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[aktdrawing]

There is a nude art model who's made some posts on Quora about her job. She even posted a drawing from a class she modeled for (attached here). Here's one of them:

Q: What does it feel like being a life (nude) model for art classes? I would love to try it, but I’m unsure of how it is in reality.

Yes, I’ve done this on and off for several years now and modeled for different types of art classes ranging from drawing, to sculpture, to animation, to anatomical studies and more. The most common are drawing classes. All these classes are done in an almost clinical manner, nothing sexy or erotic about posing nude in them. In fact sexy type poses aren't encourage at all. It's an artistic learning environment which is regulated by the instructor. And the learning process is taken seriously. The students or artists study you in order to improve their skills, and most everyone behaves accordingly.

Each class is slightly different in what you end up doing. However the common theme for me is this: At the beginning of the class you can get a little nervous before you take your robe off. I have somehow never gotten over this even for as long as I've be doing it. But once the robe is off and you are nude in front of the class the nervous energy only last for a minute or two, then you calm down and start to concentrate on holding the pose, and you almost forget you're nude. Whether it's a short action pose that last a minute, or a long pose that can last 20 minutes. Once you are holding a pose sometimes fatigue can set in, muscles get tired and sore, you can get cramps, limbs can fall a sleep or any combination of these. It can be a balancing act to try to offset the effects of these while holding perfectly still for the given amount of time. Not as easy as you think. I've learned to do subtle little things with my body to help offset these while holding perfectly still and maintaining the pose. Boredom can also set in specially for the longer poses, and you have to find ways to deal with this as well. ...And did I mention the cold?! When the temperature is very low even with the space heaters on you will always feel the cold on you in some way. As a model you need to be able to handle a good amount of cold within reason. You will be fully nude and holding still, so its not like you can move around to warm yourself up, you must bear the cold and stay still. This is especially true in the dead of winter, where you may find yourself without a stitch on in a room where everyone has a jacket or sweater on. Although most art instructors are good about making sure there is heat in the room, sometimes it may not be enough. Regardless of all these factors of discomfort you have to do your job and maintain the pose. Unless of course it becomes unbearable you could injure yourself. But as a capable artist model you should know what type of poses you can handle before going into one. What I mentioned here is is pretty much the reality of it. So if you're thinking this is an easy job where you just get naked and sit there, sometimes it may not always turn out that way. You may have to put some effort into it. For me knowing there are people relying on me to hold the pose, helps me to maintain it even more and put that extra effort I need to do a good job of modeling for the artists.

The one type of class where I found that the modeling experience is somewhat different than most other classes, are the art classes where they do lectures on the human anatomy. You may not encounter some of the things I mentioned previously, but it can be just as challenging. These type of classes however, aren't very common and most models may never model for one. In these classes you don't really hold poses, at least most of the time. You mainly stand in front of the room facing the class as the lecture goes on and they methodically study your anatomy. Your whole body will be talked about very objectively, pointed at so the class can learn the proportions and lines of the human form. And you will be made to face different directions so they can study your body from all sides. You will be the live example for the students to see the muscles, bones, and landmarks of the figure for them to draw later. If you end up modeling for one of these classes be prepared to have yourself seen as if you were an object on exhibit and be talked about in such a way. Which is a good thing in this context since they aren't talking about you personally but about the anatomy of the body. Like where a certain muscle separates, or even where fat tissues are in certain areas of the body. So it does take a certain amount of 'putting yourself out there' and being okay with being objectified and put on display for the class to study. This can last for a few minutes or the whole class session of a few hours. Keep in mind you will be totally nude when this happens and your body will be fully displayed and talked about in front of a room full of people. Most people could never see themselves doing something like this, although it seems they have no problem when it comes to viewing someone else. You as an art model must be that someone willing to do what they can't. After all art modeling isn't your typical job. I mention this because you really need to give the outward appearance of being calm and collected, regardless of how you feel inside, while allowing yourself to be viewed and and studied. Because if you appear overly nervous it will be awkward for the students as well. And like I said, these type of classes aren't very common, and they tend to use visibly fit models for these type of classes since it helps the students see the muscles and lines of the body better. As opposed to other classes where the model's shape doesn't matter as much. However its good to know what you can expect just in case.

This job may not always be as easy or as glamorous most people think it is, and it can actually be hard work or sometimes boring posing for long periods. The good part is you get to see the artistic process and you are the live model that helped to make it come about. So if you think you can handle it then I would practice posing very still for about 15 minutes to give you an idea if you are actually are physically capable before you go about and applying for the job. Keep in mind there is not always an opening and they may put on and a waiting list and may not even call you since its up to the instructor or model coordinators to select what types of models they need to book for the class sessions. Local artists groups may be easier to get to model for, however they may also be as selective depending what they want and who they have available.

[aktdrawing]

Another post by the same model:

Q: Have you ever posed nude for an artist or a painting class?

I've been a nude art model for colleges and universities going on several years now, and have posed nude for painting classes as well other types of art classes. The difference between painting classes versus a class such as drawing is that on the average painting classes are usually of longer duration per session around 5 to 6 hours, as opposed to about 1.5 to 3 hours for most drawing classes. And also for painting classes you hold the same exact pose for several class sessions in a row, with drawing they change up a lot with every class session. And typically painting classes have a smaller number of students around 8 to 16 as opposed to drawing sometimes ranging from 12 to 40 sometimes.

So the typical class session will involve you model to get to class about 15 minutes early to stretch, change, prepare yourself, and coordinated with the instructor. After the they tell you to take the stand you drop your robe, then you are nude and ready to take a pose on the platform. The pose you take is to be determined by the instructor or by class concession. And unlike drawing classes there are no quick sketch gesture poses to start the session. Once I take up the pose and the instructor will adjust me accordingly, by moving my arm, or foot, or slight change in body angle to get it just right. On rare occasions they may also partially d**** me with some type of cloth, I'm still mostly nude the cloth is there for accenting the picture. If there are lights involved, then lights are adjusted for dramatic effect or just for clarity. It can get very bright and hot under those lights. What is bad is when they shine directly into your eyes, I usually mention something to the instructor and this is avoided.

Once everything is set I will hold the same pose for the duration of the class, with 5 minute breaks every 20 -30 minutes, at which they will place tape or chalk to mark where you pose so you return to the same exact pose after the break. The classes last 5-6 hours and it can get tedious even boring sometimes holding the same pose for that long. You can also get cramps or you limbs fall asleep, so its important for me to get the blood re-circulating during those 5 minute breaks. You pose till the end of class and you will return the next class session which maybe in a few days or the next week and take up the same exact pose until the painting is done, which can take a few weeks. I mostly pose by myself, altho I have also posed with other nude models in a painting involving multiple figures. And also posed in one painting where I was nude and the other model was clothed, it all depends on the requirements of the class. I've done back to back painting classes totaling 12 hours so I was pretty much nude for most of the day. You get very used to being naked and almost forget you are, and more than once I almost walked out into the hallway completely nude to go to the restroom but I caught myself almost as I walked out the door, if not, it would have been a little embarrassing :O

I have also sat for a portrait painting class which are one of the few times I actually posed clothed, since they only painted my head and face. But then I also sat for figure portrait painting classes where I sat nude and half the class painted my head and the rest the whole figure. Again this shows you how the painting classes can vary depending on what they are teaching. And the experience will vary from model to model. Myself, as far as painting classes go, I have done classes taking up various poses sometimes with props to go with the painting, however more than a few times I have been assigned to pose for classes where they do anatomical type painting studies where I simply stand straight, either facing the class frontally, or facing them with my side or back, or I'm in the center also standing straight. I know these paintings seem more boring than other paintings where the models are posed in sometimes classical ways as in the old masterpieces, but I guess it for learning purposes since I pose mainly for students. And maybe it has to do with my physique as well, as I'm more on the slim fit range, and the instructors I work with tend to use the models according to body types as far as I can see it helps the students learn body structure.

And it needs to be mentioned that these classes actually very clinical in nature and down to the business of painting for the students. And they are NOT erotic whatsoever, at least not in a school type learning environment. If you think it is erotic and you join a class you will be disappointed. The students are very serious in their work and their attitude towards the nudity becomes very nonchalant and they become really use to it, specially the more experience students, so the nudity becomes no big deal really.

To sum it all up, as far as your average painting class goes you may find this is probably the experience of the typical art model posing for painting classes. And again it may vary from school to school, and with each instructor, and from model to model.

[aktdrawing]

At the Fine Arts School, She Poses Nude, They Sketch Her

In the age of 3D software and all things digital, live models are still very much part of sketching and painting classes at the Higher School of Fine Arts in Le Mans.
Sketching classes with nude live models continue at the Fine Arts school in Le Mans, surrounded by around forty students.
The scene is set. At the entrance of the large classroom, in the heart of the Fine Arts school, daylight lingers on the elongated, hairless buttocks of La Frileuse, a snow-white plaster cast by Jean-Antoine Houdon, a major 18th-century sculptor. The sculpture stands to the left of the door through which forty students file in, armed with HB pencils, charcoal sticks, watercolor pans, erasers, and sable-hair brushes.
“Close the curtains!” asks the teacher, Guy Brunet. He has been teaching here since 1983, after having been a student himself at the Le Mans Fine Arts school. “I’m a dinosaur now,” he smiles.
“I avoid staring at the students”
The Gallo-Roman wall of Le Mans fades away behind the curtains like something erased. The students arrange themselves in a circle. In the center, a large orange mat. Behind it, Camille (1) changes—or rather slips into her Eve costume—in a tiny storage room filled with other plaster casts and a plastic anatomical mannequin.
Camille, 18, steps out decisively and walks to the central mat. A blue terry towel tied around her waist, as if she had just stepped out of the shower. Her job—because she is paid for it—begins now. Under the heat lamps. With a natural gesture, Camille drops her towel. A hint of embarrassment shows in her cobalt-blue eyes, even as she tries to brush aside her emotions. “I avoid looking at the students because when I was in their place last year, I was afraid of making the model uncomfortable by staring,” she tells us after class. So Camille looks toward the tips of her toes. For her first pose, she simply steps her right leg forward while remaining standing, arms behind her back. “At first, I let them choose the pose,” the teacher reveals behind the scenes. Like a spring suddenly released, the forty students throw themselves onto their blank pages.
A striking silence. Legs crossed on their tall stools, some work at their easels. Others sit cross-legged with spiral notebooks on their laps, while their neighbors kneel, elbows pressed to the floor, working on A3 sheets laid directly on the parquet floor. And off they go for several rounds of seven to eight minutes of stillness. Camille does her job with dignity and poise.
With the tips of their pencils, the students try to follow her silhouette as faithfully as possible. The results are surprising: the works vary widely in style, from abstract watercolor to academic sketch.
Now the model sits. For another seven minutes. Then she lies down on the mat. With different poses. Guy Brunet rotates the mat to change perspectives. Unflappable, Raphaël, 18, constantly erases and corrects his lines, eyes fixed on the model. Embarrassed? “At first it feels strange, but you end up seeing only the lines. And it’s very useful for practicing your draftsmanship,” he says, sharpening a 2B black pencil. “I’m too shy to do that,” notes Apolline, 20. “But it’s great that she does.”
A break between poses
A break is needed between the two hours of class. A chance for Camille to catch her breath: “You can feel the muscles burning in your legs.” To keep from getting bored, Camille recites multiplication tables to herself. One idea among others. She also takes the opportunity to look at the students’ work: “For some, you think—they have a lot of talent. For others, they still have the whole year to learn.”
Class resumes. Camille “is going to move part of her body and you’re going to reproduce the transformation of that movement in the same drawing,” the teacher suggests. At the heart of the exercise: the mechanics of anatomy. Erasers rub in every direction. Always attentive to the model, Guy Brunet checks in with her: “Are you okay? It’s a bit long this time.” New movements. “Identify the areas that have barely moved and start from there,” he advises.
End of class. In a flash, the booming noise of a classroom reclaims the space. Like a release after this intimate, precious moment. Almost from another time. May these art classes continue to endure—with their live model at the center—even in this age of all things on-screen.