sign up/login
The Big Draw
  • Festival Festival
    • About The Big Draw Festival
    • All Events
    • Big Draw Festival Awards
    • Sponsor-Partners 2023
    • The Big Draw Festival 2023: Drawing with Senses
    • What the Organisers Say
  • Blog Blog
    • Support Support
      • Shop Shop
        • Gallery Gallery
          • Our Work Our Work
            • About Us
            • Concepts & The Big Draw
            • Concepts Drawing Challenge
            • Contact
            • Drawing in Schools
            • FAQ's
            • Opportunities
            • Press
            • The Big Draw Ambassadors
            • The Big Draw Patrons
            • The Big Draw Trustees
            • The Ruskin Prize


          Membership area

          Drawing Changes Lives

          The Big Draw
          • Festival Festival
            • About The Big Draw Festival
            • All Events
            • Big Draw Festival Awards
            • Sponsor-Partners 2023
            • The Big Draw Festival 2023: Drawing with Senses
            • What the Organisers Say
          • Blog Blog
            • Support Support
              • Shop Shop
                • Gallery Gallery
                  • Our Work Our Work
                    • About Us
                    • Concepts & The Big Draw
                    • Concepts Drawing Challenge
                    • Contact
                    • Drawing in Schools
                    • FAQ's
                    • Opportunities
                    • Press
                    • The Big Draw Ambassadors
                    • The Big Draw Patrons
                    • The Big Draw Trustees
                    • The Ruskin Prize

                  Membership area

                  The World's Biggest Drawing Festival


                  The Model Speaks!

                  the painter-model relationship: An article written by art model Roy Joseph Butler

                  Roy Joseph Butler is an actor, writer and art model. He and Leo Crane are co-founders of Figuration, a creative studio specialising in fine art and animation. They produce films, exhibitions, workshops, and events in partnership with cultural and community spaces across the UK, including the V&A, British Library, Sotheby’s Institute of Art and The Hepworth Wakefield. They have been featured in print, radio, and tv, including the BBC Radio 2 Arts Show and Sky Portrait Artist of the Year.

                  In their new book Contemporary Figures in Watercolour, Leo and Roy explore how to interpret the gestures and movements of the figure through the language of paint. Through a range of exercises, they show how to work with the fluidity and immediacy of watercolour to create lively paintings that are bursting with character and narrative possibility. With a focus on the dynamic exchange between artist and subject, speed, gesture and story, this book will appeal to artists looking anew at life painting and who are eager to capture the essence of character in movement.

                  In this article Roy talks a bit about the relationship between artist and subject, giving a fascinating insight into the indispensable role of the art model.

                  When I step into the life room (or studio, or repurposed front room, or first floor of a pub given over to an artists’ meetup...), I begin new relationships. And I know that, after so many years posing for art, I’ll see familiar faces there and that those familiar faces will see a familiar subject. And it’s okay, not because of the existing connection between us but because newness is still inevitable - I will give a different pose, I will pose a different mood and they will bring a wealth of experiences and energies from days and weeks and months gone by. So, when I take centre stage, as it were, the dialogue between us begins afresh. And with the unfamiliar faces, new rapports begin. 

                  The connection between us determines what that drawing will look like or how that painting will feel. Imagine this! A painter arrives at their workshop on a high of inspiration. They’re working with a model they’ve not collaborated with before, beginning with a series of dynamic sketches of short poses. The model’s repertoire is diverse and they know their stuff, and they also quickly develop a reciprocal affinity with the painter, creatively. The resulting sketches will have a character that reflects that particular connection. Alternatively, if the relationship between the model and the painter was strictly on the level of ‘professional’ and ‘good’, the sketches - and resulting painting - would turn out very differently. The look and feel of the end product bears witness to the relationship between both creatives, and in so doing creates something special every time. 

                  Image: Figuration/Minerva Workshop

                  I remember very clearly stepping into the life room for the first time. In my fear, I knew that people would judge me, perhaps even laugh at my audacity for thinking I should be there, revealing myself like this. I disrobed and waited for the ridicule. But in its place was the realisation, only a few seconds in, that I was absolutely necessary to the process. To be clear, there could have been another model in my place, so I also knew I was dispensable. But in that moment in that space, I was an essential part of everyone’s drawing endeavour, and I both saw (out of the corners of my eyes) and felt a kind of looking and earnestness that at once made me feel valid and right for being there, as well as shined a light on invisible threads linking me and them. So, when time was up on a pose, I could segue into the next with the same ease as friends share conversation, and the drawers could pick up their pencils to a new drawing - ‘good’ or ‘bad’ - with the same rhythm. 

                  Image: Roy Triumphant by Leo Crane 

                  I would say to an artist, “Draw what you see, how you feel. You don’t need to re-create me.” When I model, I react to the space and the people in it to create something they can in turn react to with vigour and interest. And each person trying to capture me is focusing in through their own lens, so I never expect any two pictures to look the same because I know that with each person I’m having a unique conversation. So I actively encourage creatives to have the conversation back, and to allow their individual skills, points of view, experiences and languages to make themselves known through their work, drawing on inspirations as they capture figure and gesture. 

                  Creating art isn’t intrinsically easy or straightforward, and neither are model-artist relationships always the stuff of dreams. Both require dedication and concentration to make them work successfully. If you simply draw or paint re-creations of me, for instance, those exacting copies can feel lifeless. And when consciously injecting all the emotion you can muster into your work, perhaps renditions of me will look and feel incredibly abstract. Who knows? More times than not, something in between the poles is going on, but all along that spectrum the dialogue between model and drawer/painter/sculptor is performing, and if you let it breathe it will enable something fresh, beautiful and valid time and again.

                  Contemporary Figures in Watercolour: Online Masterclass

                  Inspired by this article? Want to hear more from Roy? Come and paint along with artists and co-founders of Figuration, Leo Crane and Roy Joseph Butler in this live online masterclass on 26 October 2021. As well as demonstrating watercolour techniques, Leo and Roy will discuss the painter-model relationship with insights from their new book Contemporary Figures in Watercolour: Speed, Gesture and Story.

                  You can join in, painting Roy at the same time as Leo. As you paint, Leo will share his exuberant and liberating approach to watercolour. To follow him, you’ll need watercolour paints and paper, brushes, a jar of water and kitchen towel. If you’d rather draw or paint in another medium, that’s fine too!

                  Book your tickets here

                  facebook twitter instagram pinterest YouTube
                  Find an event

                  search Advanced search »

                  Receive Big Draw News

                  Subscribe to our mailing list

                  Add me to the list
                  Ever feel like you are being watched?
                  Ever feel like you are being watched?
                  New College Lanarkshire
                  STEAMLAND Cog Connections
                  STEAMLAND Cog Connections
                  NEATEN (North East Art Teacher Educator Network)
                  and the conversations through drawing really began!
                  and the conversations through drawing really began!
                  Beyond Borders
                  Small drawers - big drawings
                  Small drawers - big drawings
                  Hisa! drustvo za ljudi in prostore (House! society for people and places)
                  The Creative Incident at Criccieth, North Wales, is based on the famous poem
                  The Creative Incident at Criccieth, North Wales, is based on the famous poem 'The Welsh Incident' by Robert Graves. The Creative Incident will be held on the 03/08/2019, from 12-6 with live entertainment in the evening.
                  CRICCIETH - The Creative Incident - Y Digwyddiad Creadigol
                  Atilem school participants drawing living lines
                  Atilem school participants drawing living lines
                  Hisa! drustvo za ljudi in prostore (House! society for people and places)
                  children celebrating their art work with parents
                  children celebrating their art work with parents
                  Shortstown Primary School
                  Full STEAM Ahead - Imaginations unlimited.
                  Full STEAM Ahead - Imaginations unlimited.
                  West Highland College UHI
                  STEAM Powered Big Draw in Berwick
                  STEAM Powered Big Draw in Berwick
                  Berwick Visual Arts
                  side one with black pen history of animation
                  side one with black pen history of animation
                  All Hallows School
                  Wow looking fab!
                  Wow looking fab!
                  The Purcell School
                  STEAMLAND
                  STEAMLAND
                  NEATEN (North East Art Teacher Educator Network)
                  Feet in pencil - from Learn to Draw beginners class on a Wednesday morning
                  Feet in pencil - from Learn to Draw beginners class on a Wednesday morning
                  Globe Arts Studio
                  The final result!
                  The final result!
                  British School of Beijing
                  'Out of the Maze'
                  Bethlem Museum of the Mind
                  Creating Thingamajigs
                  Creating Thingamajigs
                  Yorkshire Penguin Posse
                  Taking a line for a walk with dip pens
                  Taking a line for a walk with dip pens
                  St George's CE Worcester
                  in the  evening light 1
                  in the evening light 1
                  Craven College
                  Flower Power! Plant a seed and nuture it
                  Flower Power! Plant a seed and nuture it's growth at Rich Mix
                  Rich Mix
                  Sophie Rodin
                  Sophie Rodin
                  Sophie Rodin
                  Gallery View The
                  Big Draw

                  @ The Big Draw

                  Tweets by @The_Big_Draw
                  • About us
                  • Terms and Conditions
                  • Organise an event
                  • Press
                  • Privacy policy
                  • Contact
                  The Guild of St George Urban Space Management East London Chamber Alan Davidson Foundation Foster and Partners Trinity Bouy Wharf Trust Trinity Bouy Wharf Here for Culture Concepts Derwent Lottery funded