us.
What’s the vibe of your events?
We have one main rule at Body Love Sketch Club, and it's 'be f*cking lovely!' This means that inclusivity, safety, respect, confidentiality, and consent are fundamental principles of Body Love Sketch Club sessions and that all attendees are expected to uphold them.
Our workshops are desexualised nude spaces. Please do not interact with others in a sexual or flirtatious manner either during the workshop, or afterwards, unless you already know and have that kind of relationship with them.
Please be respectful of people's bodies, personal space, pronouns, and any indicators of gender (such as chest binding).
What happens if someone behaves inappropriately?
If you are made to feel uncomfortable during a class, please bring this up with the facilitators and we will do all we can to support you. As organisers we reserve the right to ask anyone to leave should their behaviour be deemed to be inappropriate, and they will be barred from attending future events. If you’d like to discuss anything after a class, don’t hesitate to get in touch with us, and we’ll be happy to discuss this further.
Online Classes & Private Bookings
Do you run online classes?
We ran regular online classes from 2020-2023. Currently, we don’t run these regularly, but if you’d like to be on the mailing list to be the first to know if we list more, you can sign up here. We do also still run private online workshops, so please get in touch if you’d like to have a chat with us about this.
Can I book you for my event, media project, a brand collaboration, or a private party?
Yes! We’ve worked with brands like Superdrug, E.l.f, Feeld, Soho House, and Killing Kittens, to put on private life drawing events. We’ve taken Body Love Sketch Club to a whole host of festivals and parties, including Wilderness, Shambala, Vault Festival, Pinky Promise, Togetherness and more. We’re also available for birthday parties, hen dos, collaborations with other creatives, and media projects. We have a couple of different formats we use and are also open to customising a plan that fits your needs. Get in touch with us to discuss your ideas!
Got another question or query? Drop us an email to bodylovesketchclub@gmail.com