Laurence 01 Painting

Laurence is a regular model at the Wednesday night Life Drawing classes. An artist herself, she knows what makes for an interesting pose and aside from the more traditional style sessions, she also proposes themed sessions where she dresses in the style of famous paintings or artists, and undresses as the evening proceeds. With very strong and defined facial features, she's great for pieces that focus on portraiture. This is a wonderfully asymmetrical, seated, 20 minute pose with very strong foreshortening. It was done with a mixture of black gouache and coloured acrylics on brown, textured craft paper (the reverse side of which is smooth). I used the gouache for sketching out the figure and for the jet black hair, and then I worked over the top with a red acrylic for the warm areas of the skin, and white for the highlights. I then went over the top again with the gouache and a dry brush effect to darken the areas in shadow to emphasise the volume. This is easily my favourite piece of Laurence - I paid close attention to facial structure and structure of the body - hopefully the viewer will feel the difference between the hard, bony areas and the softer, fleshy parts. 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 Laurence and other Parisian based models, please look through my other works.