"The Internet is in part responsible for the vitality of this traditional activity, which originated in the 16th-century art academies of Rome. The Internet has enabled artists to find each other, to organize groups, and to hire models with the click of a mouse. You can take life-drawing “classes” on YouTube; download live-model, 360-degree-rotation photographs; or participate in such online communities as [TheGreatNude.tv](http://TheGreatNude.tv) or [Barebrush.com](http://Barebrush.com) —where potential members are admonished that the “nude is an unclothed or partially clothed human being. No denuded trees, stark buildings, leafless flowers, please.”