Models Don't Come Cheap
My paintings have always been almost entirely fictitious portraits. From time to time, usually due to the encouragement of others, I make sophomoric attempts at landscapes or, with some improvement, still life. But portraits are without doubt my preference and proclivity.
In my early years of painting the focus was always the face - with great emphasis on the eyes, usually one in particular. The background an afterthought, the body an ambiguous blob. With developed skill and interest came bodies. Of course, the bodies are never clothed. Perhaps rendering draped cloth will be the next step in my evolution as a painter. But honestly, I fancy them naked.
With painting people comes the need for a model.
When I need to see the shape of a hand as it rests against the leg while standing, or a foot and what its toes really look like from a particular angle, or perhaps the line from neck to lower back when looking over one's shoulder, often I crack out the digital camera and — poof — I'm my own model. A quick print from the computer, followed by a simple charcoal sketch, and it becomes an element in whatever painting I am currently working on. It's a fast, immediate, process. An exercise in deliberate impatience.
However, there are times when a model is absolutely necessary. To see the lines of different bodies for reference and inspiration is important. Live models are great, and working with other people is most enjoyable to me, but they can cost money and time with schedules. Friends are willing to sit for you only so many times and spouses typically avoid the situation altogether.
The way I get to working is spontaneous. And when I need a model now I need a model now. Sketching before painting would probably be wise as I could plan the subject matter of a piece before taking a brush to it. But painting is not premeditated for me. It just happens when it happens. Being so seldom in recent months, I take it when I can get it and run with it. As a result, if I am unprepared as often I am, I must improvise.
Happily I turn to the internet. There are countless exhibitionists out there not only willing to bare it all for the camera, but they already have. And they have published these photos freely in their profiles all over cyberspace. I have one site I favor in particular that gets most frequent use: BigMuscle. The variety of male bodies to choose from with this single resource at my disposal seems limitless.
The young man in the photographs here (a recent BigM discovery) will undoubtedly become the muse for a figure in an future painting. The end result will be unrecognizable as him, though many parts of him may be used. The line where the abdomen meets the quadriceps. The dimples that form above the gluteus maximus on either side of the sacrum. Perhaps even his smile. (I'll definitely be using the striped tube sock on the forearm in my next piece.) But nothing so similar to him as to receive a call asking who the hell I think I am painting his likeness without his permission.
I'm a painter, not a stalker.