Art Models – Photos for Figure Drawing

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Interview with Tiziano Gilardoni

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“I’m convinced that art is a continuous flow”

Tiziano Gilardoni was born in Italy in 1974 and is currently living in a small town near Milan. He is a self-taught artist who creates beautiful sculptures using modeling clay and plaster. Even though his favorite expressive medium is sculpture, he is also a talented photographer and painter.

After studying Gilardoni’s work, anyone can understand the value that this artist gives to lines, light, textures and emotions. He can capture images of the Uriezzo Gorges and make viewers admire nature’s composition or draw a nude female model and encourage people to praise her or sculpt a mermaid and arouse powerful feelings in the audience.

In this Q&A artist Tiziano Gilardoni shares with PoseSpace how he discovered sculpting, how Rodin influenced his work, who is his Art Model muse and how he explores different styles:

When did you first know you wanted to become an artist?

If I look back to my childhood I remember I took in my hand a brush earlier than a pencil. There is no precise time in my life when I decided that. When I grew up I attended technical studies but I never stop drawing and painting during my free time. Then there have been times in which I worked nonstop on many projects in parallel and times when I created very few works.

I’m not sure I’m an artist... of course, I produce something that could be addressed as pieces of arts in the common sense, but I think that this definition should have deeper implication in the social impact of the works, time will tell.

You draw, paint, sculpt and even do photography… how did you develop all of these artistic skills?

I used to be a self-taught painter and an amateur photographer until I decided to attend a part-time 2 year course at the Italian Institute of Photography in Milan (IIF). This gave me the motivation and the critical view to seek harder for the topics and the fields of expressions I really felt belonging to me. Then in the following three years I attended some courses in the local art academy to improve my technique in life drawing. And in the meanwhile I discovered sculpting, that has been literally a revelation: I’ve never considered that could fit my way of expression until the first time I modeled a piece of clay, and from then on I realized it was the most natural and comfortable way for me. It has been the real driver to study human anatomy.

I’m convinced that art is a continuous flow: after a while that I deal with the same subject or the same technique I feel that I’m becoming self-referential, therefore I try to focus on a different topic, to experience something new or I even jump from sculpting into photography or drawing. And each project has its proper language that best fit to it: one shall be expressed by drawing, another could only be represented by a statue, and a third can only be a black and white photo. In the end, I started developing some skills to find my way, now I try to learn new skills that could fit the ideas I have in mind.

Which artists have influenced you?

I saw the marble of The Kiss at an exhibition in Milan, I started turning around it and I would never stop... in that time I understood that Rodin would have been my reference for sculpting. Sculptors can be divided in two groups: those who create a statue with a main view, and those who think that all the point of views are equally important. Rodin belongs to the second, and me too. When I work on a figure I want it to communicate something from each point of view: as long as the observer turns around it he/she should find new details, a foreshortening that provide an impression never felt before, or an unfamiliar point of view that compel him/her to stop and look again, literally a physical journey around it.

And then I like the color and the technique of Redon, the “flat” fields of color of Gauguin, the portraits of Helmut Newton, the atmospheres of Jeff Wall and the high contrasts of Salgado.

Do you have a favorite PoseSpace model or product?

The one I used most is the pose set of Vaunt. I liked this shooting very much because the poses fit pretty well with the ideas I had in mind, both for sculpting and drawing. But I also have some paper book as reference, I usually go through them when I have some new project in mind and I want to figure out the right posture and details.

Do you have a favorite source of materials?

I like to go to exhibitions and look at the work of other artists, and I also look at art sites on the web. All these provide me suggestions and techniques for future experiments. But the ideas for my projects usually come from everyday life and go through a long process of sedimentation and rethinking, only when I have clear in mind what I want I finally start working.

How has your style changed over the years?

I like figurative art and even if sometimes I explore new combinations, I think I will remain linked to figurative topics. And I’m moving towards simplification, both in subjects and shapes. Looking back to the last years I know that I usually oscillate between “color” and “monochrome” times: I really like powerful colors, when I decide to work with then I privilege saturation and vividness, they really become the key point of the composition; then after a while I come back to the monochrome, especially when I use photography, it is a kind of catharsis to clean the mind from the resonance of colors and prepare myself for the next step.

Tiziano Gilardoni’s  website: http://tizianogilardoni.weebly.com

Behance page: https://www.behance.net/tgilardoni7801

Interview by Andrea Miliani

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Interview with Joseph Pearson

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“I believe in the power of art to provoke and expand society’s re-imagination”

Joseph Pearson is an American artist based in Asheville. He paints people and figures using pastel pencil, charcoal and oil. His art embraces the social realism concept: he enjoys drawing scenes from the street and mirroring a reality. In this artist’s paintings, you can find a woman in a coffee shop scrolling through her smartphone or a young boy getting a haircut in the barbershop.

Pearson recently held an exhibition in a private high-school called "Thoughts on the Times: Reflections on Today's Current of Racial Injustice and Violence in America" and he was pleased when he realized that the young students understood his work. He believes that art can heal and open minds.

In this Q&A artist Joseph Pearson shares with PoseSpace how art helped him to express himself, what artists influenced his work, details about the art-making process and his greatest achievements:

Can you tell us about your background and how you got into art?

My background in art started when I was about 4-5 years old. I copied the illustrations in an old Sears and Roebuck catalog. I loved the idea of being able to make a figure from lines and shade. As a child and into adulthood I was an extremely shy person. Drawing allowed me to express myself in ways I couldn’t say in words and still does. The nude human figure has been a staple of artist training for hundreds of years. It is the most challenging and to me the most interesting subject. I especially love the female form for its grace, curves and sensuality and natural beauty. In addition, the figure allows me to connect with other humans in the expressing of my ideas because of our common humanity.

What are your goals or aspirations and which artists have influenced your work?

I believe in the power of art to provoke and expand society’s re-imagination. Throughout history, the arts have played a pivotal role in the expression of viewpoints and in influencing a change of perceptions and ideas about a given subject. That’s my goal as an artist. My major influences are the social realist artists, especially those of the old WPA (Works Project Administration) under President Franklin D. Roosevelt.

I had the honor of training with and being the friend of the late Hughie Lee-Smith, one of those artists. I love the works of the Charles White, Elizabeth Catlett, Jacob Lawrence.

I love Thomas Hart Benton, Raphael Soyer and many others of this school. Edward Hopper is one of my all time favorites!

How did you discover PoseSpace?

I discovered www.posespace.com searching for figure drawing resources.

Can you tell us about the process of making your work?

My art making process starts with an idea I want to express, this may be something I read, hear in the news or just an idea that comes to mind. Then I gather source material to develop the idea. If the final product is to be a drawing I may keep it gestural or I may develop it further depending on the idea I want to convey. It all starts with gesture, gesture is everything! That’s what I practice most from posespace.com.

I paint people as portraits and figures. I work in oil, charcoal and pastel pencil. I am a muralist and printmaker.

What has been your greatest artistic success?

My greatest artistic success(s)... there have been many. Most recent is having had an exhibition at a private high school where I addressed social injustice and the kids got it! That’s the power of art! Prior to that I had the honor of painting a mural and doing four charcoal portrait drawings for a very popular downtown restaurant here in the city. 1971 as an art student at the Art Students of New York I was awarded a full scholarship to attend this venerable institution! In 1998 I was awarded the prestigious Pollock-Krasner Foundation of NY grant. In 1999 I Commissioned by the White House Historical Association to represent the state of MS in celebrating the 300^th anniversary of the White House (2001 calendar). There are many other activities I count as major success that can be found on my website.

Joseph Pearson’s website: josephart.net

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/pages/category/Artist/Joseph-Pearson-Artist-1785168475036811/

Interview by Andrea Miliani

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Interview with Shannon Morrison

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“After many years of using the airbrush, it has become a profoundly magical process for me. I am amazed by how an image seems to magically appear, yet my hand never touches the painting’s surface”

Shannon Morrison is a self-taught artist who creates wonderful pieces of figurative art using his airbrush and acrylic paint. He was born in Michigan in 1973 and currently lives in Arizona, where he is focusing on increasing the production of paintings and improving his technique. With an Iwata HP-B airbrush and Createx colors, Shannon creates beautiful and realistic paintings with a subtle touch of fantasy.

When he is not painting or drawing, this artist also plays the shakuhachi—the Japanese bamboo-flute— and enjoys working out. He describes himself as a “fitness junkie”, and his passion for physical activities led him to appreciate more the human body and inspired him to study human anatomy. In his most recent work, Shannon focuses on the nude female body.

In this Q&A artist Shannon Morrison shares with PoseSpace how he got into art, why he uses airbrush as a tool, what life experiences influenced his work, valuable advice for artists who have an interest in airbrush and more:

Can you tell us about your background and how you got into art?

I have always been involved in art. Ever since I was a young child, I can remember spending hours drawing and coloring. One of my most profound memories was becoming incredibly jealous one holiday because my older brother got a Super Hero drawing set and I did not. I don’t even remember what I did get that holiday. All I remember is that I wanted a drawing kit, so that I could also draw things.

As I got older, I took drawing classes in school, confident that I could go somewhere with my artistic talent. Challenging life experiences kept me from pursuing further art education past high school, but I continued independent art study on my off time and weekends. I worked with anything I could – books, DVD’s, and just pure practice.

In my thirties, I launched a small graphic art business specializing in airbrush and custom painting. This lasted about a decade before I grew weary of the pressures of deadlines and unreasonable requests. I began to realize that I was not cut out for that specific industry and closed the business.

In recent years, I have shifted focus to pursue my own visions and ideas, and that’s where I intend to spend my remaining artistic years.

Why did you choose the airbrush as your main tool?

I chose the airbrush because of its apparent unmatched ability to convey realism, as demonstrated in the inspirational works of Chuck Close, Don Eddy and H.R. Giger. Now, after many years of using the airbrush, it has become a profoundly magical process for me. I am amazed by how an image seems to magically appear, yet my hand never touches the painting’s surface - I have a thought and it’s then rendered.

What life experiences have influenced your work?

There are two major life experiences that have shaped and influenced my art, from the tools used to the subject matter. First, my family seemed to have a never-ending struggle just to get by and I grew up with very little, which forced me to use my imagination as a way to escape this reality. I would create my own intricate worlds which, still to this day, I see come out in my paintings.

Additionally, I was extremely physically active and worked hard to develop my physical capacities, which contributed to my obsession about how the body looked and moved in space. This appreciation and fascination for the human form became the main focus of my art and paintings. My ideas focused on capturing the form in action, like a split second in time, similar to that of a still frame. This stop-in-action would create questions for the viewer as they searched for the story, often creating tension that could not be resolved.  

Do you listen to music while you work? What is your perfect environment to paint?

I am an amateur musician and therefore music is always on when I paint. I use music to shape moods – if the art has a light theme, I find music that creates that mood in me before I start to paint. It’s very hard for me to paint a sad theme in a painting while listening to music that picks me up and makes me happy (and vice versa).

Regarding PoseSpace, do you prefer individual poses, books, or sessions?

Early on, I had been using images from magazines and the internet, but I felt that the finished paintings and images were not fully mine because of potential copyright issues. One solution, using live models, was both time and cost-prohibited for me.  Later, I stumbled upon PoseSpace, which eliminated my need to find or afford live models.  Pose Space allowed me to produce finished art in full confidence that it was my own and without the worries of legal ramifications.

Additionally, I use Sessions, but I had started off with a couple of hard bound books from Amazon. Sessions allows me to see and adjust different perspective and angles with the same model.

What advice do you have for artists who have an interest in airbrush?

The most beneficial advice I can give aspiring airbrush artists is to see the airbrush as a tool to produce a result.  Similar to other art processes, it will have to be learned and practiced until it becomes second nature. In teaching airbrush classes in the past, I found that a lot of the students assumed that the airbrush was easy and some type of silver bullet that would paint great art for them, but that’s not the case. It takes time to master the airbrush, and even after that you still need to have developed drawing skills, understand value and shape, and have mastery of composition and color theory to produce good art. It is my belief that the airbrush does nothing more than apply paint—a very cool way to do it— but it’s still just another tool.

How has your style changed over the years?

Art is a process that is ever unfolding and growing in me – what I am working on now may change completely in ten years. There have been times on my artist’s journey where I never really thought of myself as good enough, but I kept at it. The days became weeks, weeks became months and finally months into years, and somewhere along the way I started looking at my own art and thinking “I am getting pretty good at this.”  It became clear that I had gotten somewhere and had something worthy to say. Now in my forties, I have many years of learning and painting behind me (and so many more to go), yet I feel like I am just starting to see real fruits of my labor. My future goal is to just keep creating and moving forward.

Shannon Morrison’s website: http://shannonmorrisonstudios.com

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/mrshannonmorrison

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mr.shannonmorrison/

Interview by Andrea Miliani

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Interview with Christina Ellis

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“I have worked with many mediums, both in painting and sculpture but for some reason that fact that not many people work in cement/concrete - it interested me more”

Christina Ellis has explored “the storytelling of the human experience” in art for decades. This artist began her career as an illustrator and art director, but later studied sculpture at the University of Alaska where she learned from her professor and favorite artist, Ken Gray. Her work led her to discover and feel passionate about an unpopular material among sculptors: cement.

Ellis has participated in many exhibitions and demonstrations such as the “No Big Heads” show. She is now immersed in her studio in Portland Oregon enjoying the challenges of sculpting busts in cement. She finds inspiration in strangers on the streets and imagines what it would be like to invite them to a dinner party and meet them face-to-face. The result would be hard to predict, just as her cement sculptures.

In this Q&A artist Christina Ellis shares with PoseSpace how she fell in love with cement, why Ken Gray is her favorite artist, her rituals and advice to art students:

When did you first know you wanted to become an artist?

I have always been an artist. If I could find some mud or sticks, I was creating art. There was something about it that made the world feel right for me.

How did you get started with cement?

I have worked with many mediums, both in painting and sculpture but for some reason that fact that not many people work in cement/concrete - it interested me more. While researching concrete one day, I came across a video about a sculptor named Katherine Stanek. Her work was so beautiful and profoundly touching the way she took this blah, messy medium and created visual masterpieces. I was hooked.

How do you start a sculpture— do you have any rituals?

I have a ritual candle infused with herbs and essential oils to awaken creativity, playfulness and imagination. I have it burning whenever I am working in my studio.

Do you have a favorite artist?

My favorite artist was my college art professor, Ken Gray. He was a phenomenal artist and sculptor and a phenomenal teacher. He brought out the creative light in each one of his students. I always had a deep interest in sculpture but had been putting off taking sculpture classes because they were long and hard and dirty. One day, I learned Professor Gray had cancer. I immediately enrolled in every one of his classes. He taught me the joy of sculpting.

What do you think of PoseSpace?

I think PoseSpace is an amazing service for artists. The care and artistry that is put into the photography of each pose is a great resource when you can't get a live model.

You opened an art school in Southern Oregon, could you tell us more about this project?

I had renovated an old house downtown Medford Oregon and wanted to bring art instruction to a community that was not known for its exposure to the creative world. I had a full school of dedicated students, both young and old. My timing was off though, the next year, 2008, people were forced to choose between groceries and art school tuition. I had to close the doors.

What advice do you have for young artists who have an interest in sculpting?

Allow yourself to be free - play, create, make your own rules.

Christina Ellis’ website: www.cmegallery.com

Facebook: www.facebook.com/cmegallery

Instagram: www.instagram.com/cmegallery

Interview by Andrea Miliani

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Interview with David Nelson

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“Once I saw that contemporary artists were dealing with ideas, everything changed for me and I was hooked”

David Nelson is a contemporary artist based in Dublin, New Hampshire. His interest in art began as a child when he discovered comics. Later, at the university, David studied and admired the great artists, but ended up revealing the real value of contemporary art. His work, both abstract and figurative, capture his style and innovation with striking colors and disruptive ideas.

Nelson defines on his website one of his main interests in art, the idea of agency: “For something to come into being by letting other forces be the agent doing it.” This concept makes more sense when we see one of the paintings of his “Incarnation” collection; a bunch of dots in cyan, magenta, yellow, and key —properly placed—that create beautiful shapes of human bodies when seen from the right perspective.

In this Q&A artist David Nelson shares with PoseSpace how he developed his techniques, how he discovered CMYK dots, what contemporary art means to him and a few details about his experience at the Governors Island Art Fair:

When did you first know you wanted to become an artist?

When I was in my teens, I was an avid comic book collector, and took a comic art class with a local artist. I loved it. I decided to study fine art at University of Maine, where the department head surprised me by taking my not-very-traditional portfolio seriously and was very open and encouraging. I was also happy the university setting would give me the opportunity to study literature, my other big interest.

One of your main interests is the idea of agency and you use only primary colors. What inspired you to come up with this concept?

I began my studies absolutely hating contemporary art, thinking it was the biggest cultural hoax in history. Until my senior year, that is, when I was forced to study it. In spite of myself, I became fascinated. Art was about ideas. Art was a visual means to explore complex questions about life—the same philosophical and theoretical questions I was discussing in English Lit and science classes. What’s the relation between order and chaos, emotion and intellect, objectivity and subjectivity, pattern and disruption? Once I saw that contemporary artists were dealing with ideas, everything changed for me and I was hooked.

Which artist or painter has influenced you?

When I had to do a paper on a living artist for the Contemporary Art class, I told the professor I didn’t know any— my heroes had been Degas, Vermeer and Tiepolo. He said, “OK, do Jean Dubuffet.” I never heard of him, so when I saw his paintings looked like the scrawls of a child or tar poured on a canvas, I was horrified. That is, until I read his thinking behind it. He was trying to capture something universal and atavistic, something deeper than intellect or observation. He was grappling with those same dynamic balances I was: organic/mechanical, emotional/intellectual, abstraction/representation.

How has your style changed over the years?

In college I made abstract works with a tight linear pattern, but using paint that would creep and craze on its own. I created strict grids that were made up of scribbles, mechanical patterns made up of organic leaf shapes, splatters that were random, but precisely placed by a friend’s personal computer.

Later, experience in graphic design and art direction introduced me to CMYK process color. This got me thinking, what if I spattered the dot pattern with paint? What if I controlled the paint by using random numbers or scattered objects? I’d be making an image by relinquishing control rather than taking hold of it. Colors would layer and mix "on their own." I spent about ten years exploring this dynamic in non-objective process paintings.

I was tempted to use the CMYK dot idea to form more concrete images, but that was crazy — introduce subject matter? Things!? Actual things are so freighted with meaning—or plagued with cliché. Then I remembered Dubuffet: kids and cavemen all wanted to draw the same thing— the simple human form.

So I took straightforward, full-body photos of my family, color-separated them, blew them up to life-size, and executed the coarse dot pattern with clear CMYK acrylic from a ketchup squirter. No pose, just standing there—a record of “this is me." I liked how the vagueness of the painted dots fought with the photographic “realness” of a particular individual. I’ve explored this idea in a range of scales—applying paint with industrial syringes at postage-stamp-size, to finger-painting 20’ x 16’ figures on billboard vinyl.

To learn as much as I could about the figure, I decided to try sculpture. It worked for Degas, after all! I was pleasantly surprised to find I had a pretty good working knowledge of anatomy. Drawing those muscular superheroes in my comic art days wasn’t wasted.

How did you discover www.posespace.com?

It became pretty clear that If I was investigating the body in this iconic way, it was inevitable for me to consider the nude. It was great to find quality reference at Posespace. I’ve been especially glad to see models with “normal” body types and straightforward poses. The 360-degree views are tremendously helpful for sculpture.

Can you tell us about your experience at the Governors Island Art Fair?

Governors Island is a former military base 800 yards off Manhattan’s southern tip. For  five weekends each September, over 100 artists from around the world transform spaces in the historic buildings with their art. I showed paintings from my “Incarnation” series in 2017 and 2018. It was terrific to talk with hundreds of visitors every weekend. My artist’s statement prompted a lot of great conversations: "The human experience means bringing our unseen into where it can be received some way by other bodies. And something is always lost in translation. So life is always a beautiful, frustrating challenge of giving and receiving partial messages, garbled transmissions, incomplete sentences."

David Nelson’s website:  www.davidnelsonart.com

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/davidnelsonart/

Interview by Andrea Miliani

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artwork by Kjetil Hansen