Life models are what makes classes buzz or not as this is what we are all here to draw, paint and we all feel quite privileged to do that. A huge thank you to them...
London is the only place in our galaxy where someone has made a business out of Art models while helping Art schools and up to 650 weekly classes in London in 2014, find their models.
In 2005 to help save classes from certain extinctions we tripled the Life model's wages as they we still, since antiquity, treated like objects if Lucky and we would find some absolutely depressed, crying at classes, so good old us had to do something about it and so we did, which 100X the amount of models in 2 years and also 100X the amount of classes in 10.
In 2004 they were so badly treated and exploited that we won't go into further details here, so keep you smiling.
When we tripled their minimum wage, they were so many of them asking for work that someone, one of them, had to charge them to gain the right to work, which is prohibited in quite a few industries but tolerated with models such as Fashion models who earn 100X more. They charged other models at first to limit their number but soon realized the potential £ss.
For us to try to show responsibility for the fact that we tripled their wages and changed everything, we will always/always did, help them at no cost to them, unless they insist obviously.
General Guidelines for Life models:
What makes a good Life model?
First is reliability so if anything happens they need to know a few other models to find a replacement. Second is Honesty as some need the jobs and will pretend that they know what to do/have experience but simply don't and affect the person who hired them. This is even more true for Private Studio models as they find it easier to talk their way. Third is Moving their body, especially their face, their arms that they raise when they shouldn't and how straight or bent their back is, after that it become experience in knowing which poses they can keep for any duration and things we tell them about.
What makes a bad model?
A bad life model is someone who doesn't do what they need to, that we just explained, but also as number 1, the worst possible is attitude, big egos and telling the Art teacher what to do.
Models in general do not want to be forgotten so when their are good at what they do, all is fine for them, but if they are average or if they think they are, they may use forceful tricks to make sure employers possibly have no choice but to give them the job again. Very good models sometime grow a large ego and walk on the fine line of bullying/forcing Art teachers to employ them regularly and this leads to dirty tricks such as gossips, sabotage, slender, helping the competition game so they can definitely be rewarded for helping a competitor and that has and is still happening in London a Lot. As they say the truth will set us FREE...
A few other things are, it they sleep/fall asleep, if they start asking what pose to do, if they ask to be paid in advance which really shows they never worked in this industry and instead in others they should keep secret of. We are talking about in Person classes as for in-person private modelling things get different, asking to be paid in advance is fine as too many do end up not getting paid. In general it is better to be paid after the job was done as it show professionalism. An artist that pays in advance, in Private and doesn't get what he/she wants can become aggressive/a bit of a pain, so something to expect/be aware of, and good to avoid.
What kind of models get the jobs in all honesty?
After 20+ years of extensive experience, models who work more than others are: .... The agile, dancer type male or female model. We had a yearly Life model election/competition for 6 years and all winners were always dancers, for the way they move and hold themselves as well as fitness/will power to stay still.
The next kind are models with obvious apparent energy, great personalities, those with nice skins, contortionists, very large, very tall, very something.
What helped many classes in London become incredibly busy/successful in term of models from 2010
In fact it started with one man, in it's late 20's who looked like a movie star, with a great physic but who was incredibly shy and reserved. He would use Life modelling to finally get out of his shell and did what no model ever did and possibly never will again. If you become a full member with us, i'll tell you many secrets like this :). This was in Bethnal green, London, yards from where we started our very first class in 2003 with someone we introduced to meetup.com. Whatever happened after that was fantastic as the level was raised so high that Art teachers/art schools, everywhere had to spy on others to try to reach the same success and so new celebrity models appeared who understood the trend and Power they had and still have.
Why is it a good idea to be a good Life model?
Nowadays, the most successful English Life Drawing classes who take advantage of having incredibly busy classes, continue being succesful by again tripling their wages. which is something that less succesfull classes simply can't afford so they never loose their models, and continue cashing in. This means guys that if you become good enough, they'll pay you about £100 a class as long as you don't work with the competition but most still do. Big unis, Art schools use their name and reputation to be able to pay less that/ignore the minimum wage we increased of £20/h in 2015 and only pay £12 to £15/h and still manage to find models who enjoy the buzz of modeling for classes of teenagers and young adults.
Why did we start classes with up to 6 life models in 2008?
From 2010 the same people who started the first exploitation/industry of Life models ever, asked some of their most desperate models to start/test little ideas/businesses. One of them was, which they did realize, was the idea of filling up a room with 50 to 100 Life models where young girls would volunteer to hopefully get employed/paid again and where most men had to pay £5 to £10 to pose nude with them for big Art colleges and unis. This went on as a business for a few years until we found out /exposed it, and so very soon they changed their way and instead went the school, Art school reputation way. I think now all are volunteers and they may have created a charity or probably will, this being another trick of the trade.
Around 2010 we found out that they were charging Life models for the right to work and more/double to audition, which was pure broad daylight exploitation and so we offered a place to all London Art models to audition at our Bethnal green classes. This was in addition to our paid models we'd have on the day and not a replacement. They even send auditionees to Art classes who pay them a membership or at least did for a while. This obviously resulted in us making a few business enemies which we have to deal with on a permanent regular basis for about 15 years. Most of them we don't and will never know who they are. Those like us who try to change things, even if it's to improve them, always make secret, hidden enemies no matter what industry you're in. Tony, our founder and the dynamo behind al this, made more enemies in his lifetime than friends because of that as he always have been this way, trying to make a Better World (Born in September like Michael Jackson). The baddies are still doing their exploitation because Art teachers and Art schools don't have the time and funding to organize their models and so this is what we are going to help them with, taking the time we need to get it right. Please keep away from those baddies , ignore them, and instead enjoy and follow what is slowly happening here with us. Those who can help us get there quicker are the Life models themselves, so we'll explain, to you later, how you can just do that.
What do we do to keep Life models safe in the long term?
We ask them to change their name and give us photos that cannot be traced back to them as in the past a lot has happened.
Some came back to us years later and didn't know how to get rid of photos of themselves showing on Google where their name was mentioned. Some of those images, were originally used on Meetup.com and they wouldn't help so they had to go through long term process with google to solve the problem and weren't always successful. New photos that you won't use in the future on social media are vital, as it is now possible to find who's who, just with a photo using reverse photo search. Finally those people we tried to stop from abusing/exploiting Life models, even if we never ever met them, do keep trying to affect our Network by contacting Life models they can find, scare them, worry them bully them out of working with us, so by changing their name, we make the baddies life difficult :).
What do we do to help Private life models?
We tell them what this bunch of baddies don't even know about, which is why do private models get in dangerous situations and then how to avoid that. The problem here is mainly ignorance of the other gender as well as the will to no want to learn for those who gave up hope.
Something that you won't hear often and 100% true is that 30% of life models aren't there to life model/work, they are there to find pleasure mates. What we know from experience and from witnesses is that the most surprising, is what goes on in the Life model world with those 30%. They go to extremes to hopefully find what they hope to find and have to be really brave and do 100 jobs they hate to find one they like with an Artist they also like.
Predator Artists are the hidden type who simply don't know how to find what they are looking for and rarely find it, because they cannot explain what they want freely, so scared, worried that this could crush their life forever and so they don't explain exactly what they want but insinuate instead. Only those who label themselves as Erotic Artists and brave enough to do so, do get there at the end finding their more than willing match.
A Life model who is not interested in having a good time while modelling, needs to make it clear, obvious which is not the case, most of the time, as they badly need the job which puts Artists sometime in really bad positions.
The secret here, knowing that about 30% of models are up for a good time, is for all life models to be honest, less desperate for the jobs and learn how the other gender functions.
Quick tips and tricks here on how to recognize a male predator?
It's the one that doesn't draw models regularly but occasionally when he gets excited about the idea of Drawing a nude model, someone that make sure the model knows he is single, directly or indirectly, an artist that is less than 50 years old who dresses well, that is too nice and talkative, that offers food and/or drinks and doesn't have much or any passed artworks to show and exhibitions for example to talk about.
How to recognize a male or female model predator?
Well, the first click is the staring at the Artist when modeling, then when the model offers freebies, like free modelling time, for female models it will be in her behaviour as let's not forget that we are still animals and all animals are in heat once a month for women and every 2/3 days for men in average.
We've seen incredible events happen between female life models and quiet type geeky, regular Artists at classes, simply unbelievable so won't try to explain here. It was the time of the month for them, the lady models and they knew that those Artists would continue coming to draw regularly so all hardly noticeable.
Male models who are considering themselves as predators are the kind to have found the only job on this planet where they are welcome to take their kit off and not only that but get paid for it. So men being in heat regularly means that they usually prefer to pose when they are and choose, decide to pose only when they are, knowing that they can only look, then, more masculine. We've had all sorts of those predator models, throughout the years, from Actors, Judges, ex MP's, big businesses directors etc... A true professional Life model never chooses when to pose, doesn't speak much, covers himself whenever not posing, when the predator won't hoping to attract good intentions.
In an ideal World both kinds would be completely separated putting serious artists and models together and alternative ones also together but those don't want to be known as such as tolerance is only a word and competition/competitiveness will always remain more important. Jobs with Art schools and serious Artists will always be too sparse and all models will always wonder where they need to belong. We do not think that predator Artists want to use Life models as escort but as people they can have much more time to contemplate, appreciate, get to know so they get to like them and the best drawings/Paintings ever produced we made by Artists who really liked, their Model or Muse without being in Love and more like friendship without obstruction, hiding anything, Artist and model helping each other if they can in any possible way in complete trust.
Problems unfortunately rise with Life models that nobody want to draw or Paint or know at all as sometime they are good at anything. Those make it difficult for the happy artists and models at least nowadays, using all possible online tricks, slender, defamation, gossips, feminism, sexism etc... Fortunately 99.9% of them disappear, blend with the decor and hide they ever done this job, but a few activist that nothing or nobody can stop, continue making things difficult for the Happy Artists and models... Life modelling for thousands of years, exactly 500,000 years has been a Muse thing and women weren't invited to any Art schools, which is a bad thing but our reality. Artists and Art models were buddies helping each other create masterpieces and was never a job in a company, business where rules had to be followed.
This concept has been recently invented by those few models who cannot find people who want to draw/paint them and who always find other Life models exactly with the same problem, male or female and so they create their own clans :). Because they are for most of them British and well educated they use their knowledge in speech and writing to continue sabotaging and when they can make a living out of the good Happy models and Artists, Hehe!
Our aim is to bring things back to what people want to do and achieve in total honesty and privacy using knowledge, good sense, fairness and the right way of what democracy is supposed to be, by making things simple, truthful and honest. The the hard work of producing masterpieces can happen without interference. Let the talented, good at something people do what they are good at or robots may replace us sooner than you think.