Hey Maddox, I was a popular figure model for artists from 2003-2011, and worked between 40 - 80 hours/month. I found it to be challenging and rewarding. The challenge was in creating interesting poses that I could maintain between 30 seconds to 45 minutes at a time, as well as to repeat the same long pose for up to a total of 80 hours (often for art classes and private artists). It was physically demanding and certainly helped me maintain my physique. The reward was in working with the artists themselves. My earlier career was in business, and I found delight in working with highly creative and expressive artists, and seeing myself and my poses through their eyes and interpretation. It was specially rewarding to work with students - knowing that I was helping them master the ability to capture the figure on paper. Not all figure modeling was nude - most high school classes had me wear a Speedo but one after-hours class at a well-funded high school did want their models to be nude. And other artist groups and private artists wanted me in 'costume' - there's a life sized oil painting of me in a whaler's outfit from the 1880's that the artist sold for $15,000.
You can see some of my artists' work in my photo gallery as well as a few photos of me posing.
Barcoded makes good points - figure/artist modeling is NOT sexual, and it requires commitment to return again and again for weeks at a time to allow sculptors and painters to finish their work. But while some rooms were cold, all of them provided space heaters and I sometimes brought my own heated floor mat if I felt concerned about getting chilled. And a high percentage of my work was for three hour shifts with artist groups, where I would run through short poses, moving to medium-long poses and one final pose that might be repeated for 45 minutes or an hour.
If you would like to explore this further, I'd be happy to share my guide to male modeling with you. Just message me.
