This post is about my creative journey doing the free illustration project/ course 'redrawing black history' by Lila Rogers available at: https://makeartthatsells.com/online-courses/redrawing-black-history/
If you haven't already heard about 'Make art that sells' courses I would highly recommend! They have a broad range of courses which help you build up your portfolio to get paid illustration work.
The course I next have my eye on is the editorial illustration one. 😜
Okay so the first inspirational black female from history is Betty Davis- the queen of funk who "In the 1970s, her songs were frequently banned from the radio. Even the NAACP urged a boycott of her work on the grounds that it perpetuated negative stereotypes. ".
The song I found most inspiring was "If i'm in luck I might get picked up" with the lyric "I said I'm wigglin my fanny" most powerful so I had to include this in the piece.
Here is one of my initial sketches of Betty I wanted it to be loose with pencil textures for her hair. I also wanted the illustration to be more angled to really exaggerate the body position so the line "I said i'm wigglin' my fanny" is more striking.
Then I brough this illustration into procreate and photoshop app to start drawing the finalised illustration, I like to you use procreate for the bulk of the illustration and photoshop for the lettering and for the different brushes which i don't have in procreate.
I wanted to push my hand lettering more as I feel in the past i've been a little safe. I liked how the lettering turned out in this piece.
As I was working on the piece I really started to notice white space in between her legs it felt like it needed lettering so I lettered her name there.
In the background I made her band mates less obvious & included funky wiggles to describe the music.
Overall I was very happy with how this piece turned out & it was great to learn about Betty Davis in the process while listening to her awesome funky beats!
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