At the NY Academy of Art the students could not talk to the model even in his/her break or touch the model or change the pose. The better student artist always caught the agonizing boredom in the facial expression. No wonder the impressionists rebelled
My first ever life class, at The Art Students League in NYC, the summer between seventh and eighth grade, I studied with Earl Mayan. The first model we had, Mimi, was in her seventies at the time, and had been the model for and mistress of, George Bellows. She told us fun stories of 1920s low life, gave me a neck rub when the long day of drawing gave me a cramp, and was just a blast to hang around with. Nowadays, as a teacher myself, I get the harassment and legal peril of having one naked person in a room full of clothes people, but I sure do miss that more casual atmosphere.
I love your story about Mimi and the neck rub. Years ago, around 1980, I remember taking a workshop from a rather elderly Burne Hogarth (founder of SVA). He would draw the muscle sets on a male model with chalk. It felt creepy and weird even then. It was also the era when it was OK for teachers to competely trash and berate a student, even to stomp on their work in front of the class.
Thank you for another great article. Deborah Bird's comment about Rose Franzen reminds me of her story. Rose opened a small store front in her hometown of Maquoketa, Iowa and offered to paint a free portrait for anyone who walked in. This collection of Maquoketa portraits was eventually shown at the National Portrait Gallery in 2010.
I agree that it is so much more fun to paint a model who is talking and engaged. When I have had the opportunities I love to get a model talking. The best example I have ever seen was when Rose Franzen and Jeff Hein painted Judi Carducci at the Portrait Society of America. That was unforgettable.
My wife and I enjoyed the holiday open house parties (“Drawing Jam”) at Gage Academy in Seattle years ago. They would have open life drawing classes with unusual
Models: musicians playing, costumed, geishas, Seafair pirates in full regalia. Drag queen entertainers were hilariously funny and vocal—Silvia O’Stayformore, where are you!
I always engage in conversation with my models, it relaxes the subject and animates the face so that I can see how all the various expressions make up the character. The portrait is a construction of various expressions, not just one. Like a photo with a 3 hour exposure.
This is such a great idea! People DO tend to look bored or unhappy when they’re having to pose, but I’ve always wanted to capture when their face lights up and their soul shines through. I won’t forget this tip.
As a very talented musician, Sargent was especially sensitive to the complementary contrasts between art form that are kinda static and kinda temporal. Picasso et al did a lot of musicians and musical instruments and explored cubism to deal with passing time, and Sargent did similarly with his choice of subjects and methods.
This is so fascinating, and it also makes me glad I never tried to be a portrait painter, even though I enjoy drawing people. I can't imagine trying to keep a conversation going while drawing and painting someone. I would need a third person there to keep them entertained, but even then, the talking would probably be too distracting for me to work. But it is true what you say about art school- if this had been the norm in art classes, with the models animated in conversation, it may have been easier for me to adjust to it
I think the chatting is great but one thing I noticed in the video was that Hoving did not move his head much at all. His mouth is moving but very little else. I am always happy to chat with the model as long as the angle of the head and tilt remains pretty consistent and the model has a sense of where and how his/her head should be. (Amateur models when talking can move their heads A LOT—up and down and side to side—not realizing that it’s okay to do that but a return to the initial/main pose is important). A lot of head movement that can accompany animated chat can, of course, more fully expose the caricature of the person but also really tests the skills of the artist.
I work with life models only (no painting from photos). When you work alone as a painter that is one thing. Because when I talk with the model I can control more or less when we speak. So I talk with them a lot. With a group as in a school I imagine it difficult. It might also just be annoying to other students. Also some models are good at talking while keeping their overall position. Others tend to get physically animated while talking and one has to remind them occasionally to keep the overall general posture.
I studied at an Atelier where the models did not talk, but during breaks, we could respectfully chat with them. Some of the models have artistic backgrounds, such as theater, which was nice because one model mentioned to me she would go through her lines when modeling. That was helpful at times because she would show expressions on her face during the drawing sessions, though you would just need to pick which expression as they would change from time to time! During our third and fourth year, we could chat with the portrait models we would hire, except during our critiques. I have learned, and prefer to have a moving model because of the personality and characteristics, and just interpreting movement in my art. Out of school, sometimes I have to draw from a photograph, and that is the hardest thing I have to ever draw from!
Yes I’ve s33n this technique much like typing never looking at the page until this initial excersize of capturing the expression like a camera the artist lens the poets pen
Love this! I always learn something when I read your Substack, James. How would this work if I were doing a self-portrait?? LOL. That said, when I attend my drawing workshops where it's more relaxed and the model feels OK enough to chat, I capture more of their essence than I would if the model was motionless.
I sketched my tuxedo cat but he rolled over before it was finished. Once I drew a statue, which evidently didn’t move. A caricature artist sketched me at Six Flags, I asked him to have me riding a dinosaur and he did it quite well. We talked the whole time about his experience in art school and digital painting (GIMP vs Krita, etc.). Sitting there perfectly still IMHO would be painful for me and boring for the artist.
At the NY Academy of Art the students could not talk to the model even in his/her break or touch the model or change the pose. The better student artist always caught the agonizing boredom in the facial expression. No wonder the impressionists rebelled
Richard
My first ever life class, at The Art Students League in NYC, the summer between seventh and eighth grade, I studied with Earl Mayan. The first model we had, Mimi, was in her seventies at the time, and had been the model for and mistress of, George Bellows. She told us fun stories of 1920s low life, gave me a neck rub when the long day of drawing gave me a cramp, and was just a blast to hang around with. Nowadays, as a teacher myself, I get the harassment and legal peril of having one naked person in a room full of clothes people, but I sure do miss that more casual atmosphere.
I love your story about Mimi and the neck rub. Years ago, around 1980, I remember taking a workshop from a rather elderly Burne Hogarth (founder of SVA). He would draw the muscle sets on a male model with chalk. It felt creepy and weird even then. It was also the era when it was OK for teachers to competely trash and berate a student, even to stomp on their work in front of the class.
Wonderful! Once again I'm reminded of my long ago dream to attend the art student's league and I love hearing those stories.
Take their online classes! I have done figure drawing for a couple of years from Oregon. Not the same as in person but better than not
Thanks!
Thank you for another great article. Deborah Bird's comment about Rose Franzen reminds me of her story. Rose opened a small store front in her hometown of Maquoketa, Iowa and offered to paint a free portrait for anyone who walked in. This collection of Maquoketa portraits was eventually shown at the National Portrait Gallery in 2010.
I agree that it is so much more fun to paint a model who is talking and engaged. When I have had the opportunities I love to get a model talking. The best example I have ever seen was when Rose Franzen and Jeff Hein painted Judi Carducci at the Portrait Society of America. That was unforgettable.
My wife and I enjoyed the holiday open house parties (“Drawing Jam”) at Gage Academy in Seattle years ago. They would have open life drawing classes with unusual
Models: musicians playing, costumed, geishas, Seafair pirates in full regalia. Drag queen entertainers were hilariously funny and vocal—Silvia O’Stayformore, where are you!
I always engage in conversation with my models, it relaxes the subject and animates the face so that I can see how all the various expressions make up the character. The portrait is a construction of various expressions, not just one. Like a photo with a 3 hour exposure.
This is such a great idea! People DO tend to look bored or unhappy when they’re having to pose, but I’ve always wanted to capture when their face lights up and their soul shines through. I won’t forget this tip.
As a very talented musician, Sargent was especially sensitive to the complementary contrasts between art form that are kinda static and kinda temporal. Picasso et al did a lot of musicians and musical instruments and explored cubism to deal with passing time, and Sargent did similarly with his choice of subjects and methods.
Another key to the utter magic of Sargent’s works imho. And yours James! I love the expressions on your figures.
This is so fascinating, and it also makes me glad I never tried to be a portrait painter, even though I enjoy drawing people. I can't imagine trying to keep a conversation going while drawing and painting someone. I would need a third person there to keep them entertained, but even then, the talking would probably be too distracting for me to work. But it is true what you say about art school- if this had been the norm in art classes, with the models animated in conversation, it may have been easier for me to adjust to it
I think the chatting is great but one thing I noticed in the video was that Hoving did not move his head much at all. His mouth is moving but very little else. I am always happy to chat with the model as long as the angle of the head and tilt remains pretty consistent and the model has a sense of where and how his/her head should be. (Amateur models when talking can move their heads A LOT—up and down and side to side—not realizing that it’s okay to do that but a return to the initial/main pose is important). A lot of head movement that can accompany animated chat can, of course, more fully expose the caricature of the person but also really tests the skills of the artist.
I work with life models only (no painting from photos). When you work alone as a painter that is one thing. Because when I talk with the model I can control more or less when we speak. So I talk with them a lot. With a group as in a school I imagine it difficult. It might also just be annoying to other students. Also some models are good at talking while keeping their overall position. Others tend to get physically animated while talking and one has to remind them occasionally to keep the overall general posture.
I studied at an Atelier where the models did not talk, but during breaks, we could respectfully chat with them. Some of the models have artistic backgrounds, such as theater, which was nice because one model mentioned to me she would go through her lines when modeling. That was helpful at times because she would show expressions on her face during the drawing sessions, though you would just need to pick which expression as they would change from time to time! During our third and fourth year, we could chat with the portrait models we would hire, except during our critiques. I have learned, and prefer to have a moving model because of the personality and characteristics, and just interpreting movement in my art. Out of school, sometimes I have to draw from a photograph, and that is the hardest thing I have to ever draw from!
Yes I’ve s33n this technique much like typing never looking at the page until this initial excersize of capturing the expression like a camera the artist lens the poets pen
Love this! I always learn something when I read your Substack, James. How would this work if I were doing a self-portrait?? LOL. That said, when I attend my drawing workshops where it's more relaxed and the model feels OK enough to chat, I capture more of their essence than I would if the model was motionless.
I sketched my tuxedo cat but he rolled over before it was finished. Once I drew a statue, which evidently didn’t move. A caricature artist sketched me at Six Flags, I asked him to have me riding a dinosaur and he did it quite well. We talked the whole time about his experience in art school and digital painting (GIMP vs Krita, etc.). Sitting there perfectly still IMHO would be painful for me and boring for the artist.