Rachel 5/6/10

Today's contribution on my behalf is back to the computer. This is a sketch from a paper project of Lend Me A Tenor, from something like 1994. The originals weren't colored in, so much like with the Mrs Linde/Doll's House sketch, it seemed like a good candidate for messing around with digital color application.

This is Diana, the sex-kitten opera diva, in her evening ensemble. She's supposed to seduce Tito in this dress (though if you know the show and its mistaken identity plot snafus, she actually throws herself at three different characters, all wearing identical Othello costumes), so it had to be drop-dead sexy, but Diana is also a fairly heartbreaking character, because her promiscuity is linked to her tenuous self-image.

She has the typical dichotomous nature of narcissism/self-hatred that plagues a lot of famous aging stars. She uses young lovers like tissue to big herself up, even as she fears getting older and losing her sexiness; she wants her big break into international opera, and believes this may be her only chance for it, to seduce Tito and be catapulted into fame on his shirttail, so to speak. So, she has the absurdly hourglassed boned/girdled understructure of 1950s wiggle-dress wearers, but she's chosen a soft sea green color to contrast with how scarlet-hot she comes on to the mens in this outfit.

So, the sketch. It's okay--i was able to use the color palette i wanted, and i think i conveyed tolerably well that the entire upper portion of the gown is supposed to be made from a shiny satin, while the skirt is piles of diaphanous net with some sort of beaded tutu-plate-esque applique at the join between gown/skirt.

But, after the past few days' worth of paper sketching, i hate this. It feels dead to me. I realize that i can get better quality work (meaning, less pixelated line quality) from more sophisticated image programs other than Paint. Trouble is, the computer i have Photoshop and Illustrator on isn't this tablet computer (laptop with a screen that flips, not a peripheral tablet i could use with other computers i don't think?), and the software's work's, so it's not like i can get it installed on this borrowed computer of my father's.

Perhaps i will invest in the peripheral, and return to digital sketching later in a better program context. For now though, all my past few days' worth of marker renderings have served to do is make me want to do more analog, and chuck digital exploration for the time being.