'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!