If you're not already familiar with my 'Drawing a decade' project, here's a brief summary: My plan is to explore the art, style and colour schemes of each decade, starting with the 1910s and eventually ending up in 00s, and make my very own piece of art based on and inspired by what I've discovered and learned about each era.
(Drawing a decade: 1910s can be found here).
These past couple of days I've been feeling pretty under the weather, and although I initially promised myself that I wouldn't embark upon any big drawing project until I started feeling better, it soon became evident that it was a promise I would not be able to keep. And so, despite my efficiency being reduced by at least half, I began working on the roaring 20s!
This time, like last time, I started off making a
board on Pinterest dedicated to the 1920s. Above you see the four pins I ended up using as my main inspiration. I wanted something that wasn't too stereotypically flapper (I wanted to avoid feathers and black bobs and sparkly dresses) but that still captured the essence of the 20s in a more 'down to earth' way.
Like last time I used myself as reference. Below you see the initial pencil sketch and the basic line art:
I decided to go with a simple but warm colour palette: A foresty green, deep red, bright orange, contrasting black (like last time), a bit of sandstone for the hair and several shades of grey for the makeup:
Let the colouring begin! I was most excited about the makeup (can you blame me?), so started with the face and neck area:
I then added all the black - I could've almost left the drawing like this, I think it looks pretty good:
Of course, a 20s look wouldn't be complete without a set of heavy black eyelashes:
Here's what my 20s piece looked like after the first round of colouring:
And here's the end result - simple yet elegant:
I just want to make it very clear that I don't support smoking in any way, but as we all know, smoking wasn't considered to be that dangerous during the first part of the 20th century (it was even promoted as a good aid to weight loss). The cigarette was seen as much as an accessory as anything else, one that made you come across as carefree and confident. As the cigarette was featured rather frequently in the artwork of the era, I chose to also make it part of my decade piece.
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Do you feel I managed to capture the spirit of the 1920s with this drawing? And which decade are you looking forward to seeing (personally I'm pretty excited about the 60s!)?
