Life Drawing and Figure Art

What in the world is that Model thinking?

2 Written by Figure Drawing on July 24, 2009 – 12:50 pm

Have you ever been mystified by the model’s job in a Figure Drawing session? What makes a good model or a bad one? Where does a model get their training? Why do they become figure drawing model’s in the first place?

It is obvious that some model’s are much better than others and I often recall the discussions amongst student’s  as to why that might be. Anything from, eye contact, to playing their own music, or talking to much could  make or break a session for the artist.  Drawing is hard enough and the artist and model need to work together to create a great session.

I was asked to  read and review  “The Art Model’s Handbook: The Naked Truth about Posing for Art Classes and Fine Artists” by the author Andrew Cahner.

The book would benefit both experienced model’s it as a great resource for getting more creative and becoming better models for the class and new models will find the expertise of the Author invaluable.

The Author’s 6 years experience feels as though he has 40 due to the interviews with a wide variety of models in the field.  The is a vast and  impressive insight into this little understood field.

Artist’s should also consider giving it a read so that they can better understand the model’s perspective and create a more interesting and professional dialogue between the 2 different but overlapping creative pursuits.

I have modeled for other artist’s myself  in a pinch, although never nude, and if I had been given this book to read before doing it, I would have realized how much work is really required and how much I needed to add to the entire experience.

The explanations of Modeling for art as a creative endeavor and the comparison’s to fashion modeling were enlightening as there is a very large difference, and the specific artist’s needs will be very helpful for a model to learn as animators, fine artist’s, comic book creators, and illustrators are all very different and a model’s preparation for them will be largely appreciated.

All topics are covered ranging from Body issues, to safety and professionalism and if you are considering modeling or hiring on I highly recommend you read this book. You can find it at Amazon.com. Please let us know what you think.

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