Carla the Stripper

Carla is a drawing that started off as a sketch a few montha ago. Inspired by a song by one of my favorite bands, Presidents of the United States of America.

Here, how about some mood music?

Straight From LA

I was sitting at the airport, headed for San Diego but close enough to Los Angeles to get the song stuck in my head.

So, with pen and paper in hand, I drew this rough sketch. I wasn't sure what I was drawing, but I was pleased at how she came out.

Playing with Aesthetics

Over the months I keep coming back to her and reworked color and style. Originally, I toyed with her having the orange hair, like in the song. However, I am not too sure I liked it.

Mayyyybe???

Shrug

I kinda dig the orange, I do... but ultimately, I decided that she was contemplating putting on the clothes and calling, she probably would color her hair for her new beginnings.

Of course, that is my story line for her.

Final Edits

I tend to use digital editing, for a number of reasons. The main one is that it is cheaper to color, the way I like.

With acrylic paints I tend to do layer over layer over layer without any real plan. This can sometimes end up with 30 layers or so and that doesn't always bode well for a professional piece. Too much paint, especially with acrylics, I have found to create a lumping or cracked appearance.

Digital Alterations

This piece was a lot of fun and I played around with it a lot more than I probably would normally. As you can tell, there were a few alterations.

I use a number of programs to make alterations. The reason this one is so colorful is that I used Pixlr and UltraPop Pro, which offer a wide variation of colored filters.

Once I got to the shading and lines done by hand, I used multiple filters. When I got to this next look, I liked it and finished the rest by hand using the doodle feature on Pixlr.

BEFORE Final Edits

The edit caused some of the shading to be lost, so I highlighted by hand, again with Pixlr.

Final Edit

Theres this, which turned into...

I like them both. The first, I think us put together more. The second,she seems a little beat up.

I don't know. Maybe she's not done at all.

This, for me... becomes the biggest challenge with digital art. I never know when to stop...

That sounds like a bigger problem in life...

We can save that for another time!