Life in the Life Class - Draft Blog

Audio Blog version.

Life in the Life Class

So, why would anybody want to go into a dusty cold studio full of people, take all their clothes off and sit for hours in uncomfortable positions, getting aches and cramps whilst a group of artists analyse every inch of their body ?

Welcome to the world of the life drawing model.

So what is life drawing ?

Essentially it's a study of the human form from life.and is associated with the naked form and the human form is naked because it's a very often an anatomical study, getting portions, the way the body sits, the way the posture is held, the weight sits on the body, muscle tone so to have that figure clothed you're essentially drawing the clothes on a person. Also, the clothes will give some identity, definition of the person, whereas the naked human form is without identity.

So why fully nude? Does it have to be completely naked?

Not really, there are some models, tutors that allow a small amount of personal dignity to be preserved but normally that's not the case because to see the true human form any clothing is a distraction and It can even be seen as highlighting areas that would be censored.

The thing is that in the live class the naked human form is not an issue, It's not a big deal it's just a naked body that's the subject for art.

So the sort of postures you'd get will vary depending on the ability of the model and the needs of the artists, classes will often start with short warm-up poses, 1, 2,4 5 minutes in quick succession, just to get the artists and the model kind of warmed up into the zone, as it were. These poses would tend to be possibly more dynamic for gestural drawings, possibly spontaneous without any planning.

Once these are done, then the artists would move on to looking for longer poses, 10, 20, 30 minutes, possibly an hour, with breaks and would tend to be sitting or propped poses, or reclining … very popular, the reclining nude, and this gives the artist a chance to really hone in on the proportions, study the light, the way the light and shadows falls across the body getting more character into the drawing. Many artists prefer this, where some, like myself, prefer the shorter, spontaneous gestural drawings.

So what makes a good life model?

Well, the fundamental thing is to being comfortable naked and being able to sit still, that's basically it.

In my experience the younger female is more common, why I've no idea, the whole issue of gender is another subject, but in practice it can be any age, any gender, any body size, the more padded female is often very popular.

Males ?, there are a lot of men, male models, but there are some quarters where the male is not preferred, which is a shame. I've even come across some artists and tutors that would not entertain having a male model at all, I'm not sure why. However most classes will have a mix, whereas some say it's got to be a female.

Again, the whole issue of gender is another story, a whole subject in its own right.

I can understand some things that if the female, a naked female, in most situations,you're not really seeing anything of a sexual nature, whereas with a guy standing naked then there's nothing that's not out there, to be blunt and I think some people feel uncomfortable with that.

There's also the possibility that the female form is more common, more accepted in media and films in the general public ?, certainly even a clothed female can show the outline of their figure whereas men tend not to show that so much, whether that's social comfort, which is ironic because if you go back into history the male, particularly with the early paintings and sculptures were predominantly male. So yeah, it's interesting why people choose different genres for different forms of art.

So how do I get into it?

Well, many years ago I was going to a life class as an artist and I was fascinated by the fact that the model seemed to be the most comfortable person in the room sometimes, they were just one with their body and they were fine so when the opportunity came along to try it, a bucket this thing I stuck my hand up and tried the session.

Yeah, at first I was a bit concerned, how would I feel being the model, particularly as I knew some of the artists as an artist in the past so to turn up the next week, being the model was, yeah, not quite sure what would happen, how i’d feel although I've always been comfortable in my own skin, I've never had an issue with nudity and I didn't grow up where nudity was a big deal, I consider himself quite liberated but then is there a fine line between being over liberated and being an exhibitionist, but that's another story.

So yeah, I was interested to try it so I dropped the robe for the first time and within 5 minutes it just felt quite natural and I did have the huge advantage in that because I'd been to life classes before as an artist, kind of knew the environment, was comfortable with how things work, the etiquette with the model, the sort of poses you do, how long they'd last and odd things like if you a model needs to suddenly shake a leg out or have a desperate scratch they can do that and they just break away and go straight back or if things do get tough then you just say can I have a 5 minute break and if any reasonable artist or tutor would respect that, have a break. The artists will just probably carry on with their drawings while you stretch out, then go back and carry on so it's not like you've got to be a statue for 30 minutes without even breathing. You're a human being at the end of the day.

So, yeah, the embarrassment was something I was okay with, but it turned out not to be a problem.

Could I hold poses for the duration? who knows and that can often depend on your fitness level on the day, sometimes you're feeling fit and you can stand for half an hour without even moving whilst other times after 10 minutes you've got to have a break so a lot of models do actually practice some sort of stretching or simple body fitness regime before a live class, breathing exercises, maybe.

Yeah, there was also the slight concern that, as a guy, would my body respond to the pleasurable feeling of being naked ?, would I get a swelling downstairs basically which I haven't really yet, well, except I have been to a few classes where the style of work was a bit more of the erotic nature where an arousal was welcome if it happened but normally it's not. The thing is that in the dusty room getting cold and cramped and being stared at, it's such a non-sexual environment where normally, the guy would have the complete opposite reaction, which may not what some artists want, they may want to see the male glory. Not an environment for a guy over proud of his assets.

Personally I've never noticed as an artist a guy getting a full on arousal but if they do most tutors and artists would just ignore it, they may not even notice it they'll just carry on because they accept that that's what happens to the male body sometimes. It's natural.

Yeah, there is the exception where somebody might go fully erect which probably says more about the model and there's every chance he'll get banished from the class and never asked back, or find a whole new customer base somewhere ?

The whole thing about the life drawing classes is they are completely non-sexual and many people can't draw the line between nudity and sex, this is nothing about sexual activity, something that some people struggle to comprehend or to appreciate.

But certainly in the life class, you're a model and when I go to a class I walk in as Dave, I chat to people, and then the robe comes off and you turn into this subject, the male model, and then when the robe goes back on I go back to being Dave, it's quite simple really as there's a distinction between the person and the role of the model.

Some people chat to you whilst you're unclothed whilst some people, particularly people that are new to it may struggle to get even any eye contact with you, but that's their personal reservation. That's the sort of thing that time will heal as they go to more classes and they become more relaxed.

What it comes down to is if the model, if the sitter is relaxed and they're comfortable then the artists will become comfortable as well however If the model is uncomfortable, reserved and shy, that will not only show to the artist, but it will reflect in the artist's work whereas if the sitter is completely comfortable then the artist will respond and make a better drawing, that's just how that works.

So, coming back to the original question, why do people do it?

Liberation is one word you hear, also empowering, grounding, most life models are just comfortable being naked, they may be naturists in their daily life and nudity is not an issue for them.I personally get a lot from it.

Also i've learned an awful lot of technique, listening to tutors going on about tech styles and mythology of lines and all that stuff, and negative space and as someone who practises life drawing, life painting, and art nude photography it can certainly help me appreciate the model better and I have more of an empathy with the model because I know exactly what they're going through when they're sitting there and I'm trying to work out what the hell I'm doing.

There's another side where some people try it as a bucket list thing because they, and this might sound a bit strange, but some may have social anxiety issues or body confidence issues so it's a way of addressing that.

Now, could say it's a sledgehammer to crack a nut, if you have social anxiety or body confidence issues the last thing you might want to do is go to a life class and stand in front of people naked but it's something that some people have tried doing and on the whole, most people I know have tried that come out with a very positive experience. It can put the whole thing in context that if you can stand naked in front of a group of people, particularly strangers, then what else can you do in your life so that's one reason why people do it.

That's certainly one of the reasons I started and then I got hooked then I was quite fortunate in that when I started there weren't very many guys doing modelling at the time in my area, so I seemed to pick up an awful lot of requests for work, which was great and the more I did, the more comfortably I felt, the word gets around and that moves you on.

So I've never had any regrets, there is that slight feeling that some people might respond negatively as they don't understand what it's about. Certainly if you turn up at work one day and said, oh, by the way, I was life drawing or I was sitting for a life class yesterday, or imagine you go to work and somebody from work turns up and I've had that before where one person was a photography client of mine and there she was in the life class, but it was fine. If she was reserved about seeing a naked person then she would not be there, its almost a parallel world. I can see some people get reserved about that and they might want to separate their life drawing, life modelling activities way away from the social or professional environments, which is fine.

But I think most people that talk about their experience of a life drawing, even as an artist to people that feel weird about that, they think why do you do that. Why do you want to look at somebody naked ?. Why have you been naked?

This says a lot more about their own self-esteem and their own relationship,with their bodies and their own relationship, with their sexuality. I tended to keep it quiet at first and then when people found out they would often say oh good for you, Dave. Well done, great.I wish I could do that, I really wish I could do that. How'd you get into it ?, so it tends to be a bit more positive experience.

But certainly coming back to the question, yeah, liberating is probably one of the big words I would say and I would always say to somebody If you are curious just try it. What have you got to lose? … part from getting cold and cramps and the social embarrassment, That's fine, It's what it is.

So yeah, just go for it.

Enjoy.