Saturday, March 13, 2010

Lessons in Nudity












(To enlarge this image, click on the man's right kidney.)

Bizarro is brought to you today by Future Figure Drawing Models.

This cartoon brings me back to art school. I dropped out after a semester, never to return, but during that semester, figure drawing class was my favorite. Not because of the nudity, none of the models were sexually attractive, but because I like drawing animals of all sorts and humans fall squarely into that category.

One of our models was a young hipster dude with a Tom Selleck mustache and a Brady Bunch Half-fro. He thought he was God's gift to women and while other models would put on a bathrobe and tie a belt around their waist during our 10-minute breaks, he wore one without a belt and just let the front hang open while he hit on the girls in our class. This was 1976, before college campuses became hotbeds of sexual harassment litigation. Nobody much liked this guy, including the girls.

Another incident I remember that would have landed someone on an unemployment line today had to do with the teacher for the second-year figure drawing class. She was a very attractive woman in her early thirties and many of the male students had a crush on her. One day, when her model did not show up for a class, she stripped and did the modeling herself. On my break, I happened past her room and it was full of not just students but dozens of spectators. There were so many, in fact, that the crowd spilled out into the hallway, and boys were straining to see over the drove and through the narrow doorway. Good times.

8 comments:

idsvil said...

This one cracks me up, because I cannot tell if the students are ignoring the model because he is not what they want to look at, or are they knitting him clothing as fast as they can! For any former or current art students, or anyone really, I reccommend the movie "Art School Confidential". It is pretty funny and it covers many of the different art student and teacher stereotypes quite well.

Unknown said...

haha nice :)

Neil J Murphy said...

A little Freudian slip with the mention of bathrobes and belts in that second paragraph, Dan?

Unknown said...

A belt around their waste, you say? Sounds absolutely filthy!

elizabeth said...

Oh, you’d be surprised at the shenanigans that still go on in art schools. Even the public ones like mine. Nothing as awesome as the teacher modeling nude, but close to it at times.

The Yarnwinder said...

Great cartoon. Knitter's are really enjoying it.

June said...

This cartoon hit me right in the needles. I'm a chronic knitter. Plus the blog reminded me of when my 10 year old son took a life art class in SF with Open Education Exchange. I thought they would be drawing still life. Instead he came home with a drawing of a nude woman with a heart tattoo on her butt. I accused him of artistic license, but he said she really had the tattoo.

Benita said...

Wow! A lot has changed since the 1970's. I can't imagine the teacher stripping off today, but gathering a huge audiene? Not in our art center! Wow!