Rosa used to be one of my favorite models. I remember clearly when she came to my group for the first time, shy and worried that she would have to model in the nude. She had recently immigrated to the US from the Middle East and was still steeped in the traditions of her country. As it turned out, after she modeled for us countless times fully clothed, one day she decided that there was nothing wrong with modeling nude.
Every model has a unique way of projecting her - or his - personality to the artist. Some gorgeous looking models turn out to be absolutely boring, other, less perfect figures surprise with a lot of spunk and personality. In Rosa´s case, I was always most interested in her face.
2 comments:
Having grown up in an artistic family, where the presence of artist (mom) and model was quotidian and part of the culture of our family, exposure to nude or dressed models was nothing out of the ordinary for me, and was seen as part of the art-making process.
I learned a lot in one of my figure drawing classes, which, in effect, was combined with the learning of anatomy--where all the muscles insert, where all the bones come together. For our final, we had to work from a live nude model, but first, we were asked to draw all the bones and muscles in place, then over that, draw the external body as we saw it. It was one of the most interesting classes I've ever taken. It is true, that an artist's model does not equal a fashion model or hollywood celeb trying to look like a "model". A great artist's model is one who, regardless of shape or size, finds poses using his/her creativity, and lets him/herself convey personality in order to spark interest in the artist and help illustrate the muscles, etc--what's going on under the clothes/skin...
Thank you for your teachings!! Brilliant!!
Leo, thanks for the compliment. Great that you had the opportunity to grow up in a creative family and then take an "old school" figure drawing class with emphasis on anatomy. When are you going to show some of your art in your blog?
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