Location is everything...

I had the opportunity to model at a new venue today:



It was a community arts and activity center known as "The Galaxie." I had seen their website in the past but it wasn't until I set foot in the place that I realized what a fantastic facility The Galaxie really is.

The Galaxie is a converted warehouse/industrial building which now houses a community multi-use space. While I was at The Galaxie they had dance classes and martial arts classes in addition to the open figure drawing session for which I was modeling. The building has wonderfully high ceilings and excellent light.

The Galaxie exists to provide a place for the promotion of the arts and artists. This includes performance art as well as the more traditional fine arts. I was quite impressed with the range of activties covered at the Galaxie. I feel fortunate to have had the chance to be involved with the goings-on at The Galaxie.

The Saturday Morning Figure Drawing sesson held at The Galaxie is moderated and organized by Megan Gallagher, an independent artist. Allison Rae Butkus The Galaxie's creative-in-residence charged with securing models for the Figure Drawing session which takes place every Saturday at The Galaxie from 9:30am to 12:30pm. Attending artists need to supply their own paper stock and drawing supplies. Drawing horses are provided by The Galaxie. Free coffee is also available to those who like a little caffeine with their art.

It was a young group at the session- I don't think any of the artists attending the Figure Drawing session were over 30 (though I could be wrong.) I walked the horses during breaks and discovered that some of the artists were quite advanced. One gentleman was doing all his drawings in pen to force himself to work on making confident lines. I'm sure doing value wasn't easy in pen....

We started with a series of one-minute poses, then five minute poses, then half-hour poses. For the longer poses I did standing, seated, seated, and reclining. I think if I'm asked back I will definitely try some more of my aerobatic poses. I do love to torture myself....


Photo courtesy of M. Gallagher.

I really liked The Galaxie and I really enjoyed modeling for the Saturday morning figure drawing group. I hope to be back at The Galaxie soon.

School's in....

Schools back in session and I'm back to modeling.

It's nice to be collaborating again.

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...

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...