Daily, in a myriad of campuses across the globe, robes are dropped in classrooms. Bodies perch and bend and stretch, stepping into invisible frames. They align feet and hands with strips of masking tape on the floor.
Spotlights are craned. Familiar shadows emerge. The artists raise their charcoal. Most people can stand back, nod, and admire the finished drawing with its perfectly placed charcoal strokes. But the role of the nude model, which is as necessary as the artist, is replete with misconceptions: that they are exhibitionist. That, in accepting money in exchange for nudity, their occupation looms alarmingly close to β¦ well, stripping. Why not reference a photograph? Or just study the nearest bowl of fruit?
To shed some serious light on these issues, I talked with five local nude models, three of whom are also artists, as well as a seasoned life drawing professor. Are you broke? When there was a shortage of models the following semester, she signed up. Money aside, she wanted to ensure that fellow art students would have the same enriching experience.
Depending on the situation, this could shock or impress. Many nude models simply view it as an atypical, mostly easy way to make money a few hours at a time, especially while juggling college classes.
It was this amazing dichotomy that you are not truly naked. In fact, models actively create poses, quickly coming up with different angles for gesture drawings. For longer poses, they endure soreness and muscle cramps.
