I’m sure this will eventually be the second in a series.
Yesterday I checked my mail and found a surprise bill waiting for me.
Yay, what a surprise 😦
Yet when I opened the door to my apartment and checked my email, I got a message from Hillyer Art Space saying they had a last minute cancellation for today, and could I make it? That was quite timely, as the money I’d be making was enough to pay the bill. How fortuitous 🙂
It was a great session tonight, but oh man! My lower back and glutes were absolutely killing me towards the end of a 55-minute pose. Normally, I go about half an hour into such a pose, shake out for about a minute, and then quickly resume my pose for the remainder of the session. But I had to take a quick break one last time towards the end, as it felt like some of my muscles were wound tighter than a drum! All in all, it was a fun session, and the bulk of the group stayed until the very end (I’ve found that, in an evening drawing group session, a lot of people leave after the second hour, because by then it’s 8-8:30pm and they’d like to get home). So it was nice to have a decent number of people stay for the whole session.
I honestly thought I’d be in the mood to cook dinner when I got home, at least as I was walking toward the Metro. But by the time the train arrived in my neighborhood, it was after 10 o’clock and the last thing I wanted to do was cook. All I wanted to do was rest my screaming muscles! So I went to the nearby grocery store and bought myself what I like to call “bachelor chow”: some cold fried chicken from the deli and a bottle of beer. I have another gig tomorrow, and I just knew in the store that I wasn’t going to be in the mood to cook then, either, as that gig is up in Rockville, MD, and I’ll be home pretty late. So I figured I’d grab something quick that would ensure that I’d have leftovers for tomorrow’s undoubtedly scarfed-down meal 🙂
As I said in my post about evening modeling, make things easy on yourself by having something quick to make for dinner when you get home, and make sure you have everything ready to go for the next day (clean clothes, a kitted-out modeling bag if you have a gig the next day), because believe me, when you drag your aching muscles home late in the evening, all you’re going to want to do is stretch out and go to sleep!
Jason and the Golden Pose 
Congrats on paying the bill! 🙂 Hope your muscles have gotten some rest since!
Jason, I have a question for you about how to compliment a model. Sometimes when I’ve really enjoyed drawing someone, I’ve said “I love your poses” or “you have great energy” or something like that, but the other night I drew a model who didn’t have particularly outstanding poses or energy, she was just really… proficient, if that makes sense. She held very still without looking rigid, her poses extended all the way to her toes and fingertips; she was just consistently excellent at what she did. I wanted to tell her, “You’re a really good model,” but I thought that was so general that it would sound stupid or insincere. But if I tried to explain what I meant, it would sound gushy or awkwardly long-winded. Any thoughts on this? (I did put a good-sized tip in the jar… maybe that spoke for itself. ;b )
Hi Lisa–so great to hear from you (and to hear you’re still drawing)!
I can guarantee you that it won’t sound awkward if you tell someone they’re a good model–in fact, they will definitely appreciate it 🙂 I just got done with a gig tonight and several people said I was a good model, and that was all the praise I needed to know that I really knocked it out of the park just then, and that they were truly happy to have me. Believe me, she would definitely not have interpreted it as awkward.
Sometimes I’ve been given specific complements like “you’re fun to draw,” or “you were like a statue” (got that one tonight), so if you have specific praise, the model will definitely be happy to hear it.
Sometimes after I get dressed and walk down the hall of whatever art school it is I’m working at, I’ll bump into students from the class on the way out and they’ll come up to me and say thanks, or that I really inspired them. Simple words, but believe me when I say I’m touched by them, and that I pretty much glide all the way back home regardless of how sore my muscles are. It’s incredibly powerful. I’ve worked in some beginner classes where I’m the first nude they’ve ever drawn from, and they tend to be so inevitably grateful for the chance to finally work with a live, nude model.
So believe me, whatever praise you give them will not be awkward 😉 The praise means a lot to me, because I know I did a good job, and that people really got something out of the poses I did. To me, that’s even more important than the money (but I don’t turn that away either!).
Also, I think we discussed this months ago, but the venue you were at had a tip jar? Did the model get her tips solely off of the tips, or was it just a way for people to throw in a bit extra if they thought the model went above and beyond? I’ve never encountered that in the DC area.
Yes! Just posted the latest drawings on my blog this week. 🙂 Well, paintings really. I’m headed to Boston next week and I’m looking forward to discovering some life drawing sessions there too!
Wow, I am so glad to hear from you (and Dave in the follow-up comment) that “you’re a really good model” is a perfectly acceptable compliment. I really didn’t know it would be seen that way (obviously, from my question!) so that is great to know! Next time I’m feeling that about a model, I’ll just say it. 😀 I get so much out of drawing many of the models I’ve drawn, and I never know how to fully convey that to them, so sometimes I just go home after saying “thank you” very earnestly.
It’s funny about the tip jar; I never encountered that in the US before this session, either. I am guessing the model gets paid and the tips are just on top of her payment, because (a) she mentioned a local models’ guild (I didn’t know there was one in this area), and (b) no one drew our attention to the jar, which seems like a downright shitty practice if it’s the model’s only source of income from the evening. During that session the model got a lot of tips, but at the second session I attended there, the model got very few, and I thought that might be just because a lot of people didn’t notice the tip jar. I felt bad about that.
Yup! Any model who hears that they’re a good model–or even just told “thanks!” will be floating out of the room. There have been times I’ve been in utter agony at the end of the night, but one or two nice compliments make all the pain go away 🙂
I feel so bad for that second model, especially if the tips were their only payment (not to mention, I’d start getting freaked out, like people were telling me passively that I was a bad model).
I’ve been super busy as of late, but I need to stop by your blog and give you a shoutout because I really, really dug those drawings you posted a week or so ago! Very nice.
Would love to hear about your life drawing experiences in Boston 🙂
I don’t think the tips were her only payment. I really, really hope not, but I truly doubt it. It’s a clearly very well-funded center, in a well-heeled area, so they should have plenty of wherewithal for paying models!
No worries about not stopping at the blog — I’ve been way behind on reading everyone’s too! But I’m glad you liked the drawings. 😀
Lisa,
Like Jason, I’m very happy whenever an artist or student says anything complimentary after a session, and I especially I love it when someone says I’m a good model.
Some of my all-time favorite comments:
“You’re really interesting to draw.”
“You must have been doing this for many years. (I haven’t)
“I don’t know how you can hold a pose that long without moving.”
“You have beautiful fingers.”
So take it from me: anything nice you say to the model will be very, very gratefully received.
Dave
Haha–I get a similar compliment about my feet every now and then, along with the “you’re interesting/fun to draw.” You’re right–anything nice to say will be very well-received. And I know when someone says I’m a good model at the end of the session, it’s like all my aching muscles stop hurting 🙂
Hope you’re doing well.
Dave, thank you so much for chiming in on this! As I just wrote to Jason in my reply to his comment, very often I want to tell a model how much I’ve enjoyed drawing them, but I haven’t always known what to say so sometimes I just leave without anything more than a thank you. But after reading his thoughts and yours on the subject, next time I’ll try to say a little more!
A lot of my modeling is done in the evening, and I am usually wiped out once I get home. Some evenings I don’t even eat before I’m in bed asleep. Other times, I make a quick stop at Whataburger (which is open 24 hours) for a burger. If my office job didn’t get in the way, I would model days, evenings, weekends, whenever I could get gigs…
Hi Dan,
Yeah, I’d say the vast majority of the time, my modeling takes place in the evening, so I usually get home at around 10-10:30pm. I have yet to get motivated enough to cook dinner for myself and make sure to have something cooked ahead of time or swing by the grocery store for something I don’t have to prepare.
BTW, I used to live in Houston and still get a jonesing for a Whataburger breakfast taquito 🙂