And speaking of men being aesthetically pleasing, I finally made it back to the Spring Street sketch club and to my amazement and delight, the model was not only male, he was young and not bald. And he had a very nice little body... well, not all of it was little.
I sketched about ten versions of the model, Adrian. The one in this post is my favorite - you can see a larger version here.
One of the many reasons I found the play SIGHT UNSEEN annoying was because of the idiotic monologue given to the Patricia character, where she proclaims how much she loved modeling for the hero of the play. Clearly Donald Margulies has never done any artist modeling - particularly life (i.e. nude) modeling. I have and nobody would say how much they loved it, I don't care how much they worshiped the artist, as Patricia is supposed to do. Sitting for long poses is hell. Any time you see a drawing or painting of a nude, you are looking at an image of somebody who was uncomfortable, if not in actual pain. The model in the picture above is no exception - and I think I captured his discomfort here.
And then there's the fact that you have to sit there naked in front of a bunch of people, while they scrutinize every inch of your body over the course of several hours. Few people are comfortable under those circumstances. I was getting paid, of course - the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts is not run by douchebags - and also I feel that all artists should do life modeling at least once if they are going to draw naked people themselves. Otherwise it's hypocrisy. So I had no problem with doing it, but that doesn't mean it's fun - it's damned uncomfortable. Here's a quick sketch somebody did of me in those days although obviously it could be anybody, red hair notwithstanding - and really, my hair was actually never that red.
Ah memories - I also dug up a portrait I did of my boyfriend John, age 22 (I was 21 at the time) in semi-punk regalia. I have to say, it's pretty much a perfect likeness of him from the time.
A larger version here
