Early in his career, Elmer Bishoff dabbled in Abstract Expressionism like other members of the Bay Area Figurative Painters—Richard Diebenkorn, David Park, and Wayne Thiebaud, to name a few. But the artist found his forte in figurative painting. Bischoff had a long career as a professor at the San Francisco Art Institute, and would clearly have understood that the mastery of the human figure is an important part of an artistic education. This drawing is less about the nude model, who is partially cut off in the composition, than about the artist, who is drawing from the figure. By portraying the very act in which the artist is engaged, Bischoff is encouraging the viewer to be a participant in the creative exercise.