Former model uncovers naked truth about posing for art classes

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Posted: 3/1/07

Nudity has been a recurring aesthetic motif in art for almost as long as people have been setting brush to canvas. Following in that tradition, NT students are learning the finer points of the human figure with the help of live models.
The School of Visual Arts' Beginning Figure Drawing course is one of several core requirements of the art program. Students must learn to appreciate minute details and nuances of the body, said Ed Blackburn of the art faculty.
"The idea is if you can draw the human figure, you can draw anything," Blackburn said. "As students get in to higher level courses, they do more and more figure drawing."
Blackburn said the art department has a rotating list of models it uses for classes, and that the program is willing to have anyone model, so long as they are committed to the program and have the right attitude toward their work.
"Anyone who wants to be a model can get on the list," Blackburn said. "But we make sure they're serious and will do a good job. This is a serious class."
Bryant Warren, Denton senior, is a former nude model for the program. He said the reason he posed in the buff for a group of complete strangers was a combination of curiosity and economics.
"I've never been uncomfortable with my body," Warren said. "Knowing that I would be posing for art classes, for educational purposes, made me more comfortable. Plus it paid well."
Warren, who regularly posed nude for three semesters beginning in 2005 for $12 an hour, said that modeling is not easy work. Some positions require patience and physical endurance, and social taboos regarding nudity came into play every time he posed.
"There's always a humbling effect, whether it's your first time or not," Warren said. "No matter how comfortable I was, there's always the fact that I'm standing in front of 20 students. Naked."
The former student model said that there are specific challenges for men who choose to pose nude. In spite of what he sees as men being more comfortable with their bodies than women, Warren also said that intimate issues of masculinity come into play.
"We're not allowed to show physical arousal," Warren said. "If it happens more than once, they're not asked back. Still, there are times when parts of our body act with a mind of their own, and there's that difficulty."
Warren said that during his tenure as a model, he enjoyed seeing the variations in student portrayals of him.
"In one class, I came out looking like Jesus in practically everyone's portrait, except for my friend's," Warren said. "I looked like Stalin in that one."
Kathryn Clausen, Plano freshman, is pursuing a minor in art. She said working with nude models is not as awkward as people would think, as the aesthetics of the human body transcend any social hang-ups regarding nudity.
"I don't think it's awkward," Clausen said. "I believe it was Lucretius who said 'nothing human disgusts me.'"
Paul Harding, Houston sophomore, is an art major in Drawing II. He said he was initially apprehensive about drawing a naked person, but that in the end, it turned out to be "not a big deal."
"I thought it would be awkward or uncomfortable at first," Harding said. "But it was really just like drawing everything else."
Harding said his only complaint with the class is its lack of available female models.
"I kind of wish that we had more diverse models. Right now, it's exclusively men," Harding said. "I think it would be better if we had a few females so we can get a more well-rounded experience in drawing different figures."
Warren also said that the art program is in need of more female figure models, and conjectured that the reason more NT women didn't model was cultural.
"It's usually difficult for the department to get females to model, so it makes it difficult for students who need experience with variance between the genders," Warren said. "I can't say guys are more comfortable with being nude, but the fact that it's culturally acceptable for guys walking around half-naked has something to do with it."
Clausen said that overall, her experiences with drawing nude models have been no different than her experiences drawing other things, like plants or objects.
"The class is supposed to help with accuracy. You draw what you see with a real model," said Clausen, who renders the models' figures using charcoal. "I guess the nude part is just a bonus."