Getting Naked Is An Art

The healing and liberation from being a life art model.

Being naked at home by yourself is one thing, but could you sit nude in front of a room full of artists?

When I suggest to try nude modelling, people normally scoff at me and say that they couldn’t possibly do that. And I admit, over my twelve year journey as a life art model and figurative artist I have had an array of experiences, including a rollercoaster ride of emotions about my body.

Photography: Ian Chua nvlife.act

Some life drawing 101 for readers not familiar with the practice…

Life art classes usually consist of a bunch of artists, from all walks of life all with varying levels of experience, gathering specifically to draw a nude person. Many courses offer the practice as part of the curriculum including fine art, animation, fashion and graphic design.

Enter the model. 

Models are usually hired (yep it’s a paid gig) to come and de-robe, and sit naked in the middle of a room for various lengths of time, while the said artists madly sketch what they can before the timer goes off. The poses vary in length from one minute to an hour. Sometimes there is guidance by a teacher, mostly though artists are just there to do their own thing and come together to mingle and chat over morning or afternoon tea. 

There are I believe, also still misconceptions about sitting nude in a room full of people which generally deters people (especially women) from trying it. Unfortunately, thanks to art history and the female form being objectified and spectated upon negatively, many so called masterpieces show a female subject poised on a sofa or in nature, completely unaware and naive to her generally male onlookers, consequently giving her power away.

The history of drawing the human form as an artistic process dates back to during the Renaissance period around the 16th century, but really, we have been drawing bodies from observation for millennia. For the western art academy though, life drawing was a means of studying the human figure in order to paint and sculpt like the so-called old Greek and Roman masters. Initially male models, and only male art students, used traditional methods of drawing the body that were on par with the philosophies at the time which were male-centric, mathematical and mechanical. The issue, as Umberto Eco points out, ‘artists of the Renaissance saw good perspectival representation not only as correct and realistic, but also as beautiful and pleasing to the eye’ (Eco, 2010). Even worse, this created an ‘othering’ of anything outside this canon where representation of other cultures or the female body, which did not supposedly adhere to these same principles, were considered less than.

Women didn’t actually begin to become life art models until much later on during the Renaissance and yes old dudes did gawk at and mistreat them. Don’t get me started on female artists having to pretend to be men just to get into art school!

And as a woman and a female body myself, sitting in those chilly old halls with both men and women looking and drawing me, I have had plenty of time to question and think about how I feel being seen and began to assess how other people were looking and representing me. I’ve also done a tonne of research on it too.

When I began life modelling, a suggestion made by one of my art lecturers at the time wanting a new model for her own art group, never in my wildest dreams did I think that I would experience any personal growth or come into contact with my body image issues. I was honestly just doing it for the money as a skint art student and with hopes that it might help my figurative drawing. Well, it did help my drawing ability immensely AND it opened up a shitload of other lessons as well. 

Being seen, by that I mean witnessed naked by another person, whether that is your whole body, vulva, penis, bum, it doesn't really matter what part, I believe that your ability to remain centred and composed, to not shut down, disassociate from what is going on, and discern what is safe and not safe, largely depends on your ability to look closely without judgement at your own body. 

And my own curiosity for my cracks and crevices when I was a child grew into shame of some of those parts. But as I became an adult and an artist, questioning my beliefs about my body, getting more acquainted with her, and reflecting on drawings of my body, I found a way to choose what I wanted to believe that supports rather than inhibits me. 

With so many curated images of bodies in the media and in art, it’s no wonder that we form negative beliefs about ourselves. Although my own body dysmorphia was comparing myself to my past self.

Studies are now showing that life drawing as an activity has positive effects for participants on their own body image, although I’m yet to find any in depth studies from participating life art models perspectives. Probably because they are not as silly as I am to consider doing a phd about it!

So if experiencing an embodied, live, nude model in a life art class can increase positive body image and we can begin to detach ourselves from a suppressive beauty economy, then being that model certainly has the potential to have measurable effects too! 

Art modelling for me has provided the setting for more self inquiry that I don’t believe I would have had, had I just remained the artist.

Now, I have come to view my own modelling as a rebellion. I AM aware of being looked at, I AM allowing you to look at me, and I remain embodied and empowered in doing so because I have developed my body literacy. Nor am I ashamed of any parts of me anymore. 

It’s worth also mentioning that I have modelled when I have been sunburnt, had a weird rash, been various weights and I’ve posed many times while on my period. I am adamant that the artists get a real person. I have often thought when I have been bleeding, what if they see a spot of blood on my thigh? What would I say or do? It has never actually happened but prompted me to take pride in my bodily processes and not be embarrassed by them. 

Get out your red pencil then!

I have also shaved my bikini line and legs, and not shaved. Body hair is also real and life modelling brought further awareness about why we feel the need to be smooth all the time anyway. In the early years of modelling I scaped and sculpted myself, practised and planned poses in advance and felt more at ease if I was prepared. That was my anxiety running the show.

Now, years later I decide in the moment what pose I will do. I feel what my body needs and also still consider what the artists may find interesting. I have no anxiety about what I should do, I just do me. I am natural yet composed, and the feedback that I get from artists, despite my thin physique being generally more challenging to draw than rounder, voluptuous figures, is that I demonstrate grace and ease. 

One artist even told me, which I take as a compliment, that I resembled Dame Edith Sitwell. If models are not comfortable in their own body, artists often report that it is more difficult to capture their essence in a drawing.

I have found that artists in my community are generally quite honoured and grateful to be drawing you, many having sat as the model themselves and understand what it is like. It is a more respectful art form than it once was. I have only experienced a few occasions when it didn’t feel aligned and I have turned down a modelling gig at an artist’s home ‘while his wife was away’. Yeah, nah. 

Becoming body literate because of life art modelling has been a beautiful bonus for me as a woman and artist, and something that I have become very passionate about sharing. 

Now advocating for the modelling experience equally to the art and drawing side of things, I am seeing people realise their own limiting beliefs in my modelling classes. And fellow models have shared their love for the art of sitting naked too. If you have modelled before I’d love to hear from you!

The power of being in held, creative, supportive spaces is that it is not only safe to be naked, it is safe to have the conversations about our bodies that we normally stuff down or don’t have the opportunity for. 

Maybe I will do my phd on it after all?!

If you’d like to know more about classes and events such as Life Art Salons, Women’s and Mixed Gender Life Art Modelling Workshops and Naked in Nature Retreats, please contact me here. 

Nude is not rude!

Zo x

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