In 2019 George Clark brought together 144 of his pen and ink figure drawings, all drawn from from life, in a book titled Body Language: A Collection of Nudes, Fetish Drawings and Other Art you Probably Shouldn’t be Seen Looking At. Here we show a selection of those drawings, and here is part of the introduction to the book:

Drawing with pen and ink has been a favorite medium of mine for decades. Many of the artists whose work I most admire were fine linear draftsmen – I’m thinking of Toulouse-Lautrec, Gustave Klimt, Egon Schiele, David Hockney and Horst Jannsen, as well as illustrators like Heinrich Kley, Paul Hogarth, Jean Giraud, Jacques Tardi, Milo Manara and Alan Cober. They have all had an influence on my work.
     This collection includes work from four decades, all either drawings from life or illustrations based on life drawings in which I have altered details or added bits of costume or backgrounds or combined drawings of two or more individuals into a single composition. They were created at open drawing workshops like George Sotos’ Drawing Workshop, the Palette & Chisel Academy, the Figurative Art League, and of course in my own studio.
     Early on I learned it is much easier to make good art drawing talented, creative models than it is to get unimaginative models to do interesting poses. I only hire professional models I have seen create really good poses without guidance in a workshop situation or who have been recommended by artists whose taste I trust. I let my models create their own poses. I may make suggestions, but it is always the model’s call what to do. Posing nude for artists can be a great training exercise for dancers or actors who need to become comfortable with their bodies and their sexuality and learn how to express mood and emotion through body language only. One time when I was working with a model who was one of the principal female performers in a well-regarded modern dance company I complimented her on a series of really dramatic and strenuous poses she had just done for us. She replied, ‘If you weren’t paying me to pose today I would be in a rehearsal hall doing these same stretches for no money.’
     I think a good pose needs to have some tension in it – a physical tension like a reach or a stretch or a twist, a psychological tension like mood or expressive body language, a sexual tension, or some combination of the three. Some models roll and turn and twist with what the painter Degas called ‘the unselfconscious abandon of a cat.’
     I have at times been able to work with models who like to pose in various kinds of fetishwear. I drew regularly at the Feitiço Gallery Erotic Drawing Workshop from 1999 to 2002. What made that workshop more erotic than other nude drawing workshops was that the models there either posed in fetishwear or else did nude poses showing off their more intimate regions, and some did both. The gallery showed and sold erotic art, and the business partners who ran it both had strong connections in the fetish world. Marilyn had an extensive collection of costumes and accessories in leather and latex as well as corsetry and boots and bondage gear that she let the models pose in (although some models brought their own outfits), and Kurt had a side job organizing and promoting fetish fashion runway shows in nightclubs and other venues. Some of the models were into fetish as a lifestyle choice, some as a fashion statement, and some just liked to dress up (or undress) and pretend.

Body Language can be purchased from the Blurb publishing website, which you will find here.