The program sends men and women models to schools for a day to pose nude. As many as 30 students form a circle around the models in a large open space and work on the floor with charcoal and large sheets of paper, drawing what they see. The workshops are led by artist-graduates from the Royal Academy schools and the models have been through dance and drama training to be able to give their poses a forceful quality. The models don't remain in one position for hours, but take up several poses to communicate the dynamics of the human form. Big spaces and large sheets encourage children to be more aggressive in drawing.
Charcoal is more physical than pencil.
It gets the hands dirty and makes an immediate impression. The academy recently displayed at its Piccadilly building in central London more than 150 children's drawings from Outreach in a show called Alive . I've drawn my father at home, but drawing the woman model was a bit difficult - especially the arm and the leg, the fingers and the shape of the hand. I liked discovering how to do it. The mind has to invent, take risks, consider alternatives and be prepared to learn from failure along the way.