Has anybody here ever modeled?

My niece recently graduated from The Cleveland Institute of Art. She told a story about being in class one day and this very, very elderly lady coming in and talking to the instructor. She said she didn’t think anything about it until the lady came back and disrobed as a nude model for the class. It was my niece’s first experience sketching a live nude model in public. She said it was strange at first and then she got caught up in the art of the situation and drew without thinking about it being a naked old woman. I thought I’d throw out a story from the other side of the easel. Hope you don’t mind.

I would think that what it feels like would vary from person to person, as everyone is different.

No. I’m not fit for anything other than the “before” pictures.

I did life drawing when I was younger (I wasn’t the model). It definitely isn’t sexy. Me and my friends were 17 or 18 at the time and the first time we went and there was a naked man in front of us and everybody was being so serious we hid behind our easels and laughed. We pulled it together in the end though.

Everybody is there to draw the model, so when you look at them it’s all in terms of seeing how you will draw them..so if you took away our easels and pencils it would probably be awkward…or sexy!

It’s pretty good fun! Most people don’t know where to put their faces: You’re almost always the least abashed person.

I modeled for some life drawing classes when I was in college. Mostly it was just chilly in the studio and it was hard for me to sit still because I’m kind of fidgety. It was so clinical that there was no awkwardness.

When I was in art college, I hung out with a close group of friends. One day, at lunch, “Darryl” (we’ll call him), takes off early saying, “Gotta get to work”.

When we arrived at Life Drawing Class the next period, it turns out Darryl’s “work” was to be the nude model for class.

Now we had lots of nude models before, but they were elderly, or very plain, or even some shall we say unclean looking. Nothing, IMHO, remotely sexy. Plus, we were there to draw.

Well Darryl was this young, handsome, black dude who was not lacking in endowment. And, he was our friend. Needless to say, everyone was distracted.

Then, that afternoon, he pops in to the studios like nothing happened. “Hey guys, what’s up?!” awkward

I haven’t but I would seriously consider life modelling for art classes. I have looked into how to get that kind of work but apparently it is harder than it seems. A lot of places will only hire you if you have an “interesting” body (one that isn’t average size or proportions etc).

When I was 19 I had a modeling contract and did ‘Catalina Swimwear’ – one winter shoot in Santa Barbara was so cold and grueling- you had to act warm and like you were having the time of your life- I vomited into the wishing well. I was let go- that and numerous other stories about what it was like to model in the 80’s. Ps. later after that I stripped it was fun and I made heaps of money. It wasn’t embarrasing at all.