Pretty On The Outside

Today I was touched by an Orange County angel and her name is Vicki Gunvalson.

I recently received a very nice email from a woman who works with insurance-selling dynamo and Real Housewife of Orange County cast member- Vicki Gunvalson.  She asked if I would be interested in doing a group portrait of Vicki and the eight people who work with her as a surprise birthday gift.  Yes was my answer.  Or I probably said HELL YEA!!!  If you're at all familiar with my site, then you know I have a thorough fascination with her show and a serious fondness for Vicki.  Everything was agreed upon, I was sent some photos, and away I went.  I knew today was delivery day but I thought that I'd just be dropping off the painting in their parking lot and presented to her later tonight at a belated birthday dinner.  Shortly before I left home I got an email that the painting would be presented to Vicki in her conference room with me present.  Gulp!  When I draw people from these shows, I take a dab of reality and then blow it up to crazy levels so I had no idea how Vicki would respond to me.  I was a bit nervous when I arrived but all the people who work for her are so unbelievably nice and warm that they put me at ease.  Then Vicki arrived and I was nervous all over again.  She came in, I introduced myself, and then into the conference she was ushered to her awaiting painting.  And, well--- she was amazing.  Truly.  She hugged me and told me she loved the painting.  I felt like I'd been knighted. 

Here's Vicki and me.

 

And here's the group with the painting.

I worked from a collection of small photos and as such I figured I might have to make some on-site adjustments- alter an eye color here, add some freckles there.  So I took over her conference room, busted out some paints, and spent the next few hours chatting and laughing with everyone, sipping wine, taking pictures, and adding dabs of paints here and there.  A very fun afternoon.  I swear Bravo cameras should have been rolling because that office is a beehive of humorous activity.  And I don't know what the editing does to Vicki on that show, but in person- she is hilarious, warm, very friendly, and clearly appreciative of her hard working staff.  I've always been a Vicki fan and today it was cemented.  

Vicki calls those that work with her, "my people."  So after the painting was hung she asked if I'd write that with pencil above.

Here are a few more photos.

 

A GIANT thanks to Heidi (who put this together), Rees, Doug, Sue, Mike, Danielle, Brandon, David, and Vicki.  It was a true pleasure!

Vicki autographed her book More Than A Housewife for me.  

This was a total Field of Dreams- if you build it, they will come- moment.  :)

Back to regular posting soon.

xoxo

Funny Finds

Hopefully the following images will tickle your funny bone as they have mine.  These were all found while drinking and surfing the internet. 

Back to regular posting soon.......................................

A message from me......

Hope everyone's week is off to a beautiful start.  It's going to be a quiet week here at Pretty On The Outside as I'm fortunately super busy with a number of projects.  I have a last revision on a logo I'm making for a TV pilot and hopefully the show will get picked up so I can share that image soon.  Also doing some storyboards for that same show and, and, and.... I'm making a painting for a Real Housewife.  Yes I am.  Hopefully I'll have permission to share that image on here next week.  All those things are due by the end of week which means my focus has to be elsewhere until then.  If I may--- I'd ask you all to please use the time which would be spent checking in here to do something good for yourselves.  Go for a walk, try doing some planks (it's the upper part of a push up and if you do them regularly you will get a firmer tummy), or spend that blog-reading time by sketching, writing, or doing whatever makes you happy.  Too kum ba ya?  Maybe, but it's how I feel right now.  I did just receive some great photos from my 11 year nephew of his mannequin which he likes to dress and hopefully I'll have a moment to squeeze a posting of that in.

While I'm here I'll quickly make a couple notes on last week's Real Housewives of NYC.  Please, please, please feel free to comment away about that show.

I think that life-sized plastic horse in Kelly's apartment has fallen on her head more than 70 times.  What is that woman talking about?  Does anyone know?  Does she know?

Is Bethenny being more abrasive than usual or did I forget how she is?  Is it just to separate herself from the pack as she's supposedly getting her own show?

All the allusions that Luann was in the "company" of other men while married to Count De Lesbiansex makes me like her a little more.  Was she a "keys in the punchbowl" swinger type?  I wonder.....

Alex and Simon have been really mellow so far this season.  I do love that they brought their Johnny Weir meets Lady GaGa friend to that fashion show as it freaked out Jill. 

Ramona is bat shit crazy and I love her. It looks like this coming episode Ramona takes the crazy up to off the charts levels.  Can't wait.  I will, I promise- recap that show and have some drawings of Ramona.

See you soon. 

xoxo

Things that grabbed my attention today....

Super adorable James Marsden who I fondly remember as Cyclops from X-Men is showing some skin in Death at a Funeral.  I think that may be worth the price of a movie ticket.  Be warned- there's some fine booty in the link.  Oh La La Mag

Sam Worthington does Details magazine.  Seriously, why are Australians so fine?  Kenneth In The 212

 

He used to be a she and he's awfully handsome.  Dlisted

Gaga Dramama.  Towleroad

Real Housewives recap coming soon......

Fairy tale gone terribly wrong?

I was in Santa Ana, CA a few days ago with a friend who was scouting locations for an upcoming TV project.  I'll be doing storyboards for the endeavor and as such, I had camera in hand snapping away at various buildings, parking structures, and intersections.  We'd just turned down an alley when my eye caught something rather compelling and I had to wonder--- had Cinderella been there the night before?

 

OK, that's not exactly a glass slipper and chances are a princess hadn't run off and left it behind.... but..... Cinderella is the first thing that came to mind and out of my mouth when I saw that odd configuration.  And I'll mention that's not staged.  I didn't touch anything above--- I swear!  I'm a self-admitted germ-freak so the chances of me touching random objects on the street is zero.  Zero point zero.  As I pointed to that post-modern still life and shouted "Cinderella was here", my friend focused on the task at hand  laughed and said, "Alright, alright.... lets move along." He didn't get my attraction to this odd assemblage.  I'm still perplexed as to what chain of events lead to a clearly classy gal leaving behind such a gorgeous pump.  She left without her shoe..... why?  And what kind of tall, iced Starbucks drink did she have?  A 2% cinnamon half-decaf latte with two splendas?  That sounds princessy.  Or did she have the beer and her prince had the iced drink?  Or was it a girl-girl scenario?  What happened?!?!  Is it Blair Witch-- Santa Ana edition?  I give.  I'm just glad I saw it.  Thank you Santa Ana Cinderella for the laugh.

The last time I was in Santa Ana, I ignorantly thought I'd stumbled upon the wildest destination for wedding dress boutiques but turns out they were Quinceaneras gowns.  You read that past entry here.  :)  Silly me.

xoxo

Things I've seen at the gym: Who and what the hell are you wearing?

It's been an eternity since I've updated this category which is not reflective of my gym attendance of late.  I've actually been very good ever since switching health clubs back in January '09 and ran into a friend on my first visit.  He and his girlfriend were there, we chatted a bit, and he asked, "Dude, my girlfriend thinks I'm getting fat.  Can we be workout partners?"  I high-fived his girlfriend, fist-bumped my buddy to seal the deal, and the last 15 months he and I have been going three to four times a week together.  My recommendation to anyone who hates going to the gym is find someone to workout with.  It's made all the difference to both of us.  Today was our chest workout and as I quietly recited I must, I must improve my bust.  The bigger the better the tighter the sweater, I caught a glimpse of this guy and all else faded away.

The Real Housewives of NYC. Did Ramona's cooch fall off?

The OC Reunion shows. Bad to the last drop.

Some items which caught my eye this week.....

Hello there.  An NYC recap will be coming shortly. I have a concept which may be a little too ambitious to tackle for that posting but I'm gonna give it a try.  Until then here's a few tidbits from around the web:

I walked past the Alexander McQueen shop in LA the other night.  It was closed but all the lights were on and I stood in front of a large window marveling at his creations.  Sad to think he's no longer with us.  Photos from his final collection can be seen at Oh La La Mag.

Are you familiar with Dave Salmoni?  He's a host on Animal Planet and a frequent guest on Chelsea Lately.  Dave seems so down to earth, approachable, nice, and unaffected.  In a spread for Flaunt magazine he shows an unexpected side which I find ridiculously hot and just a bit silly.  Judge for yourself at Towleroad.

Andy Whitfield the star of Spartacus is battling cancer.  Lots of love and hope are aimed at this young man.  Read more at Pink Is The New Blog.

I was living in Seattle as Courtney Love and Hole emerged.  I knew several people back then who knew her and basically from what they said it's no surprise she's turned into what she is.  Whatever her crazy behavior may be, I've always enjoyed her music.  Have a listen at Kenneth In The 212.

So that's that.  While peaking around the web, if I find an image that's especially interesting, I'll drag it into a folder called "web finds".  Here's a sampling of those finds....

Body painting

In an attempt to keep my blog from being just about The Real Housewives of wherever, I'm going to share some photos of something I absolutely love doing-  body painting.  I was a huge fan of Keith Haring's work growing up and admired his paint on everything approach.  I had an- Oh my God, I want to do that one day- moment when I saw that he'd body painted choreographer Bill T. Jones back in 1983.  Still find those images remarkable.  As someone who has painted on all kinds of surfaces: paper, canvas, panels, walls, furniture, fabric, and beyond, I think a body as canvas offers such promise. 

It was about a month ago that I painted on my friend Henry.  I quickly generated a bunch of loose drawings and paintings of him and used those as a backdrop.  All photos are taken by me. 

Click on any of these to see a larger version.

 

That's Henry in front of the collage of quick portraits.  

Using MAC Chromacake body makeup, I started with his face and neck.

I painted his entire body white and set it with some magical MAC powder.

 

Next, I drew caricatures of him on him using a black calligraphy-ish makeup pencil.  I forget who makes that but wow was it quick and easy to work with.  All those faces took only about 90 minutes to draw.  Again set with the magical finishing powder.

I had some photoshop fun with a couple of the crouching poses above.

I'm a fan of a triptych, so above is Henry unpainted, fully painted, and then an oil stick portrait I did after the project.