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...

Wednesday's Class

It's Sunday and I'm just now getting to posting about Wednesday's class at the state university. It's been a bit of a busy week...

I was modeling in room 400 for the instructor who likes me (it's mutual) and managed to arrive early from my day job still dressed in my business casual attire. The weather looked like there was a possibility of rain so I drove my car instead of riding my motorcycle. When I take the motorcycle I always wear jeans and riding gear and look like I might actually be a college student. When I come dressed for the day job I clearly am NOT an art student.

Arriving early I found the 1:00pm - 3:00pm drawing class still in progress so I went to Fine Art Studio secretary's office to wait. I noted many of the students passing by eyeballing me and realized I probably was dressed like many of their parents who work corporate jobs. Perhaps they mistook me for someone from administration.

When I finally got into the classroom and went to the tiny, shower-curtained changing area, the room was devoid of students. I quickly undressed and got into my robe and flip-flops so I was ready to pose. Then I waited. By five minutes to class only one student had shown up. The instructor was coming in and out of the room obviously wondering where her class might be. Just as 3:30pm hit several more students showed up charging to the nearest easel and setting up.

At ten minutes after the official start of class there were about ten students in class. It seems Wednesdays truly are busy days for art students- they'd rather be elsewhere than in their class. One student whom I had never seen before was accosted by the instructor who asked where he had been for the last two weeks. He claimed illness and the instructor requested a doctor's note. I could sense she was somewhat frustrated by the absence of so many students.

We started with two, seated poses for five minutes each. I set my legs in one direction and twisted by torso in the other direction, setting my weight to one side on one arm. I can't seem to ever take it easy on myself for any kind of pose...

We moved through the usual exercises... contour drawings, mass drawings, line drawings. Finally the instructor asked me to do a twenty minute seated pose- this was the first long pose I had done for this class. She was not satisfied with their progress and extended the pose to thirty minutes.

We took a 10 minute break which I spent stretching and limbering up for the rest of class. l've been running a lot lately and I realized my knees were actually hurting from my last pose so I was glad for the opportunity to stretch my muscles a bit.

After the break the instructor asked for a thirty minute standing pose so I did a classic, contraposto pose with one arm up and my hand spread across my clavicle. This pose was actually more comfortable than my last, seated pose. The only problem is that with thirty minutes to pose, I let my mind wander and I completely lost my timing count. I think I lost count after fifteen minutes so I started over and hoped I really only had 15 more minutes to go.

The instructor finally asked me how long we had to go and I told her about five minutes. One of the students piped in that it was already 5:50pm and the class was ending at 6:00pm! I had held the pose for almost 15 minutes longer than requested! The instructor had been busy advising the class so she hadn't noticed the passage of time. I apologized but the instructor said it was okay- it was the first time the class had done long pose so she was glad to give them the extra time to develop their drawings.

I gotta figure out a better way to self-time. Maybe I can find an egg timer or something...

I'm only for one day next week at the state U. but I do have several days of work coming up at the local community college which means I have several days of long pose ahead of me. It will be a little bit of a relief because the instructor there always times for me...

Pain and the Recliner

Back at the State University for my third stint as a life model for the Fine Art Studio. I worked with a new instructor. Following some minor scheduling confusion, I made it into class and went right to work.

The instructor started out with gestures which I threw myself into with gusto. It was a good warm up for the artists and for me as well. I was sweating pretty hard by the time we finished with gestures.

The instructor proceeded to put the long, step board to get on the posing platform part way onto the posing platform to form a long, forward-angled plank. He had me take a reclining pose on the plank which should have been an easy pose for me. I, of course, made it painful. I partially bent both of my legs as I twisted my body slightly left, put my left arm up high partially supporting me, and lifted my head so all the students could see my face despite the partial twist of my body.

The instructor mentioned we would take a ten minute break every 40 minutes or so which I thought would be manageable. In the 150 minutes of class, we took one break after the first forty minutes. This was to be the last break of the class. I ended up holding my self-inflicted pose for the better part of 100 minutes straight.

When we did get the one break I took a look at some of the students' work. Some of them were very good and had quite developed drawings after just 40 minutes. These were clearly more advanced students. I was impressed.

The last, 100 minute stretch of the class had me straining to hold the pose. My neck was throbbing from holding up my head. The right side of my abdominal muscles and my right side oblique muscles were also throbbing pretty hard. I was essentially doing an abdominal crunch on the right side of my body and holding it for an extended period of time. It was all complicated by the fact I had a sheet between me and the plank which kept gradually slipping downward with my weight. I had to keep pushing myself back up in tiny increments to maintain my position on the plank. By the end the pain was excruciating. The things I do for art.

I guess I could have called for a break myself but I was sort of hoping the instructor would do it. I guess on the positive side the students got 100 uninterrupted minutes to finish their drawings. Hopefully they appreciated my ability to maintain the pose for so long.

When I left the drawing studio my neck was throbbing intensely from the long effort of holding my head up. I thought riding my motorcycle home would be a bit of a chore as I have a sport bike which requires one to hold one's head up and forward. This actually put my head at the opposite angle of my pose which sort of helped ease the strain on my neck muscles. Small mercies are appreciated.

When I got home I could still feel the pain in my neck, abdominal muscles, and oblique muscles. Hopefully it will clear up because I model again tomorrow at the community college...