In the movies, when they depict artists studios with live nude models, the models are almost always really fit, beautiful people, Aphrodites and Adonises. In reality, you get all types. At the places I go to draw, it's more likely to be someone old or fat or scrawny or just ordinary looking than a conventionally attractive man or woman. There are a few places I've been that seem to mostly hire burlesque dancers as their models. These are usually 'drink and draw' type sessions, which are as much a social outing as a drawing session. One guy who ran one once told me that he'd like to hire a wider variety of models, but the people coming wanted to see hot girls. Personally, I've found that most of them, while physically attractive, don't make very good models for live figure drawing.
This woman was pretty hefty, but she was a pretty good model. It's actually fun to draw heavy people. The way their weight hangs, the flesh bends and folds, is interesting to draw. And it's a challenge, too, because we are so inured to seeing a certain type of figure in art and media and advertising, that to have to draw such a different body type requires real observation. You can't simply rely on your preconceived notions of what the figure is as a shortcut in your drawing.
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