GladRagz - The Musical

Earlier this year I started work on a new series entitled 'GladRagz'©.

While I waited for dinner to cook this evening I threw a couple of pairs of shoes down and quickly sketched them with my unipin pen. I was quite pleased with the results, shoes are not an easy subject and my thoughtless set up procedure produced some really awkward angles but I trusted my eyes and went for it.

After dinner I added a little colour to them and viewed them through an 8x10" matt, I thought they would make interesting and affordable additions to my GladRagz series as well as great card designs.

I have chosen to gift all of my GladRagz works with female names as titles, naming a painting can be a tricky business but tonight my task was made easier by my CD player. I decided to name each piece after the vocalist of the song that was playing while I sketched.

'BETTE' after Bette Midler

Song: 'I think it's going to rain today' - Beaches original soundtrack

'ARETHA' after Aretha Franklin

Song: I say a little prayer - Body and Soul (UK) album

More GladRagz© can be seen HERE

Festive Footwear

'Elva' - 'GladRagz'

Played around with a few more Christmas designs this evening in my Seawhite sketchbook.

I started the year working on a series of works entitled 'GladRagz', so thought I would design some sketches around that theme. Each GladRagz piece has a female name for the title and, to be honest, I would have been stuck on a name for the top one if I hadn't of met a wonderful woman in Bygones Cafe back in July.

Each is sketched from imagination simply because I was too idle to move from the sofa!
I'm quite pleased with them and may work them up further for Christmas cards.



'Angel' & 'Holly & Ivy' - 'GladRagz'

GladRagz - 'Jessica'

I recently welcomed another new addition to my studio...Acrylic Inks...and what a wonderfully fun addition they turned out to be. The colours are bold and bright making them the perfect medium for my latest piece in the GladRagz series, 'Jessica'.


'Jessica' is named after the beautiful, curvaceous character 'Jessica Rabbit' from the ©Disney film 'Who framed Roger Rabbit' , a cartoon singer at a fictional Los Angeles supper club called 'The Ink and Paint Club'.

This is my first artwork using the acrylic inks. I took some unusual steps creating the background, using a knife to apply the inks straight from their bottles to create the blue-green effect, incorporating Jessica's famous 3/4 length gloves into the piece by using their colouring. The curves on the high stilletoes mimic those of the auburn beauty and the purple shadows are accentuated to create those consistent with use of a spotlight.



GladRagz series - 'Laura'

GladRagz

Gladragz is a new series I am currently working on. My intention is to unify the series by the subject matter alone, enabling me to switch materials and include all my favourites.

I've started with a favourite of mine...SHOES...working from life mixed with a little imagination for the background.

This piece is entitled 'Laura' after my late, Great-Grandmother. She gave me my first pair of grown up shoes; a brown suede pair of 'winkle pickers' that I'm sure could have performed eye surgery in the right hands. She was a wonderful warm, character with a fabulous sense of humour and the fact that this particular pair of shoes are positioned the wrong way around seems to fit perfectly.

This piece is painted on a 16x16" canvas in oils, my first main oil piece since receiving them for Christmas.

GladRagz©

Bathrooms and Gladragz

A quick sketch of my bathroom created at 2.36 this morning before finally climbing into bed to grab some sleep before hitting the shops at The Grafton Center today!

I think I may turn my Roberson sketchbook into my Gladragz Designs book, it's a great format for them. The idea came after adding two designs to the HP pages this evening...Note the addition of matching handbags.

'Lauren'

When I named this shoe I was thinking of Sophia Loren and Yves Saint Laurent.

'Patricia'

When I was sketching this one the tiny bow ties reminded me of butterflies, My Aunt Patricia had a 'thing' for butterflies, so much so she had her ankle tattooed with one. Although she was more a biker boots type of 'gal, she was unique and creative in many ways and I thought the peep hole design addressed that side of her character nicely.

I had hoped to colour them this evening but, frankly, I am 'cream crackered' so the colour will just have to wait.