How to be an Artist

In keeping with Mr. Benchley's "How to Sleep," "How to be a Detective," and his other "How to..." essays and short film subjects, the "We've Come for the Davenport" Chapter of the Robert Benchley Society presented, Sunday, November 24, 2013, "How to be an Artist." This was the fifth such life drawing session, and, once again, space for the event was graciously provided by The Church on the Hill. Due to some unavoidable delays both models arrived late so, in spite of the title, David did not give the participants any tips on How to be an Artist, and we jumped in immediately to sketching.

The Thea had modeled for us before, in September 2012 (http://trumbullofboston.blogspot.com/2012/09/its-okay-to-stare.html), John, also was with us before, in November 2011 (http://trumbullofboston.blogspot.com/2011/11/artists-and-models-11182011.html)

Thea has the curves of a classic art model and excels at formal poses, such as the one above, inspired by the ballet "Swan Lake." John is tall and lean with clearly defined muscles, excellent for teaching the artists anatomy.

The height difference between the models presented challenges in poses such at the one at the right.

As usual there was music, conversation, and drinks throughout the session. Just as the models finished our food order arrive (chicken -- legs and breasts) and the party continued.

For the next life drawing session David plans to explain some of the tools (pencils, crayons, etc.) available to the artists and how they are used.

Barefoot up to Her Chin

The Boston "We've Come for the Davenport" Chapter of the Robert Benchley Society was rounded up Friday, January 18, 2013, for "Barefoot up to Her Chin." The name of this life drawing session was taken from the title of H. Allen Smith's interview with ecdysiast Sally Rand. Smith, a newspaperman and humorist of the mid-20th century, was a friend and great admirer of Robert Benchley.

Alicia, seen above with Mike in a sketch by Alan B., is a beautiful young curvy lady, with a good repertory of classic solo poses for artists of all abilities. In poses with other models of both sexes her comfort with her colleagues results in natural-looking scenes of friendship and affection.

With the lithe figure of a dancer, Natalia, here seated, posing with Alicia, excels at creating fascinating dynamic poses that challenged even the most experienced artists while also offering beginners some classic poses. We recommend Natalia of the beautiful face and twisted torso to artists and I would definitely hire her again. You can see more of Natalia at nataliastwistedtorso.weebly.com

This second time working with Mike was, again, very enjoyable. Posing with the female models he was comfortable and confident, creating poses that delighted the eye and showed off to good advantage his muscular build and the curves of his partners. In solo work on hand gesture studies his causal chatting with the beginning artists put them at ease and he also gave them helpful pointers on sketching.