TAMMY ISOLA / Scroll
Jenny Blankenship, a sophomore from Gardnerville, Nev., poses as a head model for art classes.

A day in the life of a student head model

Kadie Sharp SHA04007@BYUI.EDU A&E Asst. Editor

Looking in the mirror, she carefully applies her mascara as she thinks of everything she must do for the day. She checks her hair one last time, grabs her book bag and sets off for the Jacob Spori Building.

In the art room, she sits on a stool in the middle of the room, getting into a position she plans on staying in for the next two hours.

It’s a typical morning in the life of a head model.

Sitting in one position for two hours does not sound very enticing to many people. Neither does having 20 people staring at you for those two hours. So what would entice someone to become a head model?
Jenny Blankenship, a sophomore from Gardnerville, Nev., chose to be a head model because she wanted to be able to tell her grandchildren someday that she was a model.

“It’s a high status type of thing. My grandchildren will be able to say, ‘Wow, our grandma was a model,’” Blankenship said.

Head modeling is for future grandpas also. Luke Perkins, a sophomore from Layton, Utah, did full modeling for art classes last year and decided to try head modeling this semester.

“I really like art and I like to see how they portray me and all of the different artists’ styles. Some artists draw in shadows, some draw in highlights,” Perkins said.

According to the BYU-I catalog, the purpose of the head drawing class is for students to “learn to draw the human head and hands through studying anatomy and drawing from live models.”

Vince Bodily, an Art department faculty member who has taught the head drawing class in the past, said the art classes use student head models, as opposed to just drawing from a picture, because “the basis of traditional drawing is to have the human figure there… and the students need to draw from life.”

Most people think of runways and flashing cameras when they hear the word “modeling.” However, modeling for an art class requires more patience and less glamour.

“It can be a demanding job because you have to sit there in the same position for two hours and your neck starts to hurt. But it’s fun and I love art,” Perkins said.

“It’s got to be the easiest job I’ve had in my life. You just sit there and it’s only a couple of hours a week,” Blankenship said.

The Art department employs eight head models a semester: six men and two women.

The hours per week are not set and since the head models are rotated, each head model does not work every week.

But when they do work, a head model is required to sit for a couple of hours in the same position, which limits what they can do to pass time.

“I usually just think about all different kinds of things when I’m sitting there. I was in a clogging class and so yesterday I was thinking up a clogging routine inside my head,” Perkins said.

“I sneeze all the time, so most of the time I’m sitting there thinking, don’t sneeze, don’t sneeze, because that would be traumatizing,” Blankenship said.

Every artist looks at an object or person differently, which is why we get such a variety of art in the world.

One portrait of a person may look completely different than the next, according to the artists’ perception of what they see.

“I feel partially privileged to be in art because that’s such a creative expression. I like to see how they perceive me. But sometimes I’ll look [at an art piece] and really hope that’s not what I look like,” Blankenship said.