Wednesday, December 18, 2013

Warm Ups

Most, but not all, of the drawing sessions I do start with a series of short gesture poses.  Depending on the instructor or the session monitor, those gestures can range from ten seconds to two or three minutes.  These gestures serve as a warm up for the artists as it gets them used to seeing and drawing, moving their arms rapidly, making marks on their pages.  But it also serves as a warm up for me, the model.  I get to move quickly, taking poses that I couldn't hold for longer than two or three minutes, stretching my muscles and getting my blood flowing.  When doing anything shorter than three minutes, I always count the seconds in my head (unless the class is instructed and the teacher prefers to keep time), changing quickly from one pose to the next.

I have always been complimented on my gestures throughout my long modeling career, in my ability to come up with interesting and challenging poses.  I had never seen myself doing gestures though, only the quick sketches that have been the result of those poses.  I wanted to actually see (and critique) my poses, so, at a recent open drawing session, I took video of myself doing a series of one minute gestures.  Watching the video was surreal.  I was impressed that I was able to hold some of the poses so well, although I don't think I got the camera in the best angle to record those poses.  Of course, I was posing for the artists and not the camera.  One thing I did notice was that each pose was a little bit longer than a minute.  My counting to sixty was just a little bit slower than a regular clock.  Here is the video though, if anyone is interested.  Naturally, there is nudity in the video...

3 comments:

  1. This is really, really cool! I like this idea. After all, if you're doing a long pose, you can check out each artist's drawing or painting of you, but you (naturally) can't see much in the way of detail for gesture poses, so it's always neat to be able to see how other models look when they do them.

    If it's okay with you, I'd love to be able to link your post and your video to my blog. I think this video is a great way to show new and prospective models exactly what happens when the robe comes off and it's time to spring into action :) But I'd love to be able to share this, if it's okay with you.

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  2. I remember that I have seen this video before, it's really a nice work to remain a figure for a long time to present the nature!Reallycool of you!But unfortunately, can't see this video anymore.

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