The world's first life-model coaching space.
We pay some of the highest rates in the industry and run the world's first life-model coaching programme. If you're curious about modelling, or already do it, read on.
Etiquette & expectations.
Professional presence
- Arrive prepared and on time
- Maintain awareness of the group's energy and pacing
- Work collaboratively with the session facilitator (if present)
Posing
- Poses should be clear, stable, and sustainable
- Communicate if a pose needs to be adjusted or ended
- Breaks are expected and necessary
Boundaries are absolute
- You are never required to accept direction from artists
- You may decline any request or suggestion
- Your comfort and safety come first, always
Communication
- Notify the organizer in advance of any needs, limits, or concerns
- Speak up immediately if something feels off during a session
Wardrobe / presentation
- If using studio wardrobe or personal items, handle with care
- Return all items in the condition received
Holding the space
- Your stillness, focus, and presence shape the session
- You are not performing. You are holding a space for looking
Rights & responsibilities.
Your rights
- What poses you take
- How long you hold them
- What you wear (or don't wear, within session agreements)
- No photography or recording
- No inappropriate comments, gestures, or behavior
- Immediate intervention if boundaries are crossed
- You may stop a pose or session at any time
- You may ask for assistance or adjustments
- Concerns will be taken seriously and addressed promptly
- Your likeness is not to be reproduced, shared, or commercialized without consent
- Drawings remain studies, not ownership of your image
Your responsibilities
- Arrive on time
- Communicate clearly about availability and changes
- Honor session commitments
- Choose poses that are safe and sustainable
- Take breaks when needed
- Avoid injury through overexertion
- Respect studio property
- Use furniture and props appropriately
- Report any damage or issues
- Work in alignment with the session structure
- Be responsive to timing, breaks, and flow
NOOD is not a typical drawing space. We take model work seriously: how you're treated, how you're paid, and how you're prepared. For those new to life modelling, we offer private one-on-one coaching that takes you from first steps to working professional.
The coaching is specific: pose technique, industry knowledge, real session shadowing, and portfolio development using drawings made of you during the programme. When you complete it, we make introductions, to studios, organizers, and the wider life-drawing community.
Payment: E-transfer registration fees to [email protected].
Workshop 1: Introduction to Life-Modelling, Intensive Focus · $300
2-day intensive, 6 hours total.
Part 1 (3 hours)
1.5 hrs discussion (history, pose types, rates, invoicing, studio etiquette, industry climate, etc.) + 1.5 hrs posing practice (nude, with instructor).
Part 2 (3 hours)
Real-life session with invited artists. Start modelling with instructor, then solo by hour 3. Build portfolio from artists' drawings.
Date, time, and location flexible, determined between parties.
Workshop 2: Introduction to Life-Modelling, Soft Pace · $400
3-day version, 9 hours total.
Part 1 (3 hours)
Discussion (same topics as the intensive).
Part 2 (3–4 hours)
Posing practice with instructor; artists invited to draw the student.
Part 3: Optional (3 hours)
Shadow instructor at a real session; model with instructor in hour 1, together in hour 2, solo in hour 3.
Date, time, and location flexible.
Workshop 3: Life Model Foundations · $450
Prerequisite: Introduction to Life-Modelling.
Part 1 (3–4 hours)
Review of beginner notes, Q&A, refine and expand current pose sets, develop new poses, build confidence.
Part 2 (3 hours)
Demonstrate new poses for artists with instructor present; post-session debrief and follow-up email evaluation.
Workshop 4: Life Model Coaching · $550
Prerequisite: Life Model Foundations.
Covers: professional challenges, schedule management, new modelling disciplines (duo/group, photography, sculpting, body painting, performance art).
Includes: revised personal improvement plan; instructor sends post-session review.
Part 3 (3 hours)
Session in a non-life-drawing context (e.g. sculpting); instructor present.
Why private coaching?
Workshops are often designed for groups — shared learning, shared energy, shared momentum. And while NOOD continues to explore offering spaces for aspiring models to learn together, our work is grounded in something quieter and more intentional.
NOOD's private one-on-one model training and coaching is effective precisely because it's private. Its success is not rooted in the simple transfer of information from instructor to student, but in the quality of inquiry it enables. Learning happens when students are encouraged to ask questions — often many of them. Those who engage most deeply through questioning are consistently the ones who grow and succeed.
The 1-on-1 environment creates space for questions that rarely surface in group settings. This includes not only technical inquiries about posing or session preparation, but also more personal, sensitive, or uncertain concerns — such as how modelling may intersect with existing employment or affect one's personal life. These conversations are held confidentially, without judgement.
As a result, the learning experience feels open, engaging, and intellectually freeing. This is not a top-down, information-dump approach to teaching. It is coaching. The instructor is not positioned above the student, but alongside them — guiding, responding, and adapting in real time. The focus is on supporting the individual, meeting them where they are, and actively lifting them forward at every stage of their development.
Graduates of the NOOD coaching programme.
Get in touch.
Whether you're considering modelling for the first time or have been doing it for years. We'd like to hear from you. Send us an email. We read every one.