Hold That Pose: Art Modelling for Figure Drawing

When figure drawing, an artist depends on movement for their drawing to take shape; the opposite is often true for their subjects. 

In Green River College’s Salish Hall, the intermediate and beginning drawing classes take to a silent focus, aside from the scribbling of pencils and new age music emitting from a boom box. Their live models only job is to stay still. 

Odie DeBlume, a professional art model and previous Green River student, sits still on a chair while a handful of eyes study her every detail. She has worked as an art model for over nine years.

“I love what I do,” DeBlume said. “Sometimes your body falls asleep… you need a strong sense of self – a strong ego.”

DeBlume got into art modeling while a student of Green River. She was seven months pregnant, looking for a job and feeling she was all out of options when a fellow student said to her she’d make a great model. 

“I asked ‘what do I have to do?’ They said ‘just stay.’ So I did,” DeBlume said. 

DeBlume thought being pregnant at the time was an added feature because it is important for artists to practice with a variety of dynamic models of different colors and shapes, and a pregnant body added more rounded shapes and shadows for the artists to practice with. 

DeBlume, an artist herself, prefers active, unaware, models because they are more natural and often allow you to capture movement, yet believes stationary models are important for artists learning about measurement. 

Although DeBlume has worked for private artists and studios, she prefers modeling for college art classes. The new CEO, tenured and experienced adjunct and well rounded art programs make Green River College her favorite of these, she said. 

“The instructors make it an amazing experience,” DeBlume said. 

Her daughter is now nine years old and one of her “unsuspecting” art models. 

Rick Giombetti, another model, says the hardest part of the job, although physically demanding, is getting to the locations. 

“90% of the job is just showing up,” Giombetti said. 

Giombetti has worked as an art model for 20 years, 16 in the Seattle area and the first four in Colorado where he attended college. 

Although most of his modeling is done nude, he says it is important to not be embarrassed. More often than not the artists are more uncomfortable than he is, he said. 

Differently from DeBlume, Giombetti prefers modeling for private artists and studios because there’s “less paperwork.” 

Cindy Small, of the Green River College Art Department and drawing class instructor, believes it is important for her students to practice on live models. There is something removed from copying a photograph, she said, and lacks the details and three dimensions of a live subject. 

But as well as the technical aspects, Small believes it is equally important to learn how to treat live models. She believes they are the artist’s muse, without which the artist cannot work. 

“I think everyone at some point should be an art model and a waiter, because you treat people better,” she said. 

In her classes, models sit for short periods of 25-30 minutes, and only hold difficult poses anywhere between 30 seconds and one minute, taking eight minute breaks between sessions. 

Cindy Small has been teaching art for 15 years, but doing her own art for more. She prefers mixed media, oftentimes building and designing her own frames, because it adds a third dimension to her work, she said. She considers her works “narrative paintings” because they are paintings that tell stories. 

To visit Small’s online gallery and portfolio, visit http://www.cindysmallstudio.com