Shake it Up!

Okay, I just received a challenge from an anonymous reader. In case you missed it, here it is from my last post:

Anonymous said...

icebat sure does look handsome next to your woolly pillow and vice versa. you seem like such a nice, placid sort of gal. but whatever happened to your embroidery "with an edge"? let's see more of that!

Ouch! Nice, maybe - but placid? I can't take it! So here it is. I've been sitting on this since I finished it this summer, but now I'm breaking it out.

Here's how it works:

It starts with a photo, that I bought from a Chelsea flea market - one that actually still exists (as of this writing):



Believe it or not, this project has effectively been a few years on the making. I first made a pen and ink drawing based on it:



I think the lady on the right looks a little like Karen from Will and Grace. That wasn't intentional!

This is one of my favorite drawings I've ever done. It's definitely influenced by underground cartoon art, such as Charles Burns, the Hernandez Brothers, and one of my all-time favorites, Dan Clowes, circa Like a Velvet Glove Cast in Iron era.

So, this summer, I picked it up and tried to turn it into embroidery. I traced the drawing (not the original photo) onto fabric using standard carbon paper. Long live the small stationary store!

Unfortunately, my first try didn't work out so well. I don't even have that anymore to show you. This is the second try, which is horrible, so you can just imagine how bad the first one was:



It was really hard for me to let this go, because the above represents hours and hours of embroidery. Oh well! I got it right the third time - but I did do several different takes of color combinations on the nipples before I was satisfied.



I tried to stick to a limited color palette, almost like one might do for a screen print.



I love and hate doing hair. It's incredibly time consuming - but what can you do? Hair is important!



I'm very happy with how the necklace on "Karen" turned out. The blue beads were made by doing a pretty standard back stitch in a circle, and then placing a French knot in the middle.

This was surprisingly hard to photograph! It looks a lot better in person - in the pic, the lady on the left looks like she's giving you the evil eye! But it's an optical illusion.

Male Plumage

I drew this portrait based on a photo based on a 1960s Life magazine article about "Male Plumage." They were quite amazed at how the crazy kids were dressing, and particularly that the men were expressing themselves in such vibrant, flamboyant ways, especially coming out of the gray flannel suit era. I'll post some info about this article when I relocate it.



It's interesting how projects evolve. I completed that drawing more than 8 years ago. A copy has been happily living on my friend Michele's wall for at least 5 years. Two months ago, I decided to try it out as an embroidered portrait. I finished the whole body and clothing in June, but not the hair. I just couldn't figure out what to do with the hair. Then I learned how to do French knots, et Voila! The solution.



I am particularly excited about the colors; prior to this, my portraits were of a more restrained palette.



I spent a LOT Of time on these two details. I did them freehand, and was just obsessed with getting them to reflect with what I had in my head.



Here he is in all his glory!



Now, what to name him...?

The Bartender Pillow

I draw pen and ink illustrations based on found photographs. (Can someone please give me a sexier way to describe "pen and ink drawing"? You can really see people's eyes glaze over when you say this - unless you evoke Robert Crumb). My principle sources for photographs are loose individual photos purchased at flea markets, old magazines (especially LIFE, Playboy, and "physique" magazines), old textbooks, and the occasional original photographs that I take as snapshots.

A couple of years ago, I was lucky to come across a whole stack of snapshots taken at a strip bar in New Jersey in the 80s. This is a very unusual find. At that time, I was strictly drawing, not embroidering, so I made an attempt at drawing some of these ladies.

When I started embroidering, I was attracted to this particular image. I liked her tough attitude, her stance, and her sexual ambiguity.

The major disadvantage of drawing women is hair. Hair takes a long time to embroider. I took a break from embroidering women for awhile, but now that I've become more proficient, I am no longer intimidated by long hair.