Charmaine-What's Your Story?

"Charmaine"

"Charmaine"- Tell us your story

1920's Girls at the Beach

She began from the picture above.  Looking for African American women of the 1920's, I found this photo.  The girl in the middle struck me as just the right "Lady" for my FIRST woman of color.

Paper Sketch - I planned on adding the umbrella with flowers on it

Here is the first rendering on canvas.  As with all my women, I begin with the face.  See how her features changed from the paper sketch? Also, the umbrella didn't work for me. Many layers of different shades of brown were laid down until they gelled into the appropriate color.  Her hair grew into a more contemporary style.

Once her face was pretty well established, I worked on the hair adding fly away pieces and light colors to achieve contrast.   The next challenge was what to put behind her.  Two arcs surrounded her head and flowers and large leaves were added. The light part of the big leaves is a green metallic.  You can see the beginning of one on the top right.  I also added a mustard background.

More flowers and vines, details to her coat and hat (some of which I copied from the photo), makeup, and more metallic to the mustard background plus veins of green.

She will soon be debuting on my website along with her very own note card.  I'll keep you posted and thanks for allowing me to introduce you to "Charmaine"!