Gamma Girl

Model: Esther Bunting

I wasn't sure how to approach the next painting until I got the email from Dulwich Art Group about the next session. As usual they had a wholly unrepresentative photo of the model, in this case the inestimable Esther Bunting. My eye was drawn to the book shelf behind her...

Okay - I'll paint her green! How hard can that be?

At the same time I was designing a cover for my Kindle – an über faithful pastiche of the 40s/50s Sci-Pulp mag "Amazing Stories" – so I had two style touch points...

I thought it would be easy, chromatically shifting the hue in my head, from flesh tones to frog tones, but it was quite a mind fuck. In the end I'd done so much over-painting to get it right that the area occupied by Esther was almost 3mm thick!

Destroying the Houses of Parliament in the background was an absolute pleasure, as were the lilies, but all that text...

Something simpler next time...