Posing Nude for Groups - Art Classes and Photographic Clubs
Sorry I haven't been active on the group so far, but this post has stirred me on. Annie - that was so obviously a real life-changing moment for you. It makes me wonder whether your current partner was around at the time and if so what he thought of it. Sorry if I am asking too many questions!
What really got my attention was the uncannily close parallel to my own experience. When I was still at school I joined up for art classes at a local art club. There were regular life drawing sessions with male and female models, usually middle aged or even retired. I kept hoping a well-equipped young man might turn up one week but that never happened! What did happen, however was a total surprise, which for me was life-changing in much the same way as your experience.
I turned up early for one session and noticed a girl I recognised from school. She was standing at the front, obviously waiting for someone and looking rather nervous and fidgety. She was a few years older than me, and I knew she had left school a year or so before. I sat down on one of the drawing donkeys and looked over at her. I remember trying to suppress that typical school habit that older girls never mix with younger girls, but she was the one to break the ice. She looked over at me and seemed almost relieved to see someone she knew. I walked over to her and recalled just in time that her name was Nina. She smiled and said, "I'm sorry I have forgotten your name." I still hadn't worked out why she was there so I asked her innocently "are you joining the class?" She gave a rather embarrassed giggle and said "no, I'm supposed to be the model, it's my first time and I'm feeling very nervous." I was both astonished and very impressed. Nina told me she was now a student nurse and that some of the older students had recommended posing for life classes as a good way to raise some extra money. Our discussion was interrupted when the tutor arrived and I sat down again while the tutor showed Nina the changing room.
I felt incredibly excited while we waited for Nina to come out. I had always loved playing nude games with the local kids, but as puberty arrived most of them dropped out. I was recalling how much I had loved showing off, and feeling very envious of the opportunity Nina was getting. She walked out in a white robe, had a whispered discussion with the tutor, then slipped off the robe and walked over to the couch. I was in line to see what a great bottom she had, but students on the other side of the room would have had a full frontal view. The tutor directed her in a pose and then I got a brief view of her full dark bush as she stretched out on the couch.
I waited around after the session until Nina came out of the changing room. I think she was glad to see me and we walked and chatted and agreed to keep in touch. I didn't contact her for some time, but when I did it was to tell her my latest incredibly exciting bit of news.........
It was another art class evening. The tutor told the class that the life model had just phoned in to cancel because of a sick child. He asked if anyone would like to volunteer to pose instead, adding quickly, with an embarrassed smile "you don't have to take your clothes off". The embarrassed smile turned to a grin as he added "unless you want to." No-one moved at first, but two or three students looked at me, probably because they wanted someone young and pretty to draw. I wasn't averse to the idea, so just that little encouragement was enough to get me onto the couch in the middle of the studio. Sitting there, trying to keep very still, I felt I hadn't had the opportunity to prepare properly for my first session as an artist's model. I was feeling slightly scruffy and distinctly unglamorous in jeans and baggy top, and I thought off how Nina had been fully prepared for her debut, scrubbed clean, perfect make-up and gleaming shiny hair.
But, of course, Nina hadn't had to worry about what she was wearing - I couldn't stop thinking about that, and I was still thinking about it when the class took a break. I wandered around the studio to loosen up a bit and out of curiosity I looked into the model's changing room; it was just a large storage room. The light was on, there was a mirror on a stand and clothes rack with a towelling gown on a hanger.
I really can't remember what happened in the changing room, I think the robe on the hanger was an invitation I just couldn't resist. What I do know was that I walked back out into the studio wearing only the robe. The students were gathering as I walked over to the couch, but the tutor had not yet come back. It was a moment or two before someone noticed what I was wearing, but then some sort of subliminal message seemed to pass rapidly round the group. In a moment everyone was looking at me. Their reactions were all slightly different, but I could read from all their faces that they understood exactly why I was standing in front of them in a towelling robe with my bare legs and feet showing.
I heard the studio door click shut and guessed that the tutor had returned. Although I had no carefully thought out plan, I knew my moment had come - I would have to present him with a fait accompli; standing nude ready to resume my role as the evening's life model. I was beset by fear, not of posing nude, but of being humiliated, in my own eyes at least. I was the youngest student in the class, and I had a dreadful feeling the tutor would send me back to the changing room to get dressed again, without ever having taken the gown off.
It is an old clich, but I felt time slow down to a crawl as I slipped off robe. I heard some gasps of delight, or maybe astonishment from the other students as I turned to look at the tutor. I saw his face go through a whole series of expressions as he realised what had just happened. He was clearly pondering just what he ought to do about it. As concern began to build up in his features, I put on her most winning smile and said to him "if I was going to pose for the class, I thought I ought to do it properly". The tutor looked at the other students and clearly read approval in their faces. He still hesitated and I held my breath. I began to breath again when I saw him visibly relax. A few seconds later I felt a shudder of delighted anticipation when I realised he was now studying my nude body with his acute artist's eye.
"Thanks, Steph. How do you want to pose?" That was something new; the tutor didn't normally give models a choice of pose. I felt flattered, and chose to start with a standing pose. That was something of a rarity for the class; the tutor had explained in an earlier session that most models didn't feel capable of holding a standing pose for very long. I had remembered that; it seemed like a challenge worth responding to.
The tutor seemed impressed by my confidence and suggested a pose which was elegant but fairly discreet. I felt a bit disappointed that he was being so careful - I was still quite young and didn't really trim at all, so I had plenty of hair to cover things up.
And so I spent the next hour or so in a variety of poses. To my slight disappointment all of them were discreet - I think the tutor was being very cautious with his young amateur model.
When I came out of the changing room at the end of the session two of the younger male students were hovering around, I guessed to offer to walk me home. One of them got in first, but I had already formed a plan - I suggested I walk part way home with both of them. I didn't really fancy either of them and I didn't want them to find out where I lived.
And the next day I phoned Nina to tell her all about my great adventure. She was disappointed that she hadn't been offered any more modelling sessions, but we had a great time discussing our feelings about posing nude for the first time. She told me that one of her nursing friends had been talking about photographic modelling which she had heard paid twice as well as art class work, and that she was seriously thinking of giving it a go. Having really enjoyed my art class session, that really caught my interest and I asked her to keep me updated.
It was a little while before she called back.
The proposal she put to me will have to be a whole story in itself....
Stephanie