On a More Serious Note

I took the ladies to a more serious side of things. I'm calling this 'Billie Does Burridge' because I was hugely(is that a word?) inspired by one of Robert Burridges' mixed media pieces. I love his work! This was done on a 9" x 12" canvas with acrylic paint and cut paper collage. My palette was heavy on the warm colors so I added some pale blue for relief. Hope you like.

A few in process shots

Idiosyncratic Fashionistas ~ my current muses

These ladies are a constant source of inspiration for me. I'm referring to Jean and Valerie, women of a certain age that call themselves the Idiosyncratic Fashionistas for obvious reasons. I love their philosophy on growing older (with verve!) and they refuse to become invisible just because they are no longer young. And don't think they haven't been noticed! Follow the link to see their latest accomplishment.

Anyhoo this is another little pen and watercolor...I'm still playing. I'd like to try something a little more serious just to see if it could work. That's coming up next.

Test Composition ~ the ladies

I'm trying out a new comp with my ladies. I like this one but it needs to be amped up I think. It needed a border so I painted a random pattern with walnut ink, then applied pieces of tissue paper over top glued down with gloss medium. When dry I went over that with white acrylic. I like it. The walnut ink did bleed in some spots when I was applying the tissue paper. Not too happy about that. BTW, I did post my first 3 sketches on Facebook and requested feedback. I got some interesting replies. The feedback was useful.

3 Ladies ~ watercolor sketch

I started a fairly large painting last week and it's fought me every inch of the way since. I finally walked away to take a breather and instead did this little sketch. It felt nice to get out the watercolors again. I added some stenciling for fun.

Fabulous ~ rough sketches

When I first saw my photo reference online the word 'Fabulous' popped into my head so that will be my working title until further notice. I had snagged this image quite some time ago because I knew I wanted to do something with it but wasn't sure what. I finally had some ideas, maybe too many. That's why the variety of sketches. Anyhoo I did a Google image search, found the photographer/s and contacted them. These ladies generously granted me permission to use a few of their photos for inspiration. Don't you just love the attitude? This is SO in my wheelhouse. These are just rough sketches to help me toss around ideas. They all could work but what is my main intention. At this point I'm leaning toward the top comp. Sometimes less conveys more.

'Greaser'

Inspired by yet another photo from franklin's PMP gallery the concept seemed fairly obvious. Young guy lighting a cigarette, an intense stare through dark eyebrows, a defiant attitude...a greaser! If you were born in the 1950's or 60's you surely have heard this term. 'Greaser' began as a racial slur, then a term for auto mechanics aka grease monkeys and finally as I came to know it was a reference to 'bad boys' that dressed in dark jeans, black boots or shoes and white socks. Always white socks. And they slicked their hair back with some sort of pommade or grease. Possibly Vasoline. They looked tough, acted tough and had a certain dangerous beauty about them. It's a good thing I was too young to date when greasers were in their heyday. I love me a bad boy.

This painting began as a continuous line drawing. I prepped my paper by gluing down pieces of white tissue paper making sure I didn't create too much texture. I transferred the drawing then used a calligraphy pen and some thinned down black fluid acrylic to outline everything. I don't like the look of a marker for these paintings anymore. I'd like to get away from the cartoon-y look a bit. I had traced my original drawing onto tracing paper so I could get an idea of placement and then added torn paper collage..mostly images of 1950's hot rods. I do have one image of an old A & W drive-in that was added in the upper right corner. The image spoke to me of that era.

 FYI, I found a great way to age images. Grey scale first, use your photo editor's effects options to switch the color to 'sepia', then lower the color saturation level to get a vintage look. Voila!