First post on this forum so thought I'd share my first nude experience. My wife and I are both massage therapists and in the course of business we came across two life drawing models. It made me think about how bold, brave and daring they were to take their clothes off and let other people draw them. This was about six years ago and it followed a rather dramatic and unpleasant existential mid-life crisis. The aftermath of this crisis (in 2011) was that we entered a period of renewed vigour and lust for life, learning to contemplate new things and think of our lives in new and different ways. So I dared myself to volunteer as a life drawing model. It was an art group far enough away from home that nobody would know me, and it happened to be in a Methodist church hall, which rather amused me as most of the religious folks I knew would never entertain such activities in a church hall. The door opened straight out onto the street and was not locked during the class so anyone could have walked in. A circle of twenty or so ladies surrounded me and I was very nervous but also determined. Driving home afterwards I felt so exhilarated and liberated, and vowed to do it again, which I did several times with various groups. Later on my wife joined me too and we sat as a couple.
This was the begining of several steps that led us to place of feeling much more comfortable being naked in front of others, especially other who were naked too.
Good for you both - I've never done it, I have been naked with others clothed or not a lot so that doesn't bother me one bit, I'm just not sure about not moving for so long.
I have drawn naked people in my day, not 'in the flesh' so to say but from pictures to try to get the form and proportions correct - I haven't for long time - my issue was always faces - getting the eyes so you could identify the person - I real skill that I don't have.
I swapped over to landscapes - but time had many demands so not done that for a long time - only a few more years now until retirement, when I hope I'll get time back again.
Keeping still was far more demanding than dealing with any nerves about naked.
They usually started with short dynamic poses that are harder to hold for more than five or ten minutes, before moving on to more relaxed poses that could be held for much longer.
We only did it for a few years because our joints ached that much. Sometimes at the end when they said you can move now, we couldn't. We were locked into position! But in pain!
It was a catalyst, though, for reconsidering all sorts of things about ourselves and nudity.
Before 2011 we wouldn't have even entertained the possibilty. We'd had twenty plus years being so dam conventional and predictable. Life got busy but boring, so we made changes.
It is good to see more life models on the site. Planning and holding the pose is always the hardest part.
I made my debut tonight, hurraaaaaah. Not in a church hall, but another old building. Only ladies turned up to do the drawing and one of them was a first timer like me and we had a chat before the session got underway. I disrobed and hopped onto the dais, suggested my first pose woud be the "on your marks" racing position, got into it and the ladies started drawing. This was to be a quick 5 minutes warm up but it actually lasted 10 minutes. By then the knee that was on the floor was numb and my arms were starting to wobble so a change of position was very welcome.
My next pose was based on a warm up stretch I used to do for karate - sit on the floor, join my feet sole to sole, wrap my fngers around my toes and draw them into my groin, lowering my knees to the side. I kept this position for 15 minutes and could feel my tendons gently stretching throughout, then realised I hadn't really thought it through - my knees started to gently lower towards the floor so my static pose only remained static by gently tensing to counteract the stretch. It seemed to work as I was complimented on being so still. The only "complaint" was the complex arrangement of my fingers and toes was challenging to capture in a drawing. One of the ladies chatted about her karate days as this drawing got under way and it was good to have something in common to keep the session relaxed. After that came a 30 minute pose with cushions were arranged so I could lie on my side slightly curled up in a sleeping position. It was almost too comfortable as the half hour flew by.
After a break for a bit of chatter over cups of tea with biscuits, and a look at the drawings so far, it was time for the long pose of 50 minutes. I sat on a stool, lifted my right ankle onto my left knee and conscious of complex fingers I placed them behind my right leg - which got a thank you from the ladies - and elbows out to the side. I found I could genlty relax different parts of my body one after the other wthout moving and a couple of deep breaths every now and then eased a slight tension in my back. Again that seemed to work well and I was complimented on not moving for what ended up beimg 55 minutes to allow a couple of ladies to finish off their final details.
I really enjoyed the challenge of coming up with poses and sitting still. The ladies were very friendly and chatty too. Best of all - I've been invited back after Christmas.
Smooth again, stayed hairy for as long as I could.
Well done!