Laurent Eisler draws playful figures in “precariously balanced compositions”

Illustrator Laurent Eisler’s paintings are childlike in their execution with absurd and humorous characters inhabiting the paper in funny guises and positions. “In my drawings there’s a lightness and delicacy, I’m very attentive to details,” says Marseille-based Laurent. “There’s a lot of empty space in which objects or people float in precariously balanced compositions.”

Inspired by the day-to-day grind of life combined with the theatrics of performance art and dance, there’s an vibrant energy to Laurent’s drawings despite them being so sparse, with cowboys, skiers, dancing couples, and a man in his pants all gracing the off-white canvas. The playfulness to Laurent’s offbeat drawings is welcome and his top-heavy figures have a charm that steers clear from branching into twee territory with their blank expressions.

Laurent’s approach and process is adhoc in that he doesn’t set out with a final image in mind, rather he adds in “elements bit by bit until I find an acceptable point of balance”. The artist mainly uses watercolour, pen and pencil for his drawings when he’s working on a smaller scale and likes “to work with what I have to hand,” says Laurent. “To draw in a way that’s spontaneous and instinctive.”