Wednesday, October 15, 2008

Photographing Different Art Models in the Same Pose

One of the things I enjoy most about being the Art Director for Live Model Books is to being able to observe first hand the variation in the human form and the interpretation each life model brings to the pose. So I will frequently have a number of different models male and female of varying ages and fitness levels do the same poses. This is intentional so that you can observe the anatomy of the human form.

Some examples of this are one of our dynamic/action poses that I call 'on your mark,' to date this pose has been done by three different models mandy225
, jesse020, and shandra022. I have also posed several art models in the action of walking, I thought the variation on this one was particularly interesting take a look at at the difference between dan008 an older male model compared to bennetth015 a young male model and carolyne007 a young pregnant female model, jesse222 a twenty something athletic male model and jenh010 a young female model. I thought the variation of the stride and the hand placement was interesting.

There are also other poses based on classical works of art that can be explored and analyzed, such as a pose I staged based on the Dying Gaul. Take a look at mandy023, bennetth017, dan020 and jesse022. I would enjoy hearing your observations.

Also a short while ago, we received a request from an Artist in England, who had been commissioned to do a painting for a church that would depict Michelangelo's Creation and she needed some photographic references of a model in this pose. So we hired Michael (michael035)

and michael035O[verhead] who did a very good job recreating this wonderful piece. Since that time, I have also directed another older model in this pose again to show the variation in physique and the models style or interpretation of the pose. The other model was dan022) and dan022O[verhead]

Tuesday, October 14, 2008

From the Art Director's View

Hello All,

This is my first blog entry. I am Maureen Johnson the Art Director for Live Model Books an independent publishing house. As the Art Director, I select the poses, style the models and the the setting and last but not least direct (and motivate when necessary : ) ) the models. The poses I select vary in style and many are based on input from our customers. The poses range from everyday, dynamic, clothed, unclothed, and classical poses inspired by great figurative art works.

I frequently use Rodin for inspiration when planning a modeling session. During one session with two of our art models Jesse and Shandra I had the opportunity to direct some very beautiful couples poses. Including our rendition of The Kiss (jesseshandra015) which had some interesting challenges, because Jesse and Shandra are of similar height it was necessary to raise Jesse up higher on the bench to achieve the needed angle which is interesting because in the original sculpture it is the exact opposite, the female model is raised up because she is much smaller than the male model. View the sculpture using this wikipedia link to The Kiss to compare. They also modeled Eternal Idol (jesseshandra014) and Eternal Spring (jesseshandra018). If you are interested in seeing these poses please visit the website to check them out and I would love to hear what you think http://www.posespace.com/posetool/.

Because Rodin is one of my favorite sculptors, many of the poses on our website http://www.posespace.com/posetool/ and in our books Art Models (ximon009) Danaid, Art Models 2 (mandy017) The Implorer,(jesse021, jesse021O[verhead] and shandra020) inspired by the Fallen Caryatid and in Art Models 3 (jesseshandra015) The Kiss are all inspired by this great Artist.

Saturday, October 11, 2008

A few quick posts to get us going

We are new to blogging and thought we'd throw a few quick posts up here to get us started.

Art Modeling from the Model's Perspective

- Male Art Model Concerns

- And another one about the same topic, from a female model's perspective.

Hazardous Duty

Art Modeling has its hazards