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Professional Life Drawing and Fine Art modelling
I've been an art model a couple of years, portraits in charcoal, all paint mediums. Figure classes .. Sculpture model in the near future .. How often does one get drawn, painted and sculpted .. An honor for sure. Sep 29 14 06:40 pm Link John Carrasco wrote: Most definitely an honor. Every additional genre that you add is simply wonderful. Throw being body painted, life casted and as many others as you can possibly model for into the mix too as the opportunity to do those comes along. Hint: life casting where they take a mold of your body is NOT fun to model for but the results are awesome, one of my friends did it and says never again. Sep 29 14 06:44 pm Link MatureModelMM wrote: Ah thank U .. Am focusing on diet a bit for next month's project .. The teacher is also an extraordinary painter & charcoal artist .. One of my images was recently in the John Pence Gallery in San Francisco, an awesome surprise. Sep 29 14 06:49 pm Link Small world. I was just in Kington, Wales following attending the Hay on Wye book festival. I started working as a nude fine art model in college in Baltimore in 1964 while I studied pre-med at Johns Hopkins. I have modeled ever since and will model again this coming month at MOCA in Marin County. What may not have been said before is how thrilling standing nude in front of an appreciative group of respectful artists can be. It is genuinely fun to be admired in the altogether. There is also the peacefulness that descends as one realizes that for the next 3 hours there will be nothing but you, the air around you, and the gentle noises of pens to paper. Then, too, touring the room to see the impressions made, the gestures captured, the points of view, it is all quite fun. At the end, no matter what the amount the smiles, gratuities and invites back are good for the ego. If you have considered but are too shy to actually get up on the stage with your clothes off, I offer encouragement. In the right environment, and most schools will do just fine, you will soon learn that you may have a gift for modeling, honestly your actual form is secondary, which in the end is a gift to art. Cheers, Richard Oct 11 14 10:18 am Link mereditho wrote: Well 'said' Richard Oct 12 14 04:41 pm Link I did life art modeling few times when I lived in London, now I live in Escondido, CA, and got regular life modeling at local art gallery. Oct 29 14 02:24 pm Link MDWM wrote: Most southern university systems have a common and simple structure for figure models, but try it out with non southern systems, it is probably the same at other universities. Call and ask for the fine art department, usually the office or division of art. It may be called the chair person or division directors office in the Dean of Fine Arts, or Visual Arts. You want the division's secretary or often call the administrative assistant. Tell that person you are seeking to be a figure or nude model for art classes. These are the central conduits for work. This person will probably ask you if they can share your information with other schools which you should agree to do. You will get calls from all the different schools in the area. If you work out, you will be placed in the group of desired models. At this point expect to hear that a faculty member has asked for you at such and such time and day. This tells you that you are in. Nov 03 14 11:31 am Link I've done a little of this. Some people have trouble holding still for a long period without chatting or so forth. I am told I'm very good at it because I can hold very still, just staring at the marker placed for me to watch, for hours and hours. I do also like that it's a few hours of work each time (I quite dislike gigs where you have to spend a lot of time getting ready, getting to the location, and then they barely use you for an hour.) Nov 03 14 03:49 pm Link Art modeling, especially in classes or some other groups is a great source of stories; although I expect everything has a story at some point. Working with a new group of artists the desire not to do fingers and toes, hands or feet often comes up. The way to address foreshortening is always going to be involved sometime. Sometimes, just being naked in front of a group causes some group members to feel the need to comment on it. Aren't you cold is always good. Art classes in school's often tend to be in distant corners of the building. One I recall involved the answer being yes; The class was held on the top floor in a corner room. The building was being reroofed, so the shingles were removed. This was in winter. End result, class in winter coats, some even used gloves; as model, I was properly fully nude. Yes it was chilly, yes, I lived to pose again. Nov 06 14 07:19 am Link The amount of helpful information throughout this discussion is wonderful and should be of help to anyone considering doing art modeling. I think that one of the most important things is you always have to be flexible in what you are asked to do, cooperative with the requests of the artists and instructors, and able to go with the flow even in the most unusual situations. That always gets you points with the instructors and they are more likely to request you again. One day back in the late 60's I was posing for a life drawing class at a university which shall remain nameless. Construction was going on in the building and the room we usually worked in was not available for several weeks of class. So the art department had to figure out somewhere else on campus to hold the drawing sessions. They came up with a supposedly unused rehearsal hall on the top floor, and we set up for the 3 hour session and got to work. The room was huge and the artists only filled about a third of it, taking the end which had a platform that was perfect for models to work on. There was no place to change, no drapes or shades on the windows, basically an empty room with some chairs scattered around. The students had carried the easels and art supplies from the old room over to the new one and everything was working out well enough. About half an hour later, in came a group of modern dance students, who had the same problem with losing their usual rehearsal space. Someone remembered the hall on the top floor, so here they were, and there was no other suitable space for them either. The instructors conferred and it was determined that the dance class had no problems working in the same room with the life drawing class as long as the nude models didn't object to them being there and the dance students didn't mind changing in the open in their end of the room. I said it didn't bother me, they said it didn't bother them, so we proceeded. The following week the same situation occurred, and again we all worked in the same space with no problems. There was supposed to be a female model come in to pose with me for the last half of our drawing session that morning, but she didn't show up. The pose that the instructor wanted the students to work from required two models, and couldn't possibly be done with just one. The dancers were just finishing up their rehearsal and the art instructor asked if any of the girls had ever modeled or would like to try. I was surprised that several out of the dance class replied they would be interested. One who didn't have a class coming up decided she could help out right then and it worked out well. A couple of the others also modeled for the art classes in later weeks and asked to be added onto the list of available models. Nov 06 14 07:54 am Link Eliza split? Who is going to talk about The Jam with me now? Nov 07 14 04:34 pm Link NothingIsRealButTheGirl wrote: Did she? For reals? Hmmm. Maybe it was time to complete her degree? Nov 07 14 05:34 pm Link Life Drawing – Limehouse Town Hall (London) Posted on 15th March 2015 by toosmooth Turns out there’s a good website for working out what’s happening and where in the world of life drawing. It’s called meetup, and when googling “Life drawing classes London Saturday” I was pointed straight at this class on the meetup website, organised by a friendly and capable gentleman called Nana, of the East London. http://www.meetup.com/African-Arts-Society-London/ http://www.chiaroscuro.gallery/main/?p=123 https://www.facebook.com/LimehouseLifeDraw Jul 28 15 04:26 am Link Thank you so much for posting this! I just got a job at an art school nearby, and I rarely see other models talking about this in the forums here. This was a very insightful post - even if you are a long, long distance from me. Sep 02 15 03:51 pm Link Yay the awesome thread is bumped! Sep 02 15 06:48 pm Link New here to MM and just found this post. I'd thought about Life Modeling since my college days and now that I'm retired, have the time to explore it. Last week I just did my first gig. With COVID happening, most studios are shut down and some of the colleges are only doing Zoom sessions. I'm not comfortable with Zoom, or any photography so it took some time find an open studio who needed a model. This gave me time to search numerous websites and learn about the type of poses one could do. I really didn't find anything that helped me but in talking to a studio, I found that so much is left to the model as to the type of poses he/she would do. I finally found a studio needing a male model. Visited and asked all kinds of questions. Here's what they needed: ten 1:30 poses three 5:00 two 15:00 (ten minute break when these were done) three 30:00 (ten minute break between each pose) I searched for timed poses, only to find poses with no time referenced. I started trying the different poses, seeing which I could hold for longer times, I tried tweaking the poses for my body. Which ones did I like doing? I practiced in front of a mirror. I figured out the best order to do the poses in... best for my body and best for what I thought would give the artists a variety. Not once during my practice was I able to hold a pose for 30 minutes without having to scratch an itch. I was concerned about this happening during my session. Finally the day came. I got there early, got a feel for the room, tried to make myself comfortable and mentally ran through the poses. I did have bullet point notes off to the side listing each of the poses I wanted to do in the order I wanted to do them. I had water jug and peeled oranges sitting behind the stage so I could drink and munch during breaks. The owner announced "OK, we're ready to get started. We'll begin with ten 1:30 poses. Everyone, meet Rodney" I took off my robe, stepped onto the stage and started the first pose. Other than the instrumental music in the background there was dead silence. The wheels are spinning in my head "am I doing this right?" "Is this a good pose" "It seems like I've been doing this more than a minute and a half, am I just supposed to know when 90m seconds are up? Should I have brought a timer?" Finally I heard "OK, next pose". Started my second pose, then the third. I'm sweating like a pig, The room isn't hot, I'm just nervous. While holding the pose, I moved only my eyes. glancing at the artists. They were so focused on their art and my pose that I thought "I must be doing this right" Immediately my mind set changed. It's almost as if there became a spiritual connection between art, my posing and their drawing. From that moment it became a wonderful experience. We blew through the 1:30 poses, then the 5:00 poses. Now on to the 15 minute poses. Could I do this without getting an unbearable itch? I couldn't during practice. Oh crap, I did one of my 15 minutes poses during as a 5 minute poses. Could I hold planned 5 minute pose for 15 minutes? Improvise, adapt and overcome. You can do this. I created a new pose, one I was comfortable with right away, one I had practiced at home, It was a breeze. Now we have a ten minute break. I slipped on my robe, took a few sips of water, ate a couple orange slices and walked around the room, asking artists if I could see any of their work. WOW, that's me! The variance of styles was astounding. It's the same pose, but each artist had their own style. Some focusing on the entire pose, some were focusing on hands, one was focusing on my face. Some were using charcoal, some were using pencil, some were using colors, one was using water paint. Some focused on muscle structure. Most of them complimented my poses and when I told a couple it was my first time, they said you they couldn't tell, it seemed to them I'd done this before. OK, here come the thirty minute poses, three of em. I got into the first pose and fixed my gaze to a particular point. Oh crap, I can't see the clock. How much time is left? Have I done at least ten minutes? It seemed like time went quick. I heard the instructor say "OK, we have about two minutes left" I knew I was home free, at least for the first one. The second and third went just as smooth. The session wrapped up, I saw that one of the pieces from a 15 minute pose had been posted on the wall, which made me feel pride. Several of the artists approached me, thanked me and complimented my work. I'd say it was a great experience overall and I'm looking forward to the next one. May 18 21 10:45 am Link |
