I took a drawing course in college that included 4 classes of figure drawing. Two men, and two women, all nude. I liked drawing all 4 of them, but I especially enjoyed one of the females. I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t turned on by her, but of course we were all professional about it. I enjoyed the experience, and I would gladly do it again if given the chance. I’d even say I was pretty good at it, but I don’t have any of the drawings anymore.
I have tried drawing from nude images on a computer screen, but it just isn’t the same. There is some sort of unique, intimate energy between the model and the artist.
So, has anyone else had the opportunity to draw, paint or sculpt with a nude model? Did you enjoy it? Find it in anyway sexual? Where you revolted by it? Have any dopers been nude models? What is the experience like?
Yes, I sculpted nudes as part of a sculpture class.
No, I didn’t enjoy it. We were only supposed to do nudes for a couple of weeks, but the TA had to leave, so we ended up doing it for a month at the sacrifice of sculpting other things. After the first couple of nudes it got really boring.
And no, it was in no way sexual, not even when the models were male. *They *clearly didn’t find it sexual, either.
It wasn’t revolting, but it was kind of embarassing. The models didn’t seem to care, though.
I’ve taken figure drawing, and figure painting classes, and also modeled. I didn’t vote in the poll because I didn’t enjoy (with an exclamation mark), I just valued it as part of my education.
I modeled for classes at a private art school whose students were not my peer group. I think modelling for my own classmates would not have been so easy. I never worked with another model so I don’t know what that would be like. My best experience was modelling for a teacher who was so experienced that he put me in poses that made interesting drawings or paintings that were easy to hold for longer stretches.
In my college classes the models typically came from the dance and theatre departments.
I took a required Life Drawing class. I would say there’s an initial shock when the person disrobes, but it fades pretty quickly. You start to spend so much time on “man, that elbow is really difficult to draw” that you tend to forget that there’s a naked person five feet away from you. I didn’t “enjoy” it, mainly because I’m a photographer, I’m no good at drawing.
Yes, several times. It was profoundly Not A Big Deal. Some were women, some were dudes. Most were not particularly attractive; one was the most beautiful woman I’ve ever seen naked. It didn’t matter, any more than it would have mattered if her clothes were on. Her nudity was there to help the class, it wasn’t personal.
I did enjoy it, of course, but only in that abstract way you enjoy looking at anyone beautiful. Appreciation, not arousal. Sadly, the sketches I produced were profoundly unworthy. I never felt any particular connection with a model, though. They were subjects and colleagues, not muses.
Models are people, skin is just skin, and the classroom setting is not particularly sexy one. Nor is the act of modeling for a drawing.
It never happened, but was anyone enough of a dick to start giggling or pointing, they would have been removed by a combination of the teacher and the loud contempt of the rest of the class.
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Most art majors have their sexual tension normalized frequently anyway, but even an uptight virginal CS major like myself had no problems maintaining decorum.
I was the model once. It was kind of odd at first but it quickly just got kind of boring. It was neat seeing the artwork that came from it though ( I still have a sketch). I am glad I did it, it was a fun experience.
They were supposed to do it for the Art seniors at my High School, the class of which I was a member, but they chickened out in the end and pulled the funding for it.
I’ve since seen many people naked, all of them very attractive, but not as an artist’s model.
I remember that we had this lady named Flur and she was quite elderly. It was pretty cool drawing her sags and creases. We’d had some younger models too, but Flur was the most into it. She would do very elaborate poses with a lot of tension.
Yes, I’ve taken several Life Drawing classes in high school & college where we had to draw nude models (male and female, old and young.) I enjoyed it, as I like drawing human figures much more than still lifes. It wasn’t enjoyment in an “OMG naked people yay!” kind of way.
May I ask when and where you were in high school? Or maybe the question is whether it was a private school. My studio art teacher was a forward thinking individual, but the climate of the school was pretty conservative. It was the Reagan era, afterall. If he’d tried to bring in live models there’d have been an uproar, or at least a flap.
We did a unit on figure drawing using a foliio of very charming photographic plates that I’d guess were from the 30s. Black and white, I think all of the poses were emulating greek statues. The female model was nude though I seem to recall a chiffon scarf. The male model wore what I guess was a g-string that was exactly the same color as his own skin because you could see that he had a penis, but could not actually see it. In fact, I just remembered, that a few of us took to calling him Ken (For those not raised in the time/world of Barbies, it’s a reference to the Ken dolls by Mattel which don’t even hint at anatomical correctness.)
Yes. As a professionally trained sculptor, it’s kind of difficult to NOT do this at some point in your career. I find in enjoyable, but no different than sculpting any other animal, or creature. In this case you are lucky enough to have a model that will sit still, turn as you direct, and can inspect closer if you need to take measurements for portrait work. I’ve also modeled for the same class, and found it no big deal.
Lucky you! Male dancers in particular have a beautiful physique to sculpt. We had a variety of models, my favorites were an elderly man who had extremely interesting craggy features, and a tiny little elf of a young woman who could hold quite dynamic poses for long periods of time.
Well, now that I reread my OP, it sounds so perverted! I didn’t mean that It was a sexual experience for me in any way, just that I found that one particular model very attractive, and I tried to do her beauty justice in my sketches.
One of the male models was particularly interesting to draw. He was a bit older, maybe late 50s, and had a toned, athletic body. It was interesting drawing his figure that contrasted with the youthful strength you see in Michelangelo’s David. I did definitely have that kind of moment that enzali describes with the elbow.
Yes, I’ve drawn a lot of nude models. I started with a life drawing class at the local art college when I was a high school junior. The second time we met, we drew a lot of very fast sketches of a nude male model. I remember when I got home, my mom asked to see them and couldn’t help laughing a little as my self-consciousness at drawing the man’s penis had come through in the first few sketches. After that, I got over it, and was surprised by how non-sexual the atmosphere was.
I ended up going to a different art school for college, so there were lots more models. We would often discuss them on our five-minute bathroom/cigarette breaks. It was generally agreed that fat women were the easiest and most enjoyable to draw, while skinny men were the hardest - drawing their angularity correctly was a lot more difficult than getting the women’s big, round shapes.
The rounds of 15-second sketches featured in almost every drawing session were hard on the models because they had to strike a new pose for each one. One of our favorite models was a large, muscular man who enjoyed doing dramatic and difficult poses for these. In an illustration class, he got a lot of laughs when he pulled a handstand.
Another model who generated a lot of conversation during the smoke breaks was an elderly man who came in for one class. He was probably in his 70s, and lots of people admired his bravery in posing nude and said that they really appreciated him coming in so we could see what an older body looks like.
I only remember one model that I felt a sexual attraction for – a young woman with a couple tattoos and just the right curves!
Drawn several nudes, some for art class, others as cheesy (yet successful) come-ons, back when I was younger and brasher. It’s amazing how well “I’m an artist and would love to sketch you.” worked. Yeah, looking back, it was lame and probably a bit wrong, but at the time, it was fun and they were willing, able, and had fun with it too.