Original Art Sundays No. 139: oddments: surfer and Whoopi

Bit behind on the next page, but fear not.
Haven't posted oddments for a while, so here are a couple older pieces.
First up, a piece intended for an article on surfing.

The central image was back painted like an animation cel, and the background was a Photoshop manipulation of a scan of a Hawaiian shirt.
I was drawing on obvious Kirby influences, and though I was fairly happy with it, the editor didn't care for it.
The decision to violate the image border for dramatic effect worked against me in this case.
Object lesson: what works in comics doesn't necessarily work in editorial art.




Next up, a piece I thought I had previously posted but cannot locate in a quick search: a coquille board of Whoopi Goldberg, something done just to do a portrait.

I've always really liked this piece. There are only a few of my own works that I'd consider framing and living with them, and this is one.
The textures, the facial features, the pose: it all works. There's a strength and a vulnerability to this piece. Coquille board is such a great medium. It all comes together.
Well, except the smoke.
I could not get the smoke to behave the way I wanted it to.
I tried white colored pencil, but couldn't get it to overlay the ink. I considered scratching it out, but I was leery of ruining the work.
I finally decided on white ink, applied alternately with a small brush and a crowquill pen.
Like my Billie Holiday scratchboard portrait, one of the first pieces I posted here, the emotional resonance of the subject matter comes through.
Next week: the Cowgirls ride back.

Original Art Sundays #1

Time to finally start posting my own work.
I'll be running original art every Sunday, God willing and the crick don't rise, as my late friend Kate Collins used to say.
This piece is ancient. This is a scratchboard of Billie Holiday (well, duh!) that I did circa 1994 as a birthday present for an ungrateful witch who later tried (and failed) to blackmail State Rep. Keith Ellison over alleged improprieties.
Guess it's just as well that she "forgot" the present.
In spite of its arcane history, I've always been rather pleased with this piece. Despite my love of chairoscuro, I've never been so good at scratchboard- I screw myself up on the inversion thing, drawing out the light areas. But this one I was always happy with.