Torturing the Model

I once watched a documentary which gave some idea as to the tribulations faced by life models. Firstly a respectable woman of the time would never pose in the nude so prostitutes became the true face the Madonna and every other famous female. Secondly as they were required to sit for extremely long periods of time their limbs were tied into place with ropes so they wouldn't drop out of the pose so posing for any artist was torture in more ways than one. I often think of this when I watch our life models staring into space with gritted teeth. And when they move you often see the pressure points they were suffering with as red marks on the skin.

Yesterday one of our best models came to pose for the last time before she undertakes a full time course of study in another city. What a loss for us as she would read an art book and fall into any position pictured (and I don't mean that to sound icky either!). I decided to use a technique I learned out our recent workshop and used a stumpy (tortillion) to put in shadows and soften lines. What a find this tool is- as the actress said to the bishop.

I finished another small box of goods for the Creative Hastings Christmas sale which were put on display yesterday. I received a message today that the horse pendant (middle) sold this morning and could I paint more of them. There are obviously many horse mad little girls out there! I should know as I used to be one until I grew up into a horse mad big girl.