We've got a couple overhead poses in the store under "Foreshortening Challenge Poses" that were shot from a ladder. As you've discovered, it's a rare angle to shoot a model from. When we get back to real life, you might try sketching from the top deck of a parking garage along a busy street.
Great idea, and difficult to do. I work with figure models who pose for live drawing sessions, but are not able to be photographed because they also have jobs outside of art modeling. I can certainly appreciate that, but it means I couldn't add diversity to the photo collection this year. Next year I will continue working on the model diversity project. The reality is that I will need to find diverse photographic models and teach them how to pose for drawings.
-David B.
We are figure models, and we work with a diverse team of models here in Pittsburgh. We work in the classrooms, and having a day when students make progress is our biggest payback. The students, and our instructors, speak about the "gaze" issues being discussed in this thread. Models don't take gaze into consideration when we go to work. We are there to teach students to draw the human form in a comfortable, welcoming environment. In other words, concerns about gaze belong to the artist, not the model.
The reason we don't have photographs of the models we work with: they have jobs outside of figure modeling and could get fired if photographs of them posing nude were available. Simple answer. Same reason we don't allow smart phone usage in the art studio, and why you can't take reference pictures at an open studio session.
We are fortunate to be able to provide images to Line of Action, since we are self-employed and won't fire ourselves for artistic expression.
-Betsy and David, Art Models
