Lily Sly Leaning On A Chair Painting

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. Here is a longer pose, in the 20 minute range, where lots of things are happening! Leaning over with an upper body twist, supporting herself with both arms on a chair and head angled back to look over her shoulder, are elements that all create for an extremely interesting pose. There is a swooping curve that runs from the left leg all the way up the spine to the top of the head, with a very strong diagonal, straight line that intercepts it in the form of the left arm. I love the fact the nose is in front of the left arm. 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 then I worked over the top with a red acrylic for the hair and certain areas of the body, 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 and depth, most notable the arm in the background, underneath the chest and part of the face. 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.