{"id":399,"date":"2009-06-04T23:52:24","date_gmt":"2009-06-05T04:52:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/fredhatt.com\/blog\/?p=399"},"modified":"2014-12-14T21:46:01","modified_gmt":"2014-12-15T02:46:01","slug":"christophes-expressions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/fredhatt.com\/blog\/2009\/06\/04\/christophes-expressions\/","title":{"rendered":"Christophe’s Expressions"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Weeping,

Weeping, 2009, by Fred Hatt<\/p><\/div>\n

Christophe Nayel<\/a> is an artists’ model with a specialty.\u00a0 He has a remarkably expressive face and can hold facial expressions for a long time.\u00a0 He did the pose above this past Monday morning at Spring Studio<\/a>‘s three-hour session, twenty minutes between breaks.\u00a0 He squeezed a wet tissue over his eyes to simulate tears, and made the expression real enough that his nose and eyes reddened.<\/p>\n

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.\u00a0 For an artist, it is both a treat and a challenge.\u00a0 Most artists trying to capture facial expressions refer to photographs.\u00a0 That’s how Norman Rockwell<\/a> did it.\u00a0 Getting it down directly from life is not so easy.\u00a0 Some of the artists in that Monday morning class really got the feel of it, but many others weren’t even getting close.<\/p>\n

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:<\/p>\n

\"Triumphant,

Triumphant, 2005, by Fred Hatt<\/p><\/div>\n

\"Triumphant

Triumphant face, 2005, by Fred Hatt<\/p><\/div>\n

In the standing figure above, his hair was being blown up by a fan, which somehow makes that drawing.<\/p>\n

Christophe is from France.\u00a0 Like many models, and like myself, his creative interests and efforts range broadly.\u00a0 He’s a singer, songwriter, actor, painter, and film editor.\u00a0 As a musician, he uses the stage name D-XRISTO.\u00a0 He began modeling in New York on September 10th, 2001, a time that imparts a fateful aura to any kind of beginning.\u00a0 You can check out some of Christophe’s work on his MySpace<\/a> and YouTube<\/a> pages.<\/p>\n

Here’s one of my first detailed portraits of Christophe, from 2002:<\/p>\n

\"Ruminating,

Ruminating, 2002, by Fred Hatt<\/p><\/div>\n

In the above image he’s not contorting his face, but you can see how much feeling comes through anyway.\u00a0 At a 2006 session he held a grin for three hours:<\/p>\n

\"Smile,

Smile, 2006, by Fred Hatt<\/p><\/div>\n

Christophe also models with costumes and props.\u00a0 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.\u00a0 But it is his expressions I find so compelling.\u00a0 Here is a quartet of sketches from a session at Figureworks Gallery<\/a>, showing a range of faces that is both hilarious and terrifying:<\/p>\n

\"Crying,

Crying, 2007, by Fred Hatt<\/p><\/div>\n

\"Sneer,

Sneer, 2007, by Fred Hatt<\/p><\/div>\n

\"Stupor,

Stupor, 2007, by Fred Hatt<\/p><\/div>\n

\"Cracked,

Cracked, 2007, by Fred Hatt<\/p><\/div>\n

I can tell you these aren’t easy to draw.\u00a0 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.<\/p>\n

Christophe should have posed for Franz Xaver Messerschmidt<\/a>, or maybe Goya or Bacon or some other artist specializing in the extremes of the human condition.\u00a0 But I value him because as a model he brings something unique, difficult and engaging.\u00a0 When Christophe is the model, I know I have a chance to make strange and compelling images.<\/p>\n

All drawings in this post are 70 cm x 50 cm, Caran d’Ache aquarelle crayons<\/a> on Fabriano paper<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Christophe Nayel is an artists’ model with a specialty.\u00a0 He has a remarkably expressive face and can hold facial expressions for a long time.\u00a0 He did the pose above this past Monday morning at Spring Studio‘s three-hour session, twenty minutes between breaks.\u00a0 He squeezed a wet tissue over his eyes to simulate tears, and made […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[206],"tags":[133,63,19,17,64,18],"class_list":["post-399","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-figure-drawing-models","tag-art-modeling","tag-christophe-nayel","tag-crayons","tag-figures","tag-models","tag-portraits"],"yoast_head":"\nChristophe's Expressions - 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