Alex @ the Galaxie 6.28.2009

I modeled at the Galaxie on a Saturday again... it was a bit hot and stuffy in the drawing studio but the moderator and the staff were nice enough to get me a fan so I wasn't completely drenched in sweat.

One artist was working digitally- he had an Apple Macintosh laptop with a drawing pad connected to it. He mentioned that the calibration was not always dead on so he had to ignore where his stylus was and just pay attention to the pointer on his screen. It was fascinating to see him work and look at his resulting drawings. This was the first I had seen anyone working digitally during a drawing session.

Here's a few more views of the session:

Pictured above you can see an artist working digitally. People work in many different mediums- it's all just different avenues in the process of creation.

Here is a sample of the artist's digital artwork:
It was interesting to see how well represantional/figurative art could be produced digitally. I like the results...

I hope I get to see more art being produced in this fashion. It's quite interesting....

See you at the next drawing session...!

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Summertime Modeling...

So summer is here and regular universities and classes are out. Modeling work is a bit harder to come by this time of year but I'm still drawing work with individual artists and studios.

It's a been awhile since I've posted which was mostly due to the fact that I was modeling quite a bit at a number of the venues where I regularly model. The last part of the spring semester at universities can get quite hectic as students try to get in as much work as possible. I love having the opportunity to model at that time because I feel that this is when most of the budding artists for whom I am modeling work their hardest.

Luckily some of the places I model like Northern Illinois University run a number of drawing clusters and art camps during the summer so I can continue modeling at places where I have an established relationship. I'm still modeling for The Galaxie and POE.M Art House which are fantastic local art outlets for artists looking to get access to life models.

Hopefully I can line up enough gigs this summer to keep a roof over my head and food on the table...

The Local Venue Again...

Back on the platform at the community college - I made sure to get there with time to spare. It was time to do the second day of what had become a two-day pose.

We started with the usual gesture warm ups followed by two short poses to explore negative space. I hit a really dramatic pose with my last gesture supporting my upper body weight on one arm. It was a great pose but very difficult to hold. I was glad when the instructor called for the longer poses...

Following short pose, the instructor had me re-assume the pose I had started on Tuesday. My left ankle (which was folded under me), already sore from resting on the lip of the platform on Tuesday, was quickly overwhelmed with sharp pain as the rough edge of the platform dug in. By the end of the class I had deep, welted lines in my ankle. Ouch.

Luckily I seemed to be able to get the pose right almost from the get-go. One of the students seemed to find fault with my pose after each break but luckily the instructor just told him to work with the pose as it was. This student was dressed in exactly the same clothes I had seen him wearing on Tuesday. His facial expression was a mix of morose, confrontational, and human darkness. I saw him after class as I was walking to my car (the weather report said rain so no motorcycle) and said hello to him. He did not reply. He seemed to be waiting for someone to pick him up. I hurried away from his cloud of darkness.

This student brings up one point which some students and instructors seem to understand and others just never seem to get- this is LIFE drawing. Life is not static. Life moves. I will come as close as possible to keeping the pose but to duplicate it exactly would defeat the purpose of having a live model. As a life model, I live, I breathe, I am subject to the earth's gravity. I exist with my own inner energy and motion which is part of what I am giving the artist and part of what they should be trying to capture in their art. I didn't sign on to be a still-life. It wouldn't be "life drawing" if that was the case.

Another of the students commented that my abdominal muscles were giving her trouble in her drawing - I think this was her way of saying she liked my physique. Or perhaps she meant that I should lose weight. I'll have to ask her if I see her again.

I waited through the end of the class while the instructor gave a critique of all the students' drawings. Some of the drawings definitely showed promise- promise as both a finished artwork and the promise of a student's burgeoning drawing skills. The instructor took them out into the hall to hang up their drawings leaving me alone in the drawing studio. I took the opportunity to do something I almost never do- get dressed in the studio. It only took a moment but it felt odd to get dressed in that space.

The instructor let me know that he would call me and arrange another opportunity for me to model. I look forward to my next chance to model for his class. I'm hoping to see how they have developed as the semester progresses.