100 DRAWINGS IN 100 DAYS - pocahontas takes a ride with thelma and louise!

BLYTHE (IS INSISTENT THAT HER FRIEND LOUISE CALLS HER 'THELMA' WHILE THEY DRIVE AROUND)

or as my mother calls it, 'de Shan and Laura', after my niece was visiting from the US last year. she rented a convertible and we drove around and stirred things up a little bit during her trip here, much like the two in "Thelma and Louise"... we did not, however drive the car off a cliff. this is a very good thing.

but this movie was a classic tale of female soul-mates, and if you haven't seen it, do make the time to check it out on DVD. Thelma is played by Geena Davis, while Louise is played by Susan Sarandon, and they both do an exceptional job of portraying 2 women throwing all caution to the wind and just living their lives the way they want to. and i think that's what my niece and i are doing at present as well. sans the driving off the cliff. again, this is a very good thing... "Somebody said get a life... so they did".

BLYTHE (POCAHONTAS)

it is a well-known story, thanks to Walt Disney, about the little indian girl, Pocahontas, whom i have chosen to illustrate Blythe-style. i have just read a little bit about her life, and it was most definitely interesting to say the least. she was born around 1595, and her nickname was 'Pocahontas', meaning 'frolicsome'. in her tribe, they used to have many personal names, for use at different times or in different contexts. among the many things that happened in her life, Pocahontas was captured by the english and held for ransom to release the english prisoners held captive by her father Powhatan, the paramount chief of Tsenacommacah, and she was considered a princess. there is this story about her rescuing the englishman John Smith, which has been under dispute, but she then went on to meet and marry the englishman John Rolfe and bear a son.

there was just so much about Pocahontas in the blurb on wikipedia, but this is just a smidgeon of what you will find there. at any rate, she has always been portrayed as a beautiful woman, and here i have drawn her as a beautiful Blythe.

100 DRAWINGS IN 100 DAYS - CHASING THE WHITE RABBIT

BLYTHE (TRYING NOT TO GET CAUGHT BACKSTAGE IN ALICE'S CHANGE ROOM)

i think it is fair to say that my favorite all-time children's story is the classic "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland" by Lewis Carroll. (Lewis Carroll was a pseudonym later adopted by Charles Lutwidge Dodgson, which happens to be a play on his real name: Lewis was the anglicized form of Ludovicus, which was the latin for Lutwidge, and Carroll an irish surname similar to the latin name Carolus, from which the name Charles comes*). in 1865 the book was first published, after much begging from a family friend's daughter, Alice Liddell (after whom the book was supposedly based upon), and other friends of his. the story was whimsically created in his head and told one day while he and a friend took alice and her sisters on a rowing trip, after which she made him promise to write it down for her.

so there is a little bit of history about the famous author and his most famous story. but i have to say that of all the movies made over the years, my favorite was the recent Tim Burton version. spectacular.

i even have an entire series of paintings entitled "chasing the white rabbit", which were derived from my similar experience as alice's with the search for the ever-elusive (fill in the blank...). mine was abstract painting. my elusive "thing" that i could never quite get a hold of, was to be able to paint a proper abstract. but i think i eventually did - and they all sold!

at any rate, i always try to include a little alice everywhere i go... even my cat is cheshire.

*courtesy wikipedia

100 DRAWINGS IN 100 DAYS - the bunny gave it all away...

BLYTHE (THE ONLY DEAD GIVE-AWAY THAT SHE WASN'T A MOULIN ROUGE DANCER WAS THE BUNNY...)

it's really hard to not get too attached to these drawings during and after i have worked on them. that is particularly true for this one... when you create a piece of work, you are building a relationship with it while you're working on it. every song that plays in the background, every phone call you take, every interruption or smell, taste and sound is recorded inside the artwork. and what amazes me, is that when i hear a song or a tv commercial jingle that i listened to while drawing, it reminds me of the drawing. and likewise, when i revisit a drawing much later on, i can remember what song or tv show was playing... (just for the record, i was listening to the movie "punch drunk love" in the background while i drew this one!)

so i am quite fond of my little Moulin Rouge girl here, with her amazing costume and the cutest little bunny toy.

100 DRAWINGS IN 100 DAYS - giddy'up cowgirl and the screen siren

JESSICA (BLYTHE) RABBIT - "I'M NOT BAD, THEY JUST DRAW ME THAT WAY"

a friend of mine was admiring my Blythe doll drawings, and was commenting on how i should do a jessica rabbit (blythe), from the movie "who framed roger rabbit". she was the notoriously-sexy-lounge-singing-vixen who was married to roger rabbit, had a gorgeous unmovable mane of flame red hair, purple satin gloves, a fire-truck-red sequined gown with a slit up to "there", full pouty lips, and the most amazing curves that you needed to slow down for... and when i grow up, i want to be jessica rabbit...

so this is the Blythe version of the classy "jessica rabbit".

BLYTHE (JUST QUIT HER DESK JOB AT THE FIRM TO BECOME A COWGIRL AT THE O.K. CORRAL

ah, good times. i grew up on a quarter horse ranch when i was a girl, and i just could not wait to get my own horse, so i could get the cowgirl hat with the pretty band, the boots with the engraving and multi-colored leather detailing, the fancy saddle, etc. such a girl. but i guess it's always there in the girliest of girls that you have to look good while you're out there stomping around in all that horse poo.

now for this blythe drawing, i used two different types of pen. her eyes were so light that my 0.1mm pen was still too thick to cross-hatch her eye color, so i used a much smaller ball-point that i could use to "shade" in her eyes. i'm happy with how her eyes turned out, and yes, her hair took forever!