Lily Sly Shoulder Stand Drawing

The multi-talented Lily Sly has been modelling for 11 years for a vast array of disciplines, from video and photography to drawing and sculpture, and to even body painting and make-up. She has a knack of producing top quality poses for any length of duration too - able to pose in slow, continuous movement or long 45 minute poses, and from academic style to completely innovative, contorted poses. She's one of Paris' finest. This is a 20 minute pose done with black gouache on brown, textured craft paper (the reverse side of which is smooth). There is strong directional light coming from the left, leading to an occasion to use chiaroscuro - emphasising the contrast by darkening the shadows nearest to the light. I love using gouache with a dry brush effect as you can vary the tone of the shadows, helping to define the volumes. 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. 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 Lily Sly and other Parisian based models, please look through my other works.