(Click to see larger image)I couldn't resist doing a flapper... I had all these images in my head. I did this in Open Canvas and did the blur and glow effects with Photoshop. I wanted to capture a sense of movement - let me know if I succeeded. This is what it started off as (straight from Open Canvas). I'm really trying hard to get better with technique and appreciate everyone's comments - constructive and complimentary. I don't have any tutorials... it's trial and error and making notes about what I'm doing that I like and what I shouldn't do because it looks like fudge. I do get inspired from looking at everyone else's fabulous work at Illustration Friday!
(You know the drill - click on image for larger view.) While I'm not totally happy with this, it was an exercise. Nothing ever appears on paper as it does in my mind. I wish I could just blink my eyes and make it appear like a Polaroid. But then, where would the artistry be in that? Anyway, I used Open Canvas and added the blue background, glow, and JAZZ (handwritten) with Paint Shop Pro. I more or less just scribbled and sketched with different colors like I would in a sketchbook. The pen tablet is pressure sensitive, but still not the same as a color pencil or pen.... :-/ This is a great topic (as observed by many at Illustration Friday already) and there can be so many takes on this. I thought about a jazz icon's portrait, but so many fabulous ones have already been done... like this one ... and this one ... and this one ... and this one ... well, you know.... There are tons of excellent entries and if I sat here and linked to them all, you'd never come back to my blog! I think I'll sketch a flapper - the Jazz Age was the 20's and 30's... Big Band was the 40's (I think). I like a lot of the big band stuff but PURE jazz... well, that was born of freedom - the first generation of African Americans out of slavery - I think that's the essence of Jazz... freedom. But I have to go now.
(Click image for larger view) ~ For MarMar, JuneBug & Snow, my buddies at the Liquid Therapy Club... Nory says: "And that's why you'll never see me naked!" o_O
