Friday, December 7, 2007

Goin' to Rehab.

TOM - This one goes out to Jon Sperry. He has mentioned a couple times that I should do a portrait of Amy Winehouse. It actually was a lot of fun. I had been wanting to do a portrait of a more contemporary musician, since my previous were more ' legends'. But when I would think about it, there's not too many musicians (famous) out there that I admire these days. I happen to really dig her music though. It's soulful and honest. She really doesn't give a fuck, and thats why I think I like her.
She has such a unique face. While gathering up photos for reference, I couldn't help but notice that all her emotions are written all over her face. She truly looks crazy. That along with her beehive hair, skinny body, and tons of tattoos, physically makes her such an interesting character. As well as trying to capture her intense, almost scary stare, I tried to echo elements of her life in the background through classic "old school" tattoos. Tortured love, addiction, 50's pin up appeal.
Here is the pencil sketch, then the inked illustration.
I had drawn the classic tattoos on a separate sheet, then placed them in the background in Photoshop.

4 comments:

Edwin Vazkez said...

Great!!! THis is a really nice portrait illustration. The background fits her personality nicely. The expression on her face works well, capturing her 'crazy' personality.

I really like the tattoos in the background. Nice use of digital elements and run in smoothly with your pencil/ink art.

=v=

Jon Sperry said...

So awesome! Those crazy eyes are great. Tattoos - great, color-great. I love it.

Anonymous said...

I agree with the above comments, a well-done portrait.

Anonymous said...

I love your inking!