I’ve been asked to be a nude model for an artists’ life drawing session this weekend. It has been more than a year since I posed for artists, in a similar session in Montreal.

It’s a different group this time, in the Laurentians, but the format will be pretty much the same: 3 hours of poses, with a break midway through. It appears to be a traditional workshop: I will do poses in the four positions — standing, seated, reclining, and semi-reclining or prone — for various lengths of time, with 20 minutes being the longest pose and 2 minutes being the shortest.

I like to use props in some of my poses, though not all of them have proved popular in the two sessions I’ve done before. For example, a gold mask I brought along to wear for one pose during my last session was not well-received. But the thigh-high boots and feathery flogger I used for one long pose were pretty popular, though I won’t be bringing them along this time.

I like to incorporate things we use in our daily lives, such as smartphones. For sure, I will do at least one pose in which I appear to be fixated on the small screen and oblivious to the world around me as I walk down a busy street — I see people doing it all the time in downtown Montreal, though they aren’t naked. Still, I imagine many nudists/naturists do the same thing in some social nudism settings, so it is not an unrealistic pose.

I might bring along my hair dryer for a pose, too: it’s a staple of my existence. I use it every day (no lectures, please).

Of course, I will do some traditional poses as well. One thing I have to work on is hand gestures, and I will put a lot of focus on that.

And, yes, if any artists from my first two sessions are looking in here, I will bring along my Irish whistle for a sitting cross-legged pose.

There’s no money involved in this weekend’s workshop, just as there wasn’t any in the first two. I don’t go looking for these sessions: the organizers have asked me to do them. Apparently, they do ask nudists/naturists to model because they know we are not so hung up on body image and are not shy about being naked in such settings.

It is good experience for me: I would like to actually earn some money doing this sort of modeling for artists eventually. One member of my nudism group in Ontario — he’s 79 — supplements his income by modeling for art students.

That’s the great thing about being a nude model for artists: age, size and such don’t matter. They need all sorts of people — the more variety, the better for them.

How about you? Have you done this sort of modeling? Any thoughts on poses to share?

— Jillian