Are art models expected to shave?

they are meant to be indistinguishable from mannequins

Logically they should be expected to unless stipulated otherwise. I don’t suppose the artist is going for the Mammoth Look, is he?

No, you don’t have to shave. None of the female models I had in my figure-drawing classes ever shaved their pubic hair (it was not yet fashionable then) and some did not shave their legs or armpits.

They’re there so that you can learn what real human beings look like, in all their variety. They’re not supposed to look like mannequins or exemplify the latest silly fads or fashionable distortions of the human form.

Interesting question, now that I think about it, I don’t remember ever having a hairy model.

I can’t imagine why. Human beings are different in so many ways, why should a preference for hair be any different?

@ZEPHYRA Why should shaving be the default setting? If the employer wants the models to shave, then the employer should say so.

I had my art classes on a college campus in Michigan in the 80s. Some of the models were the kind of women who either didn’t care about or deliberately rejected conventional standards of female appearance and grooming. Some were just plain ol’ Michigan gals who didn’t bother to shave their legs during the winter.

Once I was at a party and saw a small sculpture of a woman on the shelf. “Hey, that’s Billie!”, I said. The artist, who was standing nearby, was pleased to find that she had depicted the model well enough to be recognized. Really, though, it wasn’t hard; Billie’s robust, matronly, middle-aged form with the prominent caesarean scar was easily identifiable.

For more on models, see Daniel Clowes’s hilarious “Art School Confidential” comic (the comic on which the film was based).

thanks, jellies

The nude models we drew and painted in art school,were all shapes and sizes and um…hairness

I’ve probably drawn about 2 dozen different nude models. They came in all shapes, sizes, ages and ethnicities. However in the course of my drawing career I only saw one totally shaved girl, though I think there were two separate dudes that shaved their balls. Artists and art students ought to respect the model and their body and understand that it can be a vulnerable and uncomfortable thing to be naked for an audience. I never saw anyone critique a model’s body aside from perhaps commenting on the shade of their nail polish or inquiring about a tattoo. It’s something that should never be done negatively and even positive commentary should be careful since you don’t want to make the model feel like a piece of meat.

Honestly models shouldn’t worry about if their body is ‘right’ for art modeling. Nothing gave me a better appreciation for the range of human beauty than seeing the diversity of the human body. It really dismantles the narrow definition that the media pushes of how bodies ought to be. Everyone ought to have such an experience.

Note: Most of my experience with nude models happened between 2002–2006 in Los Angeles.

None of the female models at my college ever shaved.

When I was at RIT for design the models for figure drawing came from the pool of the poorest art students. For some reason there was alot of females in that group with a penchant for not shaving anything at all. But drawing the human form doesn’t demand that you draw the hair. It’s about the form.

We got to shave our own models.

A model is a model. You can be whatever you want to be as long as you do the job well, fat, skinny, hairy, bald, anything. Hair is a detail, what people are drawing is the form and structure. I know I’ve been on both sides, drawing and posing.