Finished portrait of the glamorous Darling Darling:
india ink wash, red lacquer, white ink, pastel, and graphite on rough watercolor paper, 18" x 24"
photo of Darian during the photoshoot.
So if you have been following me on facebook and/or twitter you will know that I have a new friend/muse in Miss Darian Darling. I first read about Darian in Fashion Doll Quarterly in and article called "The Real Life Barbie Dream House of Darian Darling." After reading the article I immediately looked her up on facebook and wrote her a letter demanding that we be best friends right away....lucky for me she agreed!
In addition to being a New York nightlife celebrity Darian also runs a lifestyle blog all about....being blond and fabulous! Check it out Darian Darling: A Guide to Life For Modern Blondes.
We have become fast friends and Darian agreed to model for a portrait. We had a lovely time (and about 2-3 bottles of champagne between the two of us) taking the photos I used as reference.
Below is my process:
rough sketch:
building up the image:
pencil sketch
pencil sketch with photo reference
I always like to pop in a little red first
then put back in some white
and finally I built up the vignette with some many layers of ink washes
