Monday's Model

Monday afternoon in room 400 at the art building on the platform again. That's a good bit of location information...

It was the usual drill of warm - ups: blind contour, mass gestures, scribble drawings. This was followed by a few longer poses (a few 10 minute poses) and then a long seated pose.

This week promises to be better than last- I had no modeling gigs last week. Sadness. I was originally scheduled just for this Monday but then Professor Giese requested me for Wednesday as well. My need to inspire shall be sated for this week.

I'll update with more details on Wednesday....

Wednesday in Room 400

Wednesday rolled around with the sickening thud of the day job trying to interfere with my art modeling. A rather large pile of irritating work found it's way onto my plate threatening to overwhelm my commitment to model at the state U. I worked like a madman to get all of the detail work done and was able to get out the door to make it to the life drawing class on time. I wish life modeling was more lucrative so I could just ditch the corporate sinkhole...

I arrived at room 400 to find the class preceding ours was still in progress. I didn't see the model as I looked through the door but I did see one of the artist's drawing of her. She was quite lovely. I've been seeing her name on the modeling schedule for several weeks now- I alternate weeks with her for the the life drawing class for which I was modeling today. I occasionally see drawings of the other models but rarely ever get a chance to meet them. In fact, I've only met two other art models where I've had any kind of significant interaction. One of those meetings happened to be online through her blog and I'd say I'm just beginning to get to know her.

One of these days I'd like to get to talk with some other life models to compare experiences.

When I finally entered the room I noted the posing platform had a very intricate arrangement of stools draped with fabric, pillows, cardboard boxes fitted together with more fabric draped on them, and even an old motorcycle helmet placed on the front edge of the platform. I'd forgotten my digital camera or I would have taken a photo of the mess to record the outlandishness of it all. I went off to the model's changing area to prepare myself instead.

When Professor Giese arrived I could tell she was not pleased at the mass of objects piled on the posing platform. I already had to move some of the sundry items (the motorcycle helmet, some pillows) out of the way.

We started with the usual warmups (blind contour, mass gesture, line gesture.) She had me pose for a 10 minute line gesture where I overextended myself by taking a pose with one arm up on the cardboard boxes as I leaned forward, my weight on my forward class. The instructor commented afterward it was a daring pose for a 10 minute stint. She was right-my left leg which was set forward was shaking by the minute eight. Oops.... My desire to give an interesting pose sometime gets the better of me.

We took a short break as Professor Giese tried to get me, the background, and the lighting arranged. She adjusted things for several minutes before finally starting to toss the boxes, fabric, and extra stools off the stage in frustration. I helped her move a few things so I could sit further back on the platform a position which suited the available lighting best. We finally got things arranged and she had me take a seated pose in my robe to do some more portrait work. She brought back the two skulls from Monday and placed them on stools flanking me to re-create the voodoo-esque scene from Monday.

The rest of the class proceeded without incident. I spent my time thinking about long poses I could do that were dramatic yet easy to hold for long periods.

I'm a bit out of sorts at the moment- I don't have any modeling gigs for next week. I'm not on the schedule at the state U, both community colleges I model for regularly cancelled me, and I haven't been able to fill in anywhere else. My urge for creative collaboration will go unfulfilled this coming week... I'll be jonesing by this coming Wednesday. Pooh.

Skulls and Portraits

Monday afternoon in room 400, the life drawing studio in Jack Arends Hall. Time to pose. Time to draw. Time to be drawn.

I arrived early with my water bottle and egg timer in hand. I went to the model's corner, changed into my robe and flip flops, and headed to the posing platform to stretch a bit. The instructor arrived and explained that we were going to start with some warm-ups and then move on to some portrait work today. I was actually going to get to pose draped today... just in my robe but it was a bit of a change. Until today every time I had modeled at the state U it had been nude modeling...

We started with the some the usual warm ups- blind contour drawing, a bit of scribble, and then some line gestures. We followed it with a 10 minute seated pose. Then the instructor took the class out into the hall to look at some portrait drawings done by one of the other, upper-level classes. I took the opportunity to grab a few pics of the student's work with my digital camera:

Quite a wide range of style here...


I don't think I'm quite this beefy...

Photos by exbrun2@yahoo.com

I spent a few more minutes scrutinizing the student's work before they returned, the instructor following with some cast, plastic human skulls in her hands. She told me to take a 15 minute break while the students worked on drawing the skulls. I spent the break watching them work, something I don't often get to do. Some of them were quite good- it was fascinating to watch their drawings go from a toned canvas with some charcoal smears on it to some quite interesting views of skulls.

After drawing the plastic skulls, it was time for the students to draw my skull. I took the posing platform (still robed!), took a seated pose, and spent the last 50 minutes of class having my visage put to paper by the class. The instructor left the skulls flanking me on either side of the posing platform on draped stools to remind the student about the structure under my flesh. I had a brief chuckle before we began- I felt like I was part of some odd, voodoo ritual, seated like a shaman between the (reproduction) skulls of the dead.

At the end of class the instructor announced we would probably repeat the same class format on Wednesday- warm ups (minus skull drawings) followed by more portrait drawing. I'll let you know how it goes.

Baseball and Art

Only one day of modeling this week back in room 400 at the art building at the state U.

This class was a long pose session and I was working for a new instructor. I met with the instructor prior to class so he could give me some idea of what the students what the focus of the class would be. The instructor turned out to be a baseball fan and gave us constant updates on the White Sox game supplied to him by text messages from his girlfriend on his cellphone.

The students in this class were more advanced than those in the other class I model for at the state U. During the break I took a look at their work- some of them were very polished. A number of them displayed a very developed level of technique and skill.

The instructor had me take a seated pose with one foot up on a box, my arm outstretched to a stool with a construction cone on it, and my other foot on the floor. An easy pose, right? My right leg on the box feel completely asleep and the position put most of my weight on my right buttock which also went numb. I concentrated on the tick-tock of my new egg timer which I was using to time the pose.

By the end of class when the instructor released the class, it took me several minutes to get the circulation back in my right leg. I felt a bit out of sorts still sitting on the posing platform while the students packed up their things. When I could finally feel my toes again, I got off the platform and got dressed.

On my way out of the building one of the students from the class stopped me in the stairwell and commented that I had "done good." According to the student I had posed very solidly and mentioned that I was a nice change from Monday's model who kept moving during his pose. It's nice to get good feeback.

Next week I'm on four days- two at the state U. for the novice artists and two days at another community college. I'll definitely be doing alot of stretching this weekend. I need to get to yoga class soon...