I used to have a membership to the old
Playboy Cyber Club, and met many, many models there. One was a feisty, petite Italian girl named
Dana Dicillo, a Special Editions model who had big aspirations to become the shortest Playmate in history. Dana was direct, to the point, and just very, very cute.
Being the atypical Playboy model, I thought she would make a perfect subject. I looked through a lot of her pictorials (harder to get online in those days), and finally found this image in the May/June 2004
Special Editions Lingerie issue, shot by
Andrew Goldman.
Dana obviously has a wonderful figure; her petite frame and smaller breasts are so different than most Playboy models. What drew me in was her dark, expressive eyes. I felt like she was almost looking through me.
I chose a very, very toothy illustration board for this image, and cut in quarters. I figured that the rougher surface would challenge me to create more shadows and contrasts, since the reference photo had flat lighting.
Since this was a lingerie issue, she, of course, was shown in various stages of undress in her pictorial. I frankly wasn't interested in the bra hanging below her breasts in the reference photo; I wanted to make this a full frontal nude. I loved the up do with her hair, and thought about how interesting that could be in the final drawing.
I did get a chance to send it to Dana after I finished, she wrote back, wow, that looks like me! I took that as a compliment.
You can see a larger version of the art work
here.
