The Duchess

Today’s subject is The Duchess, vocalist in the band Space Elevator. I picked a source photo in which she was wearing a stripy top as these tend to come out well in posterised portraits. Playing around with the Notanizer app, two value plans seemed to work better than three or four value plans, so I decided to go with a patchwork portrait. And I played safe and went with a more conventional grid than I did for Albert Einstein.

If you’ve never heard of Space Elevator, here’s a YouTube clip of them doing a Thin Lizzy cover. Don’t just watch a few seconds: something special happens part way through. Amazing stuff.

Most of the painting was pretty straightforward: pencil outlines, then masking fluid, then adding the colours. I kept the colour grid plan that I used for Einstein, so I didn’t spend hours planning this one. After removing the masking fluid, I tinkered in a couple of places. The Duchess’ left eye was on one of the white cracks, so I extended the burnt sienna rectangle underneath it slightly upwards into the white. And her right jowl was looking a bit too big and round, so I expanded the transparent yellow shape underneath it and added some dry brush marks in Mayan blue genuine above it. And that was me done.

This one has its merits and is good enough to go up for sale, with the price to be found here. And the stripy top has worked exactl6 as planned, bringing things to life. The one thing that niggles me, though, is that the colours feel too bright and saturated. Maybe with this one, and with Jimmy Carr, I’ve applied the colour too heavy handedly. I used the same colours for Einstein but the reds I used that day were much more watery and I was much happier with the final result. Something for me to take note of and remember. I’ll stop there, though, before I talk myself into giving up this gig.