Questions about life drawing class

[alexi_666]

I'll be taking a life drawing class in a week and I have a few questions about it. Is life drawing the one with the nude model and you draw them?

[Flake]

There is usually a nude model. (sometimes costumes or whatever)

It's less scary or sexy than you are thinking.
It will probably be a hairy arsed old guy or a really fat girl..

It's great fun and hugely educational if you score a good teacher, even if you don't it's one of the best possible uses of your time.

Life drawing rocks and many professional artists make a point of getting to them whenever possible.

Seriously, it's great, you want to go.
.

[alexi_666]

oh good! haha i'm very perverted and i'd hate to have some super hot chick up there and me have some problems standing up if you know what i mean. lol

btw, how hard is life drawing on a scale of 1-10?

[Flake]

It's constantly challenging. 10 always. That's why people do it.

It's the same as ALL art, the better you get, the more you realise that you kinda suck and could have done that better...

i'd hate to have some super hot chick up there
You'll be fine. Hot chicks in art school life drawing land are almost unheard of.

I must have been in life classes 100 times, maybe five times ever our models were hot..

You might want to get an anatomy book from the library btw, couldn't hurt.
(Peck, Bridgman, Loomis)

Anyway, good luck with it.

[alexi_666]

cool. i'll keep everything you told me in mind. thanks alot!

[jonathantravers]

I wouldn't stress out about it. It might be weird at first. After a little while you will be more concerned with trying to draw and not be horrible than with boobs or slongs.

I was concerned also and had wrong ideas of what a life drawing class was all about. For me it turned out to be a more clinical exercise and not an erotic one.

Have fun!

[alexi_666]

haha yea, i'll try not to be such a perv. thanks!

[tensai]

oh good! haha i'm very perverted and i'd hate to have some super hot chick up there and me have some problems standing up if you know what i mean. lol

Do not go to a life drawing session in Japan then. We only have super fit, cute, young models here - and I'm not even kidding. I think there's one 'bigger' model and a small handful more mature ones but I kind of wonder how/why these models are selected. Don't get me wrong I'm not complaining but it would be nice to get some more variety in the body types.. Some of them are really really good though..

[alexi_666]

by the gods.. i MUST live in japan now! i loooove japanese chicks! you have any drawings from that class that you wanna share? :) haha

[Sidharth Chaturvedi]

I must have been in life classes 100 times, maybe five times ever our models were hot..

...I must have lived in all the right cities o.O. I think a good 1 in 4 models in all the life drawing sessions I've ever been in were pretty hot.

Alexi, I cant speak for everyone, but it took all of 2 minutes into my first life drawing session for nudity to seem so normal that it's not distracting anymore :P. That and there's just way too much to concentrate on, so chances are your dirty, filthy mind wont be a problem ;). Like Flake said, it's always a 10.

I wanna live in Japan.

[J Wilson]

Yeah, an attractive model is distracting for about 60 seconds, then your mind should be focusing on the job at hand. It's funny because non artist friends assume that it's tough to not get worked up when there is an attractive woman nude in front of you. Not at all. When you are in artist mode you barely even recognize the model as anything but forms, light and shadow. In fact, I've gone to strip clubs (bachelor parties and such) and spent more time thinking "Man, she'd be a great model. Wish I had a sketchbook." It's harder to see a nude woman and not see potential art!

[Elwell]

In fact, I've gone to strip clubs (bachelor parties and such) and spent more time thinking "Man, she'd be a great model. Wish I had a sketchbook." It's harder to see a nude woman and not see potential art!
Sounds like you'd love Dr. Sketchy's (http://www.drsketchy.com/).

[tensai]

A lot of the prettiiiiyy kawwaiiiiiii girls just wanna be pretty though and just raise a finger or wiggle their toe or something for the next pose. Very little dynamic shapes or whatever, and good luck getting anything asymmetric.

But, you have to work with what you get - I hate to complain about the models. Very often you can find at least some interesting shadow shapes or whatnot to focus on. Otherwise just draw the other people drawing.

You also have the people that do yoga, dance, acting, or are just interested in art and they definitely know what a good pose is. Seeing them be creative and working hard always makes me feel like I owe it to them to do the same on my paper.

[Kagemusha22]

I must have been in life classes 100 times, maybe five times ever our models were hot.


That's sounds like a pretty good ratio. I go weekly and I've never seen a stunning model.

And yes life drawing usually refers to drawing nude models, within a time limit. Though it's not necessarily exclusively that.

Just try and experiment with as many materials and techniques as possible. As the time your allocated is precious, so make sure you cover as much ground as you can.

[Ilaekae]

Like tensai, I lucked out. 9 out of 10 models we used were 15 to 50-year-old females who all would have qualified for Playboy (yes, I had a fifteen-year-old model. She was beautiful and very professional, but had a mental problem with believing that everyone thought she was ugly that was so strong that she refused to leave the house. Her psychiatrist and mother worked out that modeling in the nude and seeing the results of the work being done would help cure her. It worked.)

They were all very professional, very attractive (and downright sexy) by anyone's standards, etc., BUT when I went to art school, you had exactly 0.0005 second to notice how cute someone was before the demon teaching the fuckin' class rammed a pencil in your ear for staring into space instead of working. If you have enough time in model class to get an erection, you shouldn't be there because you just don't have the mindset to do any serious work, and I don't care if you're 12 or 75.

Artists have to be like some dinosaurs--two brains--one in the head for art and one in their dick for all other stuff, and the sense to know when which should be used.

[Kagemusha22]

Artists have to be like some dinosaurs--two brains--one in the head for art and one in their dick for all other stuff, and the sense to know when which should be used.

Dinosaurs had brains for their penises?

[Ilaekae]

Many of the large plant-eaters (Stegosaurus, for example) had brains the size of a walnut, so they actually had a nerve cluster near the hip area that acted as a primitive but fully functional autonomous and automatic brain. It would be safe to assume that this probably acted as a pretty good controller for the mechanical part of sex while the one in the head came up with the pick-up lines... :P

[J Wilson]

Sounds like you'd love Dr. Sketchy's (http://www.drsketchy.com/).

I do. I haven't made it to one of the NY ones yet, but a friend of mine started up a New Haven, CT branch and it has been going well so far.

In fact, if anyone is in the CT area feel free to stop by
http://www.myspace.com/sketchynewhaven

[Flake]

You also have the people that do yoga, dance, acting, or are just interested in art and they definitely know what a good pose is. Seeing them be creative and working hard always makes me feel like I owe it to them to do the same on my paper.

Dancey/Yoga/actor types are brilliant.
Artists who do those are the best possible combo.

We had one model in my last class and I was always "Yay, we got her again!"
Great poses, almost creepy stillness, cool outfits.

I realise that to most people it just looks like "naked people sitting still"* but once you've done it for a while you really begin to appreciate great models..

*Naked people sitting still is actually really hard to do for an hour, may explain why Yoga types and dancers are usually great..

Dr Sketchys looks awesome but my nearest one is 2 hours by train.. :(

[Kilowatt]

Wow I must attend the right classes too, 9/10 of the time we have amazing models, in regards to their hotness and their modeling ability. We've had a couple of male models who are also good, and maybe two bad models in two years. The teacher keeps the good ones and they come back semester after semester.

[alexi_666]

Like tensai, I lucked out. 9 out of 10 models we used were 15 to 50-year-old females who all would have qualified for Playboy (yes, I had a fifteen-year-old model. She was beautiful and very professional, but had a mental problem with believing that everyone thought she was ugly that was so strong that she refused to leave the house. Her psychiatrist and mother worked out that modeling in the nude and seeing the results of the work being done would help cure her. It worked.)

They were all very professional, very attractive (and downright sexy) by anyone's standards, etc., BUT when I went to art school, you had exactly 0.0005 second to notice how cute someone was before the demon teaching the fuckin' class rammed a pencil in your ear for staring into space instead of working. If you have enough time in model class to get an erection, you shouldn't be there because you just don't have the mindset to do any serious work, and I don't care if you're 12 or 75.

Artists have to be like some dinosaurs--two brains--one in the head for art and one in their dick for all other stuff, and the sense to know when which should be used.

crap, then i don't think i should be in the class. i'm serious, i'm a huge perv. it's ridiculous. i was known in high school as being a huge as perv, with a giant porn collection. i sort of do but not that big compared to my friends. anyways, idk how i'll overcome this in the case there is a hot model. wish me luck guys. just 5 more days.