Pose for an art class

I had the opportunity to pose for another small class tonight with the same instructor as last time. I’m not sure why, but I felt more nervous this time than the last though I already knew what to expect. Maybe it was just the idea of baring myself before a new group of fully-clothed strangers, or maybe I was worried about coming up with good, interesting poses I could hold for long enough. Probably both. I’ve been looking through books on anatomy for artists to get ideas of what sorts of poses would best help artists in their learning experience, but I had a hard time remembering them during the class. Also, the room was colder today (though the instructor did ask maintenance for help in warming it), and I was more fidgety and had to concentrate harder to keep still. Although the instructor and some of the students complained about the cold, it ended up not affecting me too much being under the light and all. Furthermore, though I was worried about my poses I was told that they were good and even one of them “beautiful”.

Though I didn’t enjoy the experience tonight as much as the last time, I will definitely do it again. What makes it worth it is the cool feeling I get that people are actually using me in their process to improve their art. One of the students was more advanced than the others and was focusing on very specific techniques, and it was very interesting to hear the instructor and the student discuss how to draw specific details of my face and body. Being the assignment is just an awesome thing…

I had an interesting experience this past Monday night. I had recently responded to an ad asking for people interested in posing for a figure drawing class and experience wasn’t necessary. I had never done anything like this before, and I had never really thought this would be something I would try until recently. I am no Adonis, but I do consider myself to be in the best shape I have ever been in, and while I am in the shape that I am in, I’ve been thinking that I would like to have my body portrayed in an artistic way. Though art classes generally do look for all types to pose for them, admittedly I don’t think I would have had the confidence to do this if I didn’t think I was in good shape.

Anyway, this class that I posed for was at an accredited institute, and the instructor was an artist who has her work on display in galleries in both Italy and California. This was an evening class in which there were five students enrolled, four men and one woman, who all seemed to be in their 20’s and 30’s. I was glad it was a small group. While I was waiting for the class to start, I got pretty nervous as I saw the students setting up their easles and pads, realizing that I was the subject of their lesson that evening. Being nude in front of a group of strangers for a couple of hours who would be closely observing my form was a bit unnerving, but actually any anxiety about that wore off after the first minute. You just become a living structure with lines and curves that the artists have to do the best to represent, and also the class was comprised of serious students.

By far the harder part of this experience was thinking of poses that would be interesting to draw and being able to hold them for 10, 15 or 20 minutes at a time. I pretty much got to choose the poses I did. I tried thinking of positions that suggested motion or that accentuated muscles or body structure using some ideas I got from some books I browsed. The instructor liked the poses I chose, but as I would discover these were strenuous poses to maintain. In fact, during the last pose of the first half of the class I started cramping up. During the break one guy in the class told me that he himself had had experience modelling for art classes and that he could understand how difficult it was for me to hold some of my poses. He also said that he liked the poses I did though because it challenged him as an artist because of their complexity. I did easier poses during the second half of the class. I think that if I do this again I will practice stretching a lot more. Actually, I think people who do yoga would be at a definite advantage.

During class while I was frozen in position it was interesting to hear the instructor giving feedback to the students on their drawings. It was also interesting to see in my peripheral vision to see how some students would hold up their hands or draw in the air to frame the image or move closer or stand back to get better perspective. I only got passing glimpses of some of the students’ drawings, and I kind of wished I would have asked one of them to see what they had done. I wasn’t told explicitly not to, but I recall reading somewhere that it may not be appropriate to ask as some students may be self-conscious about their work. In a way I’m kind of glad that I didn’t get to see because it’s a little bit scary to think of how other people depicted my body in their work could be very different from how I see myself maybe not in a positive way. If I do this again (and I think I would do it again), I hope I’ll get to see some of the drawings…

I recently pursuaded my fi to do it, and whilst doing so, it made me realise I had a secret inhibition to do it too >__>