Orange Lindsay

Yesterday’s mention of psychedelia got me thinking of the great graphic designer from the sixties, Heinz Edelmann, and the whole Yellow Submarine style of graphics he created back then. [I must not forget Milton Glaser! Heck, he’s still around!] That, of course, made me think of Peter Max and his popularization of the whole Edelmann pop style.

So this morning I was looking through a Peter Max book and I got to thinking about how last week I promised my drawing of Lindsay Lohan I’d do things to it but, since making the promise, I’ve just been slacking off.

So I grabbed a copy of the drawing and decided to do things to it in a pop kind of way.

I actually own a set of Dr. Ph. Martin’s inks—the same things Edelmann insisted his animators use on the ‘Yellow Submarine’ movie!—but I didn’t feel like digging them out of my closet. Instead I decided to use Bic Bright Liner highlighter markers.

Sometimes I like casual, simple solutions.

I used a Pigma pen (I’ve found they have the most durable ink of any pens I’ve ever used) to do simple outlines on a copy of my Lindsay Lohan drawing. Then I used the highlighter markers to render area fills of high chroma color.

I made Orange Lindsay.

This kind of stuff in a way is fun and relaxing. It’s fun picking the areas to outline. It’s fun picking the colors for each section.

However this kind of thing doesn’t come naturally to me. I’m not, by my nature, a fun and relaxed kind of guy.

I have trouble getting a relaxed, pleasant line for the outlines. I have trouble picking a pleasant arrangement of bold colors.

I don’t know if these are the kinds of things a person can get better at. I suspect the answer is no.

But I’m not quite ready to give up.

I’m going to try a few more ‘pop’ (well, ancient pop) things like this over the next few days. (It’s looking like it’s going to be cloudy here, so I probably won’t be doing any astronomy for a few days.)

I’ve still got that Amy Greenspon drawing waiting for me to do things to it . . .

I have a few ideas for getting a better line and more pleasant areas of color. Whatever I come up with, I’ll post—reduced!—scans of the result.

I don’t really see myself ever as a Heinz Edelmann or Peter Max type artist. I wouldn’t mind at all, however, trying to be something like Pierre Bonnard . . .