I drew this in August 2004 after coming home from a joint birthday dinner with my mother. I was living on campus at the time, doing some official research during the day and ballroom dancing at night. I was also at the end of my weight loss, so the combination of the gym, running a few miles every other night, dancing for several hours, and an extreme veggie diet left me pretty emaciated. After this particular dinner, which was fairly standard for a normal person but off the chart for me, I was full of carbs and protein. With my blood singing with sugar (and my insulin spiking like a Richter scale), I sat down and drew.

I worked on this until at least 3 am or later, going through the night. The model in question is everyone’s favorite Brazilian, Adriana Lima. I actually quite disliked her at the time — those crazy eyes and puffy lips. I think it was almost out of spite that I undertook this portrait. Ironically, her face was the quickest part. I was pleased with how spot-on it was in the first try.

On the other hand, I thought I’d never finish her abdomen. Sooo much charcoal. I was quite dirty. I had a lot of paper to cover — 16×24 or so. The paper was also very thin, made for sketching, so the texture wasn’t fantastic and it didn’t ‘catch’ the graphite like usual.

And because I know you are wondering — yes, my mom put this photo on her fridge.

Here’s the starting outline. I was surprised I had the forethought to photograph it. Maybe I thought I’d stop there!