Does taking life drawing classes make you uncomfortable?

I remember my first life drawing classes. There was no warning. This older but well built dude just strolls in. gets butt-naked and my professor is like alright you got 20mins. At that point I figure everyone was too focused trying to draw to be bothered with this guy's junk just hanging out. My professor had to critique me 5 times on making his junk look too big.. and had to hold up a ruler with her thumb to my drawing and then to the model. Good times Point is if you're an artist, you'll get use to it. Just be mature about it. It's honestly the best way to learn.

At first, drawing nude models was kind of a very awkward idea for me, but it was required in both my basic drawing and basic painting classes in my course. At first, I thought it was going to be like being in a strip club watching naked people for a prolonged period of time (normally like 4-8 hours for an average drawing session), and what if "something" happens while doing so. However, what I found was that, as long as you're seriously focusing on the work at hand, I tend to forget that there was any awkwardness at all. It might sound dehumanizing, but as soon as you start drawing the model, all sense of the human person is stripped from them, turning them into nothing more than an object to draw, however, your job as an artist to to return their humanity by communicating it into the medium you're working with. As you fulfill the purpose of them being the object for your sketches, they become human not just as themselves, but also on the canvas of your art. I've felt the same way after doing it 3 times and I gotta say that it's such an amazing experience Just don't look too deeply at their junk regardless of gender, that gets weird after you draw (I spent a good 15 minutes on 2 occasions trying to perfectly draw both a pair of boobs from a woman and a penis from a man) ^^"

9am Monday morning, freezing cold, I got to the class late and just grabbed some paper in a rush, set up my easel and unpacked my charcoal, only then did I peer up at the model, who just so happened to be 3 metres away from me, spread eagle, knees up at her sides, her squiggy bits pointed straight at me. It may have been the shock of the moment, but I can't recall whether it was her or me who was more awkward in that moment.

The other funny moment we had was when this model who we'd never had before unrobed and he was hung like a donkey, I'm talking long and thick, despite how cold it was. There was this one girl with bright scarlet hair and skin like white porcelain who turned so red it only brought attention to her and made her even redder. To make matters worse, when we saw what she'd drawn, all the lines were clean except where the junk was, which was a dark smear of charcoal where she'd rubbed it out and redrawn it again and again.

Good times.

It's pretty interesting and fun. You can even simulate the experience with plenty of sketch websites out there that will give you the opportunity to draw a variety of live models in a number of positions. The in-person experience is usually richer, I find, but may not suit your tastes; you can always try sites that specialize in this to get used to the idea.

The most common problem, I find, is that some people conflate nudity with sex or sexuality, and the two aren't necessarily ever related.

In college I had drawing classes with naked people and it's completely normal!

Many people have asked me if it's strange or awkward in any way but I always said it's pretty normal.

It's like you're working on something and you're focused on your drawing. You're not really thinking " omg this person it's naked in front of me" x)! You'll be calm and focused drawing the person as you we're if it was a basket of fruit !

Ok probably on your first day you may be a bit anxious but the next days you'll be pretty fine in my opinion!

Those classes are pretty helpful to train your drawing skinlls and to learn Body Proportions and Anatomy :)!

Good Luck!!

ok i will add this funny but true tale...

when my big brother found out i was taking life drawing classes he asked if he could go along ( something i found highly strange as he cannot draw for toffee) I had thought worked out right away what he was up too and as it was an open class i knew he could tag along. he was so disappointing that the model was a guy (yes i knew that upfront too, i'm a mean little brother) needless to say he never asked to come to any art class again, non arty people just don't see the world like the rest of us.

A little bit. I try to focus on the drawing and the process, skill of drawing than the person themselves. I see the person standing there as a learning experience, and that makes the awkwardness fade away.

Might be a bit awkward for the first few minutes when you're starting out, but then you get used to it. And it's worth it, because it really helps you improve at drawing! When I've done it, the focus was mostly on things like "Wow! Look at the angle of that elbow!". Also, it's great when you get a model that's really good at finding and holding interesting poses!

In my very first life drawing class I got caught off guard. I was suddenly very nervous and had this great urge to start laughing. I looked around to my other classmates to see if anyone else was about to break out into giggles... But no, I was the only one. The sudden realization that I was indeed the most immature person in the room made my giggles go away instantly. ( I was bright red in the face for the remainder of class I assure you.)

Really, the models are just people. Some models in my school would chat with the students and compliment our work at break time and a lot of them were really nice people. This is their job. Full time or part time, they are probably pretty comfortable standing up there and they recognize that they're there to help you understand anatomy better and to improve your skills. There's no need to feel uncomfortable.

I think the only time it got awkward for me was when we had this model with a like...semi boner the whole time who just made constant eye contact with me. It was... yeah, uncomfortable. Other than that, it was fine, well, unless you're like me and using charcoal makes you uncomfortable XD. I hate using charcoal and ever single class required it. groan
It really does help though. Especially with figuring out how the body looks under different light and in unusual positions. I highly recommend it.

it's completely nonsexual! everybody's uncomfortable for the first couple days, but you get used to it--and NO class has helped me out more than life drawing. it is so hecking crucial my man
and it's fun, too!
-goji

The first day was uncomfortable but then you sort if get used to it. I dunno, like I don't find non-sexualized nudity to be that shocking. There was one model which I chatted with in between his sessions, I did not find chatting with him awkward.

I have never had any problem with it myself even though I have always been very shy. When you work with models it is usually very focused when you draw. Where I live the models usually stand for a maximum of 20 minutes at a time, so you have to focus on what you are doing. Especially if you are drawing quicker poses. When I went to school we did everything from 10 second poses to full days from 9-5 with just one pose.
Usually the model put on a robe or something similar during the breaks. We once had a model who put on a jedi cape between the sessions who would also do a lot of Star Wars inspired poses.
But one time we had this weird old lady pose for us who did not dress up again during the breaks. Instead she was walking around the classroom wearing slippers only. And she always got just a little bit too close when she talked to us. One day she basically trapped one of my friends in a corner and started asking him if he liked older women. This is the only time any of us had a negative experience though. 99,99% of the time the whole "life drawing" thing have felt very professional and focused.

To be honest I have often found life drawing very boring. But it has helped immensely. I have also drawn clothed models but I did not learn as much from this as I did from drawing nudes.

It was never awkward for me. My slightly hippie mommy taught me that a body is just a body and that there's absolutely nothing sexual about nudity until sexual actions are being performed.
I was scared that it would be difficult for me since the model was a bit on the chubby side and at that point it still wasn't many years since I had overcome my anorexia, but all was fine with that, too. There weren't many things I actually found valuable in the aesthetics classes I took for three years... but if I could have picked out whatever was valuable, done those classes and then just walked off and went on with my life, I would have picked color theory and nude art drawing. Hell, I would have learnt much more if I spent all those three years drawing various nude models of different bodytypes lol

I took figure drawing in college, but I waited till my junior year which helped since the whole naked people thing was less of an awkward concept by then. It would of felt weird if I was still a freshmen maybe because of how shy and innocent I was at the time. (note my friends said I was innocent, so going off that basis)

I went to an all girls college, so to see a completely naked man standing in our small class room was awkward at first, also our art teacher made him do really weird poses that he had to hold a stick to stay up and could only be in the pose less than a minute due to the strain. It was a bit weird, but you had to draw so fast that you didn't notice. O_O Was like 20 secs flip page 10 seconds flip page etc.

Also he was super confident, he would have a whole conversation about his kids while he was naked.

The first time you go to a nude figure drawing class yes, you'll probably be a little embarrassed. You get over it quickly, a body is just a body. You're just drawing and learning about posing, proportions, and anatomy.

Nah, mine is always bigger