MIAMI -- Vida Sofia, a local model and artist, unpacked her supplies on the rooftop pool area of the Hotel Greystone on South Beach on a Wednesday afternoon. Before the sun set, she carefully organized the flesh-toned markers, nubs of charcoal, dull graphite pencils and rainbow crayons.
Soon, the nearly empty rooftop would be packed — not with tourists in swimsuits, but with artists of all skill levels circling their muse for the evening: a young shirtless man eating a lollipop.
This is Raw Figs, a figure drawing pop-up class that takes over venues, hotel rooftops, cafes, art spaces and bars across Miami. It’s free with an RSVP (though donations are encouraged) and open to anyone looking for a relaxed space to try their hand at figure drawing. Attendees sip on wine, listen to live music and focus on capturing the human form for about an hour.
You don’t need to bring a sketchbook or any art skills to participate, just some creativity. Sofia handles the rest: extra art supplies, a model to draw and a cool spot for people, especially non-artists, to gather.
“People feel like it’s meditative,” she said. “It’s a release from their day.”
In less than two years, Sofia’s pandemic passion project has grown into a creative community. What started as a temporary get-together soon turned into a popular, almost weekly event attracting well over 60 attendees to different places across Miami. When she first started the pop-up in April 2021, just 15 people showed up. Since then, her biggest crowd yet was over 90 people. Now, Sofia has set her sights on expanding Raw Figs even further with a new event series launching next month.
“I just want it to feel as welcoming as possible,” she said about the pop-up. “That’s the vibe.”
‘Miami doesn’t have something like this’
Between modeling gigs in Miami or Los Angeles, Sofia works as a flight attendant. Shewould kill time at airports by drawing quick sketches of people in her notebooks. But when the pandemic hit, Sofia missed out on much more than traveling through crowded airports. She really missed art, but she couldn’t find a figure drawing spot that worked for her and her unpredictable lifestyle.
That’s when inspiration struck, Sofia said. At first, her plan was to host a temporary series of figure drawing classes for a couple of months that would culminate with a large art event. Her friend, an artist, loaned her a space he was working out of on Lincoln Road to host the first Raw Figs classes.
But Raw Figs proved to be too popular to give up.
“Everyone just kept saying, ‘No, keep doing it. We need this. Miami doesn’t have something like this,’” Sofia said. “So I just paid attention. I listened to the feedback.”
Sofia plans to host a large-scale figure drawing event — with food vendors, drinks, live music performances and multiple models — by the end of September. It’ll be the first in a series of large figure drawing events every three months, she said.
William Hurwitz, a local musician, came to a Raw Figs pop-up recently to try something creative and got hooked. For one class, he played music while people sketched.
“What made me come back was just the awe of it being a thing in the first place,” Hurwitz said. “I hadn’t seen anything like it in Miami.”
Mychal Clayton, an artist who served as the model, is a regular Raw Figs attendee, too. He said he wanted to know what it would be like on the other side of a sketchpad.
“Getting together with other artists, sharing a common space,” Clayton said.
Sofia helped Clayton get into different poses throughout the class: two for two minutes, two for five minutes, two for 10 minutes and the final pose for 15 minutes.
She offered some advice to the 62 guests as they scribbled Clayton, his tattoos and the lollipop sticking out of his mouth like a cigarette.
“Do not look at your neighbor. This is not a competition,” Sofia said. “Be in the moment. Do you!”
After the last pose, Sofia invited everyone to show off their work. Stacks of paper depicting Clayton from all angles piled in the center.
Nicole Beira, 22, came to Raw Figs for the first time after learning about it on TikTok. Like most Raw Figs guests, she plans on coming back for more.
“If you know how to draw or not, we’re all generally creative people here and everybody’s on the same vibe,” Beira said.
“I was fiending to find a creative community,” she said. Raw Figs was just the thing she needed.
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This story was produced with financial support from The Pérez Family Foundation, in partnership with Journalism Funding Partners, as part of an independent journalism fellowship program. The Miami Herald maintains full editorial control of this work.
