Forget found materials, Anaïs Odoux is colouring each piece of her constructivist collages by hand

French art director and illustrator Anaïs Odoux’s practice is entirely analogue. The artist creates collages by hand with just two tools: coloured pencils and paper. Upon a first look at Anaïs’ works it’s hard to get your head around the fact that they all start as tiny shards of thick grainy paper that she delicately carves colour gradients into before each puzzle piece finds its perfect composition. The seamless but laborious process is above everything a delicate celebration of colour and form.

The artist’s favourite subjects to compose with this technique are edible scenes like club sandwiches or croissants, beautiful fashion accessories and other still life arrangements. “My subjects are figurative but always with an abstraction part because of my process,” the illustrator says. “I make particular gradients on each piece of paper in order to play with shadows and light in my drawings.” This understanding of colour and tone is what gives the pieces their depth, but it’s not detail or realism that Anais is always chasing, “otherwise I would lose the abstract part that I love,” she says.

It might not be surprising to hear that Anaïs has long been in love with the work of Henri Matisse, but the artist has recently discovered American painter Shirley Jaffe’s work and found a lot of inspiration in her interpretation of abstraction: “she was less well known to the general public, yet she has done wonders,” says Anaïs. “I love her work. I’m a big fan of abstract art and modern art in general.” Up until now, Anaïs has only been creating her abstracted collages as fixed images, but she’s been delving into stop motion of late – cutting down apples to their core and constructing handbags with games of collage Tetris.