I was looking at some of my previous drawings, and the fact that I attended some classes with figure drawing. For the uninitiated, figure drawing involves practising on life models, who are often nude. The issue was that no one had ever told me this!

Free class and free show

My first time drawing on a live nude model was in Montreal during Nuit Blanche, which is a citywide art exhibit and had also some free classes. I eagerly showed up at the contemporary art museum, which had publicized that they would have free classes.

My friend and I arrived late and were provided a big drawing block and also some charcoal sticks. Then in hushed voices, we realize that the live models were already on stage.

Now, as a girl who grew up in a conservative household, seeing that there was a nude man and woman on stage together was a bit of a surprise. The man was closer to me and took up much of the view that I had. To my fortune, at least his genitals were covered up in his pose.

I felt incredibly embarrassed that the task was to draw him, and I had to essentially stare at him and try to get figures that looked somewhat like the bodies in front of me. Eventually as the session continued I got over my embarrassment and produced a pretty nice sketch of the two.

Neither my friend nor I discussed how I had not expected there to be nude models. I suppose that we were trying to be chic and fully mature about how the art world interacts with nudity.

Figure drawing at its finest

Many years later, I signed up for another class which had been called figure drawing. I probably forgot what figure drawing meant, since I had imagined that it was drawings of the face as opposed to the body. I did notice that the class sign up had an 18+ requirement, however, did not put the two together until I arrived at the first class.

There was a robed figure we had to draw. I think he was probably a model considering his stature and good looks.

Models differed by experience and personality

What’s surprises me about these models is the varying degree of confidence that they have. Some of them seem to have done this many times, and they would know and direct the instructor about what preferences they had.

Some of them strode around quite easily to get up on a stool or grab a prop item. Others were very much sensitive to the fact that they were fully nude in front of a room of strangers, and would cover up as soon as they got the chance to.

Some models were very talkative and others were very quiet. The talkative ones would voice out how they were thinking about the different poses and helped us appreciate the challenges of being a model.

in my view, the talkative ones would make it less awkward for us to be in this scenario where we were drawing someone who we didn’t know but was in a way completely vulnerable to us.

I do recall that I was a beginner drawing class, where one of the male students kept trying to talk up to the female model after a session. I did find it kind of odd to get friendly with a model that you’ve been staring at for such a long time. Probably a good rule to not approach them unless they approach you first.

Models differed physically

Additionally, there are varying body types of models. More often than not models would be older adults, full of wrinkles and fine lines and sagging body parts. There were plus size models as well. I liked showcasing body types that are not usually seen in media. A model with curves and fulsome parts is equally as interesting to draw as a darker skinned model with strong muscular lines.

Why are they nude?

Once where we had clothed models, I wondered whether it was really necessary that these models be unclothed.

If you are needing to draw the body, it does help to have less on it in order to understand the figure that lies beneath the clothes. One technique is to draw the skeletal figure, the skin, and then clothes over it.

With nude models you don’t get caught up in details in the cloths and the folds, instead you had just skin and bone and that simplified the task a little little bit.

The ground rules of working with a live model

in one of the classes that I finally took, the instructor went over the ground rules for working with live models. I think this is very helpful because sometimes you don’t know exactly what you are or are not supposed to do if no one has ever taught you. The rules were ones like these:

1. Do not take photos of the model. They should be self evident, but sometimes people take photos in order to have a reference after the fact. This is not allowed at all, and it’s because we want to ensure that there is proper consent and protection of privacy of the model. Additionally, it doesn’t seem to matter whether the model is clothed or unclothed as it is their right to not have their photo taken.
2. Be respectful. I don’t think this was very clearly laid out, but it was demonstrated in the way in which the instructor would ask about whether the model was comfortable, and discuss openly kind of plans that they would have for the various timed poses.
3. Voicing a correction. If you need to ask for an adjustment to get the model back into the correct position after a break, feel free to ask the instructor or inform the model that their position has changed. It seems that sometimes the students may not wish to voice their corrections, but the models and the instructors both appreciate it when the students inform both of them that a position is different than the one that was previously taken up. Otherwise, everyone becomes slightly annoyed they reference for their drawing has changed for no real good reason.

Anyway, now you know that some drawing classes will have nude models and perhaps you’ll be a bit more prepared than I was in my very first class.