As Western senior Sarah Lloyd sat naked holding a pose in front of an art class, the professor gave an in-depth lecture on how to draw breasts. He included tips for drawing Lloyd’s particular breast shape and discussed where her nose and other body parts were in relation to her breasts. Lloyd said the breast lecture was the most awkward thing that happened to her as a nude model for the art department.
Lloyd was a nude model for the art department during her freshman year. She got the job at the beginning of her freshman year when she was still adjusting to college, and she thought being a nude model might help obtain a more positive body image, she said.
Lloyd had modeled for art classes in high school, but she had never modeled nude until she started Western. She said she was nervous at first, but modeling nude started to seem like any other job, and by the end of the year she didn’t get nervous anymore.
"[Nude modeling] was a valuable experience," Lloyd said. "It gave me a better body image, I was adjusting to college life, and it was a good job to have at that point in my college career."
Lloyd heard about the job on Western’s Web site. She said needed a part-time job, so she decided to try it out.
Lloyd said the weirdest part of modeling nude was seeing the student drawings of her. She was surprised by what parts of her body people focused on, she said.
The nude body has been a popular subject for drawings, sculptures and paintings ever since the beginning of art, Art Department Chair Madge Gleeson said.
"The human body is great for learning traditional elements of drawing like shading and reproducing shapes," Lloyd said.
To be a good model, a person needs to be able to hold the same pose for up to an hour, Lloyd said. The model also needs to be confident because a whole classroom of 30 people is staring at you, she said.
For Lloyd, the modeling sessions when she got to pick her own pose were the easiest.
Gleeson said the best nude models are confident and have a certain professionalism. Good models bring out good drawings in the classroom, she said.
The art department also uses clothed models to teach different concepts.
"We draw figures with clothing when we’re trying to teach about drawing with fabric and textures," Gleeson said. "When drawing the nude you’re drawing bone and muscle structure."
Patricia Eley, a secretary at the art department, said most 100-level studio art classes as well as some 300-level art classes use nude models.
Gleeson said sketching and painting nude models is an important part of the curriculum in the art department.
"I can’t stress enough the difference between working with a live model and working with a photograph," Gleeson said. "It’s a totally different experience. Working from a live model is capturing not only the image but presumably the essence of [that person’s] persona as well."
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