Where the men are naked

Charcoal, coloured chalk, sketchpads, a fun environment and a naked man.
What more could you possibly want?

Saturday 30 April 2011

Mr Spock again

On Wednesday, I did some modeling for a friend near Glasgow, so on Monday - in anticipation of this - I got waxed again.  This meant the thatch was looking good for today's class.  Now that I've started this regime, I want to maintain it.  Personal grooming gets a little more intimate when people see me naked all the time and I want to look my best.

There was no surprise this week.  The bride already knew what to anticipate, so the "hide-in-the-bathroom" intro was pretty redundant.  I spoke to the girl who hired me and we briefly discussed the best way to go, though.  We decided to go for the unveiling element, then while she went to fetch the rest of the group, I quickly got changed into my light trousers - the red ones this time.  Once everybody had arrived and was ready to start drawing, I stripped them off.

First pose was a Superman impression - always a difficult one to maintain.  We're not physically designed to hold an arm out for a prolonged period, so the strain quickly becomes too much.  Later, I was asked to do a "muscle-man" pose.  Now, I've got good abs, but my pecs and biceps aren't really much to show off, so I was a bit shy, but they promised to flatter me - and they did.  Nobody's ever drawn me so muscular before.

For the second time in as many weeks, I found a picture where I looked like Mr Spock.  Which leaves me wondering if I can introduce a new challenge.  Channel your favourite celebrity while drawing me and see if I can guess who I'm meant to be.  Think it'll work?  Worth a shot.

Saturday 23 April 2011

Ballater

A long day, but very rewarding.  A train from Edinburgh to Aberdeen, followed by a bus from Aberdeen to Ballater and a taxi from Ballater to Gairnshiel Lodge where the group was all set up and ready for me.  It's always enjoyable when a booking gets me out of town, though - a different environment keeps everything fresh and creative.

Gairnshiel Lodge is a beautiful place.  A Victorian hunting lodge with views of Glencairn and Ben Avon.  It was built in 1746, so I was left a little curious about any connections it might have with the aftermath of the Jacobite rising.  None of that mattered, though, when I was posed against a window with spectacular views of an amazing environment.  A lot of the girls took full advantage of that and included the scenery in their drawings.

I was asked to start out partially dressed for this class in case full nudity from the outset was a bit too shocking for some of the participants, so I took along a pair of pyjama style trousers that had been a present from a friend in America.  They really looked the part - black, with red, flaming hearts.  Colourful and extravagant - they seemed to go down well.  Two poses later, they came off and underneath them I was wearing tight boxers, but when that extra layer was revealed, there were some protests - so they came off, too.  The nudity was well received and we moved on to the next pose with renewed enthusiasm.

The only real disappointment with the day was the weather.  We had been assured of plenty of sunshine and if that had been delivered, the location was perfect for holding the class outside.  It was nicely remote, so little chance of anyone stumbling upon us unexpectedly.  But it was just a bit too drizzly for that, so we stayed inside the lodge.  That was a shame.  I haven't posed outside so far, and it would have been fun to do that for the first time in such a great location.

After the class, I got dressed and was given a glass of champagne, then was kindly taken back into Ballater - and then it was on to the long trip back to Edinburgh.  I got home at around 11PM.  Absolutely exhausted, but still buzzing from a fun class.

Friday 8 April 2011

Giant inflatable penis

Alison and I met at the corner of the High Street, then walked down to Old Tolbooth Wyndham where our party was being held on Friday night.  I always like private venues.  There's a "sneaking about" element that's always a lot of fun.  There's always someone who needs to be surprised, so that person (or people) needs to be out of the way while the tutor and I are led inside.  This time it was just the one person - the bride - who didn't know what was happening.

We found the place pretty easily and we saw some girls hanging about outside, but didn't want to introduce ourselves in case the bride was among them.  We walked over to the far side of the courtyard and sat down on a wall, while I sent a text to let the event organiser know I was outside, but the girls recognised us and started tentatively calling out my name even as I was sending the text.  We were taken inside and led into the main room, then I was shown to a bedroom while Alison handed out the charcoal and sketchpads.  I stripped, then walked back into the room and waited for the bride to be led in.  So this time, the girls who were already in the room were asking questions before the class had even started, which was entertaining.  There was a bit of debate about how best to greet the bride and everyone eventually agreed I should be facing her as she walked in.  I told the girls about a previous event where I was asked to hold the bride's Care Bear - her favourite toy - in front of myself as she walked in.  I always like these extra creative elements in the classes.

I had bought new charcoal for this class, but it was a different type.  A dozen blocks of black charcoal and two dozen blocks of coloured chalks.  I wasn't sure how well they would work, so this was a bit of an experiment.  They went down really well... some of the drawings from this class were a lot more colourful than anything that had been produced before.  One of the girls drew a beautiful picture that I wanted to steal.  Very stylistic and 1960s, with flowers for my eyes.  I loved it.

When it came to the final pose, the bride was persuaded to leave the room and get changed into an inflatable penis costume that the girls had brought with them, then pose with me.  I got down on my knees and cuddled her.  It was one of the drawings from this pose was the one that won the usual competition.  It looked like I was cuddling a giant, slightly floppy penis.  I wanted to steal that picture, too.

Afterward, Alison and I went for a drink at the Royal Oak to round off a fun evening.

Smoke

I made up a book of some of my pictures. Just in case anyone's interested. It's very expensive, but you can see and buy it at the Blurb website and you can get a preview of it here. Just the first fifteen pages, though. Consider it a teaser.