U.S.N. gal based on Bert Grimm

Here's a piece of paper I'm painting on these days.

The "v" from a couple days ago, the U.S.N. lady from this morning.

(I didn't stain the paper this time - it's just the bad lighting in the picture that makes it look aged.)

This girl is based on the flash of Bert Grimm (which you can see in the photo below - from the Book Vintage Tattoos).

I wasn't trying to make her look exactly the same - if so, I would have traced her (and I would have painted her in blue). I was curious to see what happened if I drew the same elements without trying to duplicate them precisely. I allowed myself to draw the way I normally draw.

I like the look of the original more. Mine looks a bit "Disney-fied". The eyes too large. The hair overly cartoony. The lines so "flowy". The original is rougher around the edges. It's just... well... it's "cooler".

But I think it's better for me to do it the way that comes naturally and not try too hard to push it to look like something else.

If you do something enough, it will start to look more like what's in your mind eventually... but it will get to that stage gradually, through effort and trial and error. Meaning you will end up with a look that is influenced and molded by the things you like (i.e. what you look at and aspire towards) yet it will be your own thing because it has had time to percolate or be channeled through you.

It is interesting to see how different the two ladies look actually, considering they contain the same "ingredients". Something I draw will probably never look especially rough, crude, or "cool"... because that's not how my brain/eyes/hands work... or who I am as a person.

Anyway, I think it is more important for me to develop a body of work and to see progress over time than to get hung up on one or two images - as "precious" as they may be at the beginning - when they are so few in number...

Ummm... don't know how or why I got off on that tangent. Ah well...

Lesson learned today:

The only answer to dissatisfaction with your artwork is making more artwork.

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