Une vue sur le lac léman, depuis l'hôtel Royal de Evian. Je suis resté là quelques jours, pour le travail.

It's an ancient project, that first hit my mind around 2005. The concept matured through a number of sketches and studies. My friend Jo came to the studio in Bordeaux in mid 2010 in order to model.
I gave my first brush stroke on the blank canvas on january 1st, 2011, at 00:00. I finished the painting and signed it on december 31st, around 9 PM. One year in the making, and finally there, standing on the easel, "No Doll"

I continue to do those drawing sessions on saturday mornings. For the moment I've seen a different model each time. It's interesting to see how, depending on the model, you feel more comfortable or a bit uneasy, and also, depending on your state of mind or level of fatigue, it will show up in the result.
It's a blend of high concentration and loose gesture, a mix of sticking to your favorite technique or daring to try different tools. It is interesting too to see what comes up when you completely let go.

I like the flow in the picture above, which was done in 6 minutes. Below, rightmost, is the last sitting the model did, she was a bit tired and had problems sustaining the pose, resulting in some shaking outlines that convey a nice movement to the sketch, I found.