j francis photography wrote:
Particularly interested in hearing from nude models.

Do they vary widely? Can you link to an example of one? How often are you photographed holding your drivers license? How often is a release skipped altogether? How often do you modify the terms of the release?

I'm not looking for an exhaustive list of specific answers. Just a general discussion from the pov of nude models. What do you tend to encounter?

Model releases can be quite different depending on who you are working with. Most individual artists and photographers that I have modelled for over the past 30 years have required me to sign some sort of release. Usually the content of the release centers on identifying me, stating that I understand I am modelling naked and that I am comfortable with that, stating what the terms of compensation are that day (pay, trade, or a combination of methods) and giving them permission to use the photos or artwork they create from my poses for promotional reasons, to sell them privately or in galleries, and to use them for derivative works.  Some are using a standard release which is very obvious to anyone who has seen the same form before.  Others create their own release which covers their specific needs and might also include some of the text from a standard release form.

College art and photography classes and figure drawing groups typically have a different kind of release which covers all of the students/artists/photographers in any given class, workshop or group that I am posing for that day,  it allows basically the same uses and avoids needing to sign off on a separate release for each person participating. The individuals are not named on the release, other than being part of a group, but I am always identified as the model.

Sometimes, but not often, I have asked to change a specific term of the release, or the person having me sign the release wants to add, delete, or make some other change to a specific term. If that happens, it is crossed out and initialled by me and the person presenting the release, and the modified term is then written in the margin or wherever there is room, and initialled as well if it's in a different place on the paperwork than the original.

I have been photographed holding my drivers license many times, sometimes while naked at the very beginning of the modelling activity that day when I first remove my robe (if I was wearing one) before doing the first pose. They do a full length shot showing me holding the license, then a closeup showing my face and the license, then an even tighter shot showing only the license so it is clearly readable.  I have also had dozens and dozens of others who either took a photo of the license, or scanned it for their records before I got undressed for us to start working.  Some of them print a copy of that photo of me holding the drivers license onto the back side of the model release form for their permanent records, or attach a copy of the license or the photo of me holding it to the model release. It's also quite common for the schools, art galleries, and drawing groups to require proof of age and identification before even being hired for the first time, and they keep the copies for their files.

It's unusual but not unheard of for the release to be skipped altogether, I can think of a few times that it has been. Sometimes when working on an ongoing project, or when a school or art group knows that the same person will be modelling frequently to complete a series of work, they will have me sign a release which says it is effective until cancelled by either party, or they will set a range of dates starting today and ending a year or two years in the future to avoid having a new release signed every time. 

I have usually been offered a copy of the release if I wanted one for my own records.