Dusty

This is my submission for Illustration Friday. The word this week was “Dusty.” I did a few different versions and I’d really like your feedback. Which do you like best and why? The problem I’m facing now is that because I’m fairly new to Photoshop and all its nifty tricks, I sometimes have problems differentiating between what’s cool and what’s cheesy. This means that I run a very real risk of making perfectly acceptable drawings and photos look like stills from 1980s MTV music videos, if you know what I mean.

Ah Springfield, you Dusty minx! During the sixties you made them swoon when you dressed up in glittering evening gowns and sang about sexy sons of preachermen. As you swayed back and forth, your tall hair swayed with you, every strand firmly shellacked in proper position. Might there have been little animals trapped inside? Perhaps. Could you have wallpapered a small bathroom with all the product used to keep it all in place? Most definitely.

But what really matters is that you were great. Just five years before you died, it became time to dust off the old beehive and be a star once again when Quentin Tarantino chose to include you in the Pulp Fiction soundtrack.

These were the thoughts bouncing around in my brain as I drew “Dusty.”

Here is the original pencil drawing. The wig isn’t as crooked as in latter versions.

And here is a version where I used my bathroom wall as a background. It seemed deserty to me and just looking at it made me want to cough which I thought was a good sign.