I've definitely veered towards the burlesque/strip club idea for the "underbelly" of Birmingham. Ok, burlesque is considered a performance art and everything, and has become quite popular recently, but it's still a niche thing (maybe not so much strip clubs though, I don't really know that much about them haha) and most of all, I find the get-up and poses really interesting to draw. So it would definitely end up in a zine, probably to be sold at actual places where they have burlesque performances, or even the various vintage shops and fairs as burlesque and vintage seems to interest a similar genre of people. It might be the link with pinups and that 40s vibe to it all. I've tried drawing a couple of poses, just off photos I found on the internet, they're only in pencil and I'll experiment a little with ink later tonight and hopefully drypoint or silk screen printing in the next few days. I'm thinking about maybe making the figures a lot simpler, I'll definitely have to do that if I use drypoint, but I'm still not sure about that.
(the quality of the photos is actually terrible, and I couldn't seem to toggle the contrast any further. I'll get some better ones up once i've added a bit of ink)
6 comments:
can you explain how your images will work in a zine - do you know how your zine will function, who will wan to purchase this, who is your intended market audience - will it be a serial zine - can you show your research
cheers
Lisa, the quailty of these drawings are lots better than your other post. They look great on ther own and on white paper but i think the incorporation of colour would make them 'pop'.
Burelesque was originally for the war troops back in the day (wasn't it?!) so i think of black and white old films and photos plus the white American sailor suit could also fit in with a B/W theme. Oh and birmingham is always grey and worn and rainy. But to keep in with the times. i'd introduce a splash of colour maybe.
Also There's actually a burlesque night at subside on next month. The 20th i think.
A 'live' performance of burlesque dancing i mean.
Chiu: what I was thinking of doing was a booklet with a series of these images in it (maybe a little japanese binding), something that could be sold at vintage fairs and burlesque nights. Maybe have one for each famous burlesque night in Birmingham (there are a few around). I'm not sure if I want to do it in drypoint (so it would look a bit like Frédéric Coché's 'Art Simia Naturae', with a lot of ink around the edges so you get the feeling you're looking through a peephole in a seedy strip club or something) or with silk screen printing and go more pop with it. I still need to experiment a bit and see what I like the look of. As for research, there are so many pin up artists (Gil Elvgren, Vargas) and photoraphers (Studio Manasse, or just even typing 'burlesque' into google) to look at that I'm really spoilt for choice. I'll stick lots down in my sketchbook, don't you worry :)
Tomos: thanks so much :) and I think burlesque started out more as a kind of satyrical theatre, only in America did it originate as an "alternative" to striptease and adult entertainment. So I'm pretty sure in time burlesque dancers probably did entertain the troops haha. I need to actually go to a burlesque night at some point, I'd love to go to Dr Sketchy's where you get to do life drawing with the burlesque girls as dancers, but their next show is at the end of january so it's not much use for this project :) I definitely want the drawings to be more gritty and a bit more colourful though.
wow that's a long comment.
I've just thought - a guide to Birmingham Burlesque.
a guide to Birmingham Burlesque - sounds good -
do you know of this:
http://www.30sg.com/content/453-striparama-2-8
http://www.30sg.com/content/449-striparama-2-5
could really use this as references for your drawings
and other artists?
http://www.flickr.com/photos/32609854@N00/sets/72157600169709200/
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