Shannon McInnis, a freshman English major, sits in a changing room in Haas Fine Arts Center in a fluffy robin’s egg blue robe. Aside from the robe, she wears a pair of shoes so she doesn’t get charcoal on her feet.

She’s waiting for the professor to call her out to a platform in the middle of a classroom, surrounded by art students seated behind their work stations.

For the next three hours, they will draw her.

Naked.

McInnis said she initially wanted to become a nude model for the class, Life Drawing, because it sounded like a unique opportunity.

“I was a little nervous,” she said. “But I kept remembering all those things that people say. ‘Oh, you should do something that scares you every day,’ or ‘when something’s challenging, you gain a lot from it.’ So it was like ‘I have to go through with this. I have to try it at least once.’”

And while her thoughts may have been racing while she was waiting to hit the stage, it was a good choice.

“I was a little apprehensive, but I just kind of sucked it up and did it anyway, and I’m glad I did,” she said. “I feel stronger because of it.”

A different kind of class

McInnis said she got an email from the art department looking for students to model for a life drawing class back in September. She was interested right away, but there was a conflict between her schedule and the time the class met. But still, she was curious, and began modeling for the class in January.

“It’s kind of one of those next steps for me into becoming an adult,” McInnis said. “I don’t think people just fall into maturity, you have to actively challenge yourself and do things that scare you and try new things. And this was obviously one of those things.”

Nude modeling for an art class isn’t something McInnis had really thought she’d end up doing. Sure, she had seen it in movies, but didn’t think it would be something to come up in her real-life college experience.

The class itself exists to teach UW-Eau Claire students how to draw the human form.

Danielle Downing, a graphic design student, took the class because it was required for her catalogue year.

“Dummies can be unproportionate very easily,” Downing said. “You can’t get the naturalness of a human body that way.”

Downing said while there was an initial shock with there being someone naked in the room, the class quickly got over it.

McInnis said the professor and class treat her respectfully and put effort into making her feel comfortable.

“The class doesn’t talk while they’re working,” she said. “And we try our hardest to not make eye contact,” she added with a laugh.

Rachel Nokken, a junior graphic design major, took life drawing as a freshman, and she said it helped her become a better artist.

“I wasn’t a drawer to begin with,” she said. “I can say I became significantly better while taking that class.”

Dalan Hartmann, a junior art education major, took the class as a freshman, and then modeled for it for a year and a half. She still thinks it was the best art class she’s taken at Eau Claire.

“I became so good at drawing,” she said. “The point is to look, observe and capture that image immediately on paper. When you’re looking at something 2D, like a photo, and drawing from that, it’s so different. It’s much more difficult to transform that to something 3D.”

About body confidence

McInnis said another big reason she wanted to model was to build her self confidence.

“I think some people misunderstand what people mean when they say they’re comfortable with their body,” she said. “It doesn’t mean I’d be comfortable being naked anywhere. Obviously that’s awkward and no one feels that way.”

She said it’s all about understanding herself as a unique human being, and respecting that.

“If I can do this, think of how many other things I’ll be more comfortable with,” she said. “Not even related things, just I have more self confidence.”

She said she thinks a lack of body confidence is a problem of our time period, especially as women in film and television aren’t accurate portrayals of what people actually look like.

Women have a lot of pressures to think their bodies are not up to standards, she said. But there are other things besides looking good that people should strive for, McInnis said, but instead they get caught up in caring about their body image.

“I hate that it just translates to ‘If my body doesn’t look right, I’m a bad person or I’m not capable of other things,’” she said. “I think it holds people back from their full potential when they have problems with their body.”

New bravery

Hartmann  quit  modeling for the class last December.

“I quit because it was cold,” she said with a laugh. “The heater wasn’t working for a little bit there. But also, for me, I felt like I needed to shave and make sure my skin looked nice for the class, and it just took so much extra time for me.”

But the rest of her experience was positive, she said.

Like McInnis, she was also interested in modeling for the class because she wanted to build her own confidence, as she felt like she was always shier than she wanted to be.

“Yes,  I was uncomfortable for maybe the first 30 seconds,” she said. “But the reason I wanted to model was because when I was taking the class, the models seemed so comfortable and proud of who they were and what they looked like.

“And I wanted to be like that, I wanted to feel proud of myself and be just as brave as the other people. And I am brave enough to do this.”

She wasn’t too worried about what others would think of her job. While she doesn’t plan to ever tell her grandma she modeled in the buff, her parents were proud of her bravery. Hartmann said most people gave her positive feedback, though that wasn’t something she thought about when deciding to take the job.

“It was really about proving a point to myself,” she said. “I think it made me more confident. I mean, I was always confident, but I wanted to be able to talk to people and show myself … Not literally! Not as in naked!”

But with other things such as public speaking and interacting with others, her confidence has grown.

Why taboo

And while both women have gained more confidence in themselves, McInnis said she knows this type of thing isn’t for everyone.

“I’m not going to say that it’s weird for people to be uncomfortable with nudity,” she said. “It’s not a norm in society. But it is something everybody shares, in a way. Every one has a body under their clothes.

“Everyone is naked at some part of their day,” she said. “It’s fascinating to me that some people are unable to face that fact.”