At the end of a hallway lined with drawings of naked bodies in charcoal and pastels lies room 218 of the Center for the Arts, where a group of artists young and old gather each Wednesday to perfect drawing the human form.
The regulars - mainly local artists and a handful of students - enter the tiny room with spotlights on the ceiling and make a circle around the makeshift stage to wait for the model before the session begins at 7 p.m.
"You get past the fact that there's a naked person standing up there pretty quickly," said Doug Borsuk, a 2005 alumnus of the Art Department and the supervisor of the studio sessions.
Borsuk starts the evening off with quick warm-up sketches, in which the model holds several two-minute poses. They then move on to longer poses, 10 or 20 minutes each, which result in more detailed drawings.
The group will provide input on poses they'd like to see - never crude or distasteful, but more reminiscent of historical works of art like Michelangelo's David. For short poses, a more complicated stance might ensue, such as having the model balance on one leg.
Drawing a nude figure is the foundation for learning how to draw, paint, or sculpt images of people, Borsuk explained. And before one can fully understand the shape of the body, he or she needs some knowledge of bone and muscle structure.
"To be able to paint a clothed figure, you need to know how the body works underneath," he said.
Few students attend the sessions, which are $5 not including materials. The cost covers the expense of the model, and the rest goes to support the Student Visual Arts Organization, of which Borsuk is the former President.
Those that do come, however, make use of the two and a half hours to brush up on their drawing skills.
"It's like playing an instrument," said Joe Fine, a UB alumnus who lives in Buffalo. "You have to keep your skills honed."
Fine is one of several regular alumni attendees who participated in the studio sessions when they first began in the early '90s.
Russell Ram, a retired art teacher of Sweethome High School and a former UB art student, said the open studio gives him a chance to sharpen his figure drawing as well as meet up with old friends, like a fellow UB alumnus.
"It's a nice way of including the community at the university," Ram said. "There's a mixture of all ages."
Depending on their spot in the circle around the small stage, the artists each have a different view of the model, and their styles are all unique. Some pay close attention to the finite details of the models face and hair. Others make bold strokes of color and expression. A few even construct a caricature-like cartoon interpretation of the figure. Once and a while, an artist might grow bored of the model before them and start to draw their fellow classmates.
Tony Marella, a UB graduate from Tonawanda who works in construction, uses the figure drawing class to assist in his painting and sculpting works in a studio he owns in Niagara Falls.
When it comes to style, Marella likes to switch up his techniques. Some pieces will involve a technical representation of the figure, where he moves a scrap of charcoal with tedious discipline. Others will be free-flowing spontaneous works leaving much to the imagination.
"It's like therapy," Marella said. "It's a great outlet."
Photo: Courtesy of Laron Fomby
