For centuries, artists have chosen to make paintings and drawings directly from people sitting in front of them. Some artists do it for practise, to exercise the relationship between their eye and hand, whereas for others, the figure is the subject matter for their day to day practice.
Tracey Emin was filmed for the very enjoyable BBC series; ‘What Do Artists Do All Day’ a few years back. Her episode can still be found on Youtube, in two parts, here and here. If you would prefer to watch just a small section, skip to 4 minutes 40 seconds on the first link to hear her talk about life drawing.
In contrast to Emin’s expressive drawing and painting style, painter Euan Uglow’s process involved obsessively measuring out every part of the model posing in front of him, including distances between the edge of one shadow and another. Martin Gayford produced this 17 minute programme for radio 3, which Raphael Hynes has added some images to.
Rebecca Nicholson wrote this interesting article for the Guardian newspaper about the experiences of five people who sat for well known artists. It includes Jake Auerbach talking about his experience sitting for his father Frank, who was the subject for a previous theme and who gave a rare interview recently for the podcast This Cultural Life.
Finally, for something about drawing in general, in the opinion of CAI (Contemporary Art Issue) , William Kentridge is number one in their ‘Top 10 Most Famous Drawing Artists Today’ list. Who would you have at the top of your list?