DRAWING NUDES

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When YouTuber and content creator Maddie Dragsbaek first started taking nudes, she thought she had to contort her body into being the "most sexy" for whomever was going to see them. This one’s easy enough. In preparation for shading and lighting, artists usually color in the flats (as in no indication of form or 3d-ness). Once you’ve chosen a thumbnail, it’s time to start adding in details. But wait! Make sure you stay loose. From rough to lineart. Notice how I leave out fine details like the beads of the bra top, and the gems on her choker and belt. This is the time for you to figure out the big picture technicalities, like perspective and construction (breaking down complex forms like the body into simple shapes like rectangles and circles). Value and Color Comps

When soft shading, be careful of pillow shading, where you evenly the body without establishing a directional light source. If you use it too much, your art might look same-ish. When she used to take nude and partially nude photos of her clients, Jakobson would have them breathe and move, not freeze as many of us are taught for photos. "Photos are meant to capture us living and breathing and in-motion because we're animals," she said, "and that's what we do." After her shoots, she'd send her clients hundreds of photos; she wouldn't delete any "awkward" ones. She wanted them to look through them all and see ones they loved alongside the ones they deemed horrible. Homing in on one "bad" photo — which captures a millisecond of your life — and discarding the others is a toxic mindset, said Jakobson. Going a step beyond shading is rendering. Instead of just adding light and shadow, we’re approaching realism by adding textures, details and effects. Rendering captures a lot more subtlety, like shadows within shadows and material textures (clothing, fur, cum, sweat). Rendered works often have a variety of lighting, and look less like brush strokes and more like the real thing. Art by yd, yutsuki, sakura

Reframe your mindset, reframe your nudes

Jakobson suggested focusing on your environment. Get comfortable, put on some good music, even take a bath with all your favorite products beforehand. You can tell where the light is coming from through clues such as highlights, rim light, and cast shadow. Great, I hope all the examples left you with a better understanding of the NSFW art illustration process. Lineart may seem tedious, but it’s also an opportunity for your style and artistic choices to shine through.

Before you whip your iPhone out, though, establish your personal boundaries. Do you only want to show yourself from the waist up? Do you want your face to be cut off? Clarify those limits for yourself, Dragsbaek said. If someone asks for a photo of a body part you're not comfortable sharing, don't force yourself.Webster had been a student at the Edinburgh College of Art when he painted it; who would have thought the handsome figure posing for his life drawing class would go on to become James Bond? There are various elements that go into a photo, including lighting and accessories — and what you're actually shooting on. Richard Demarco, a local artist and promoter, was among those who painted Connery as a young man, and described his popularity with the ladies at the time: "When he modelled there were always lots of girls in the classes because they were attracted by his Adonis-like physique. He was a great inspiration for any artist and was amazing to paint and draw." Studies aren’t just for specific artworks. Exercises to improve your art fundamentals are also key, which I’ll be sharing throughout the course. One of my favorite exercises is warm-ups, which helped my art immensely after a few months. See how it can help you too! Thumbnails

Taking nudes on a film camera will likely result in shots with a vintage-looking glow — if you can wait long enough for them to be developed. Though, there are apps like Huji that can fake the look on iPhone photos too.

Going a step further is soft shading, since shadows get softer the further away from a light source they are. Notice how shadows have straight edges underneath forms hit by light like heads and under-boob, and softer edges as light hits less and less of circular forms like tummies and legs. Art by Nakamura Yukitoshi, knatb, chagama Jakobson recommends taking as many self-timed shots as possible, or taking a video and screenshotting your favorite moments, especially if you're a beginner.