Nude Drawing?!?!?

[Claire_C]

A more in-depth exercise along the lines of drawing nudes that some artists do is to draw the actual “layers” of the human body - skeleton, muscles, and finally skin (nudes, in other words) - in different poses.

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Yes, my favorite drawing teacher had us study skeletal anatomy, muscles, and all that, and even learn the names. We had to copy illustrations as well as sketch model skeletons (we had class on Halloween, with the skeleton and a human model in various costumes, and people brought snacks - lots of fun if you don’t mind eating some charcoal dust). I can’t express how much it improved my drawing and animating skills. There’s a really good book called “Anatomy for the Artist” that has lots of good bones and muscles. I use it all the time.

 

[pumpkinbeast]

As a nursing student myself, I just wanted to say, don’t worry about it. it’s surprising how easy it is to adopt a very clinical and detached attitude towards other people’s privates. You’re not drawing them to ‘get your jollies’ so to speak, you’re drawing them to learn. You will still be pure for your husband someday. I saw naked men, both in anatomical pictures and as patients, before I got married to my husband, but because of our relationship, my husband’s nakedness is special and precious to me on a level that is totally different from a patient-nurse interaction. I imagine it’s the same way for artists.

Drawing nude people for art doesn’t automatically make it porn. Art shows the beauty of the human form, and also might be trying to be historically or culturally accurate. Porn is made for base, hedonistic pleasure and arousal, and it degrades the people involved in it. I’m sure most people will be able to tell the difference when looking at any piece of art that has nudes in it.

 

[bobparker]

Looks like I joined this thread late. Let me start by saying I am a figure model… I have been for over 30 years. I have worked in public schools and religious centered colleges/universities.

Only one school was I ever required to wear clothes. After I got the job, the art department coordinator called me back and said “um, we’re a conservative christian college and require that you wear some sort of posing belt to um, ah, cover yourself” On the other side of the coin, I worked nude in a Franciscan university where the class included 3 retired nuns.

When we learn to separate nudity and sex, we find the human body is an assortment of shadows and shapes. There is nothing inherently sexual about a figure drawing class.

Just my $.02
Bob

 

[idontknow]

I am in graphic design, but never had to take anything like that. But I wouldn’t have been ok participating in drawing nudes. Yes, I know it’s different than porn, but still having those images in my mind isn’t what I need. I want my wife to be the first and only naked woman I see. And I wouldn’t want to know that she had done that, seen naked men.

I would say that I’m not comfortable with it, even if you are the only one. Maybe talk to the professor before class. - And if you feel different…I feel being a good Catholic (or Christian) you have to be different and can’t always fit in or do what others do. Lots of people are ok with doing things that aren’t good for your morals. Being different is a good thing.

 

[Try2beholy]

My 19 year old daughter is a sophomore at an art college. She is a fine art major and has been drawing nudes since she was 17. (When she was a junior in HS she received a scholarship for a summer program). She is very modest, a very devout Catholic, even dated a boy in HS for a year and refused to french kiss. When she draws or paints nudes, she says it’s not like looking at a naked person, it is looking at art. God’s art. Trying to make her 4 brothers not freak out when she draws a nude male has been quite amusing, but she is still a modest and wonderful girl. No worries at all.
In Christ