FIVE MINUTES WITH

Five minutes with Yat Sing Ha

Charmaine Ng talks naked art with the founder of NuDD (Nude, Drink and Draw) five minutes with

to the workshop for the first time, I usually share a few tips. I also use the setup of each workshop to drive the focus towards certain aspects in drawing, such as proportion, scale, lighting and line quality.

Life drawing is good training for observation. It’s also a great occasion to meet people with similar interests and to understand how other artists work.

Hong Kong culture is very accepting of life drawing. I haven’t received any rejections from venues just because the event involves nudity. People here understand it’s an art form, although they are usually curious to know why I require a nude model rather than a clothed one.

My models usually come from dance, yoga or gymnastics backgrounds. They understand how to control their bodies for their poses to be natural. I love models who challenge our artists with unusual poses – this creates an interesting dialogue for the event.

My most memorable class was one where we hopped on a minibus then followed up with a 15-minute hike in the countryside, taking the model with us. Then we did a meditative drawing workshop in the wild… and 90 minutes later it started raining.

I have hosted a number of private life drawing workshops: birthday parties, bachelorette parties and team building workshops, and I’m always happy to organise more. I’m also planning further collaborations with fashion designers, stage designers and sculptors… soon to be revealed later this year!

During the day I work as an architect. I currently work as a project manager for Soho House in Asia. I am also a watercolour and alcohol ink painter on the side.

By night I host NuDD classes. NuDD stands for Nude, Drink and Draw. In the beginning, we held many pop-ups in different locations. We made use of restaurants, bars, tattoo parlours, coworking spaces, wine stores and even furniture stores. Since last year we’ve been hosting regular events in Sheung Wan. Our classes usually consist of a mix of locals and expats. A number of artists and illustrators come to my workshops and there are also a lot of beginners who are simply interested in life drawing.

Most people are surprised how quick the class goes by. I have some guests who told me they found the event rather meditative.

My workshops are usually self-taught with a sharing session at the end. For people coming Sing’s regular life drawing workshop takes place on the last Thursday of each month. Keep an eye out for pop-up events on their Facebook (facebook.com/NuDDHK) or follow them on Instagram (@nuddhk).