3T Art Blog Guest Artist
Steve Pietrzyk – Nude Art Model
I’d like to introduce you to Steve Pietrzyk who I’ve known for a few years and have had the pleasure of drawing many times, both live and online via Zoom. He works hard at his art modelling career, working nude, clothed and in costume.
Steve’s always been intrigued by the artist/muse relationship and modelling is something he believes he was destined to do for a living. His only regret so far is that he didn’t start his modelling career earlier.
“Being the focus of an artist's expression as a nude art model allows me the freedom to express and explore my creativity and is a unique, enjoyable and rewarding experience.”
Steve started modelling in January of 2016. Back then, he was doing it part-time. His goal was to become a successful full-time art model. Little did Steve know how well his career would take-off.
In the studio with Steve. Yes, he’s a major hockey fan!
He focused on educational, private and workshop settings for artists who sketched, painted and sculpted, as well as photographers. It was important for him to work with sincere, dedicated and ethical artists. Steve wanted to inspire them in their quest to produce interesting, engaging and beautiful works of art.
“Being part of the creative process and caring about an artist's results and celebrating their successes is very important to me.”
Artist: William Rogers, Online Figure Drawing, 2021
Steve’s first modelling job was at the Blue Tadpole Studio in Mississauga, Ontario. He posed for 10 art students and admits he was extremely nervous.
“After my initial awareness that I was the only nude person in the room had worn off, I settled into my posing routine and felt totally comfortable and empowered modeling for the class. The three hour class went by so fast!”
Artist: Sadko Hadzihasanovic, Avenue Road Arts School, 2019
Steve says that he’s always been mentally and physically confident and comfortable within himself and his body image. Modelling nude in front of small or large groups of artists is perfectly natural for him.
To prepare for his modelling career, Steve did a lot of research. He spent countless hours on the internet researching art modelling and the relationship it has with the artist. He also purchased a lot of art modelling publications focused on specific aspects of modeling and from that he was able to develop his own poses and style.
Art modelling for Steve really is a full-time career. He says he trains for it 24 hours a day! “I'm always thinking of poses and new styles even when I'm not modeling. I constantly practice my established 'go to' poses as well as work on new poses. I use two large mirrors as well as my iPad so I can see my image which helps me gauge what poses look good and which ones need to be tweaked. So, needless to say, I spend a lot of time looking at myself nude in a mirror!”
Steve works diligently to establish poses while at the same time practicing new poses and techniques. He feels it’s important to have a large repertoire of both short and long poses so he can offer a wide variety of them to artists. His goal is to always provide creative, dynamic and artistic poses in an expressive and energetic style and Steve really does deliver on this every time.
Here’s a great story he shared with me about one of his more exciting live modelling sessions and a good example of why he works so hard to establish his poses:
“These sessions at Sheridan College are available to all students for free and are designed to give the students extra practice at life drawing. There are 15 sessions offered every week in each of the disciplines: animation, illustration and art fundamentals. These 3 hour sessions are usually attended on average by 10-20 students.
I showed up for my scheduled extra life modeling session 15 minutes early as usual. When I walked into the studio I was surprised to see about 40 students set up to draw! I prepared the stage for my session, arranging my props, stools and chairs, then went to the change room to disrobe and put on my robe. When I came out of the change room I was stunned to see another 30 students had piled into the studio!!!
As I made my way around the students and got up on the stage, I had to ask why there were so many students there. Their answers were unanimous, they needed more drawings to hand in for their portfolios! They put off attending extra sessions throughout the term and left it to the last minute! This was by far the largest group I’ve ever modeled nude for! 75 in total!!!
I thought to myself, thank God I’m not a rookie or this would have been extremely intimidating.
I ended up doing about 300 poses, mostly gestures, for them! It was an exciting but exhausting session!”
Artist: Janet Wilson, Eden Mills Community Hall Life Drawing, 2017
Since he began modelling, Steve has built up a very impressive résumé. He’s posed for almost 2,000 live modelling and portrait sessions. He’s posed for as few as 1 artist and up to 80 artists at one time. He currently provides art modelling services for over 50 clients including Sheridan College in Oakville, the Academy of Realist Art and Seneca College in Toronto, as well as Fleming College in Haliburton which hosts the Haliburton School of the Arts.
As for his future plans, Steve is just getting started.
“I plan on continuing modeling for years to come! There is no greater experience than modeling in person with artists for drawing/painting sessions or special projects.”
Artist: Elena Ruiz Diaz, Online Figure Drawing, 2020
Steve currently offers live art model sessions, fully nude, via Zoom. He has a dedicated studio with good lighting and in the summer he even does live modelling sessions outdoors.
Tiffany Falls in Ancaster with photographer Linda Arki, 2020
If you want to catch one of Steve’s online sessions, you can find dates and times by checking out his website at sjp-nudemodel.ca.
Make sure to follow Steve on Instagram @artmodel1964 and Facebook.
You can also get in touch with Steve directly:
Email: sjpnudemodel@gmail.com
Cell (Call or Text): (416) 821-7814
Lucky for us, Steve has plans to expand his online modelling presence by offering more sessions as well as creating recorded sessions and still photographs that artists can work from.
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