When I first saw a photo of this lady I knew that I wanted to paint a fashion illustration of her. She looked so elegant and stylish – effortlessly!
(Minus the two hours in hair and make-up)!
I loved the simplicity of her outfit but most of all I loved her bountiful fake fur collar. I’m a sucker for a bit of faux fur, it somehow makes me feel glamorous! Now I’m living in Italy a lot of women still wear real fur – unashamedly! It just wouldn’t happen in most places but here………
Nowadays fake fur looks so good you just don’t need the real thing. Apart from the obvious reason of the tremendous suffering of innocent animals, it’s just not acceptable in most places.
When I start painting a new piece of art I work out the placement of the person and what detail will be the focal point (in this case the fur) and then sketch out the model. I then decided to leave the rest of the painting, a black outline of the women, on a cream background to accentuate the strong colour of the fur.
Work in progress!
I loved painting this picture of fur and adding subtle brush strokes of fuschia pink to lift the rich, subtle purple base colour.
And here is the finished artwork “Stunning and aloof”. And I think she is!
