Speaking of Art

So, my friend Trish left a comment on the previous post that got me thinking...or rather having disturbing flashbacks...of my art school days. We had to draw naked people, and a lot of them. Little known fact here, people: did you know that normal folks will not pose naked for an art class?! Shock!  $25 or $30 an hour is not enough to make people get nekkid in front of a room full of 19 year old art students. The type of people you get for models are probably fit into one of the following categories:

• Live in their parents' basement and tell them they are going to 'work at the library'
• Skeletal 60 year old men with the shakes who show up nursing the remains of a 2 liter bottle of Dr. Pepper (true story...and he was one of the regulars)
• Artsy-type girls who smell of patchouli and have dreadlocks
• People that can't hold a job anywhere else and need the $$

Here are a few other things you are just dying to know about our anatomy class models. (Is it sad I am writing about this or what? I should maybe get a life...) OK, so some models are divas. They are very strict about what poses they will do, and how long they will pose before taking a break. They even demand that the heat be turned up! And here I thought a birthday suit was rated down to -30 degrees. A lot of the models, disturbingly, would wander around and check out everyone's renditions of them. Is it just me, or is that just plain weird? I mean, what are they going to say 'Hey, I really like how you shaded that dimple in my left butt cheek!' or 'What?! I don't have lunch lady arms! Here, give me that eraser!' I always thought that was very, very odd. Another thing about the models: some would sit there and read, or stare off into space and never talk. Those are the ones you liked. Because its a lot easier to just focus on the academic drawing part when you aren't worried about someone telling you which bar they went to last night, or the latest book they are reading. If you look at the model as an object, it is a lot easier to manage. And the one thing I hoped for the most during my anatomy classes? Folds! Fat! Rolls! Because guess what? Rolls cover a multitude of...err...other things, things that I don't care to see, let alone draw. Yay for pleasantly plump models!