Just Another Pretty Face
Jun. 19th, 2004 09:17 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
rowynA couple of weeks ago, I bought Let Them Eat Cheesecake, the aptly-named collection of Olivia paintings.
This put me in a mind to paint a cheesecake picture, which is ironic given that I don't like cheesecake all that much. Well, I do enjoy looking at scantily-clad women in wildly improbable poses. But not enough to hang them up in my living room, or to look at the same one for hours on end. And if I'm going to put all the time in to do a painting, I sort of have to stare at it for hours on end while I'm doing it.
I have this love/hate relationship with the whole idea of pinups. On the one hand, they're fun. They're fun to draw and they're fun to look at. On the other ... man, everyone does them. What do I need to paint pinups for? There are eighty bazillion of them out there already. Does the world really need one more cute naked chick?
Anyway, I wound up doing a portrait of a fully-clad woman. The face was based off of Olivia's "Whiplash", though the final result scarcely even bears a passing resemblance.
I like the way the hair turned out best. It's not perfect. But the color is right. I could do better with the waves and the positioning the next time.
This put me in a mind to paint a cheesecake picture, which is ironic given that I don't like cheesecake all that much. Well, I do enjoy looking at scantily-clad women in wildly improbable poses. But not enough to hang them up in my living room, or to look at the same one for hours on end. And if I'm going to put all the time in to do a painting, I sort of have to stare at it for hours on end while I'm doing it.
I have this love/hate relationship with the whole idea of pinups. On the one hand, they're fun. They're fun to draw and they're fun to look at. On the other ... man, everyone does them. What do I need to paint pinups for? There are eighty bazillion of them out there already. Does the world really need one more cute naked chick?
Anyway, I wound up doing a portrait of a fully-clad woman. The face was based off of Olivia's "Whiplash", though the final result scarcely even bears a passing resemblance.
I like the way the hair turned out best. It's not perfect. But the color is right. I could do better with the waves and the positioning the next time.
A *bit* artificial?
Date: 2004-06-19 04:37 pm (UTC)One of my first comments to Lut, as I was flipping through the book, was, "Wow. She's made a career of not doing backgrounds". Her early works do have some elaborate backgrounds, but the rest of it certainly doesn't. I wonder if this is influenced by photography -- photographers often use very plain backgrounds, too.
I know what you mean about being paralyzed in the face of too many choices. There are quite a few things I've never bought because I couldn't decide on the particular *one* to get.
Re: A *bit* artificial?
Date: 2004-06-19 07:34 pm (UTC)But seriously, you are right. The nearest one to natural may be on page 50, the woman looking out a window, past curtains.
I think the main reason behind the plain backgrounds is really economics. The artist can simply finish more work that way. I have a couple of books of Alberto Vargas, and the rate at which he produced (very good) work was somewhat breathtaking. Then again, most artists' production pace is breathtaking when compared with mine!
Re: A *bit* artificial?
Date: 2004-06-19 07:49 pm (UTC)It's true that skipping the background is cheaper and easier -- but that's always been true in any art form. I think there must be something about a pinup that makes it acceptable without further context in a way that most styles of painting really aren't. Maybe it's the way the artist is trying to immerse you in the subject, and not the scene. The pin-up is to become a part of your world, not you a part of hers.