drawing life

Weeping, 2009, by Fred Hatt

Christophe Nayel is an artists’ model with a specialty.  He has a remarkably expressive face and can hold facial expressions for a long time.  He did the pose above this past Monday morning at Spring Studio’s three-hour session, twenty minutes between breaks.  He squeezed a wet tissue over his eyes to simulate tears, and made the expression real enough that his nose and eyes reddened.

Quite a few professional models develop the ability to hold challenging poses, and some of them can stay in stressful positions while maintaining a placid expression, but Christophe is the only one I know who contorts his face this way.  For an artist, it is both a treat and a challenge.  Most artists trying to capture facial expressions refer to photographs.  That’s how Norman Rockwell did it.  Getting it down directly from life is not so easy.  Some of the artists in that Monday morning class really got the feel of it, but many others weren’t even getting close.

Here’s Christophe in a more typical artists’ model’s pose, full-length and with a close portrait made during the same pose, showing a relatively neutral face:

Triumphant, 2005, by Fred Hatt

Triumphant face, 2005, by Fred Hatt

In the standing figure above, his hair was being blown up by a fan, which somehow makes that drawing.

Christophe is from France.  Like many models, and like myself, his creative interests and efforts range broadly.  He’s a singer, songwriter, actor, painter, and film editor.  As a musician, he uses the stage name D-XRISTO.  He began modeling in New York on September 10th, 2001, a time that imparts a fateful aura to any kind of beginning.  You can check out some of Christophe’s work on his MySpace and YouTube pages.

Here’s one of my first detailed portraits of Christophe, from 2002:

Ruminating, 2002, by Fred Hatt

In the above image he’s not contorting his face, but you can see how much feeling comes through anyway.  At a 2006 session he held a grin for three hours:

Smile, 2006, by Fred Hatt

Christophe also models with costumes and props.  On Monday he mentioned that for an upcoming costume session he’ll be bringing his genuine NYC Police Officer’s uniform and his saucy French maid outfit.  But it is his expressions I find so compelling.  Here is a quartet of sketches from a session at Figureworks Gallery, showing a range of faces that is both hilarious and terrifying:

Crying, 2007, by Fred Hatt

Sneer, 2007, by Fred Hatt

Stupor, 2007, by Fred Hatt

Cracked, 2007, by Fred Hatt

I can tell you these aren’t easy to draw.  When I was working on the set above, I remember feeling my rendering of the sneer failed to capture the level of acidic disdain Christophe was conveying.

Christophe should have posed for Franz Xaver Messerschmidt, or maybe Goya or Bacon or some other artist specializing in the extremes of the human condition.  But I value him because as a model he brings something unique, difficult and engaging.  When Christophe is the model, I know I have a chance to make strange and compelling images.

All drawings in this post are 70 cm x 50 cm, Caran d’Ache aquarelle crayons on Fabriano paper.