Lilas Draped Over Chair Drawing

Franco Japanese dancer, Lilas, provided a beautifully contorted draped pose from this session in September of 2015. With her hips on the chair she leant the upper body right over, resting her head on the floor and leaving her arms to dangle, the left arm hanging off of the table surface. The level of body strength to maintain the 15 minute duration was amazing. The piece is done with black gouache on brown, textured craft paper (the reverse side of which is smooth). I used the gouache for sketching out the figure and then added shadows with a dry brush effect, accentuating the directional light coming from the right side of the page. It was done at the Wednesday evening Life Drawing sessions held at Illumination Mac Guff, Paris, where I worked as a Character Animator for over three and a half years. The studio is known for such films as Despicable Me, Minions, The Secret Life of Pets and The Lorax. The room that was used however was extremely tiny and it was a challenge to work so closely to the model, though I feel this only enhances the sensation of foreshortening. All of my figure drawings are from life - no photos were used at any point in their fabrication. The model is in front of you and you have a definite amount of time to get down as much information as you can or see fit. Because of this, each drawing is truly unique and a complete one of a kind, containing a spontaneity that can never be duplicated through photo inspired drawings/paintings. For more of Lilas and other Parisian based models, please look through my other works.