Pretty On The Outside

Where oh where did my Winehouse go?

Come back to us Amy........

Amy Winehouse and her holiday hive

I wish Amy Winehouse would spend the holidays decorating her hive and less time decorating the blogs with her rather bizarre behavior.  Get well soon my sweet Wino.

Ink on paper with digital color and a hope she pulls her beehive out of her ass.  Such a shame to let that much talent go to waste. 

Her Nose Runneth Over..........

Oh Amy.........why do you make me do this?

Bottle with a Beehive.

My precious Amy Winehouse was recently granted a USA Visa which means she can bring the party to the states.  With so many celebrities launching their own fragrances, I think it is time for Miss Amy to enter the celebrity as commodity world and introduce her own wine.  Being 100% alcohol by volume, Wino Wine could also be used as an antiseptic wash, a fragrance, and perhaps could be used to treat whatever is going on in these photos. 
Cheers.

I used a bit of everything in this image.  Illustrator mixed with Photoshop and a little pen on paper.  Season to taste.   

Wonder Wino

Yesterday a friend and I took an overnight trip to Las Vegas.  I got home a few hours ago and checked the blogs to see what I had missed.  It was the usual stories of Britney and her underground baby fighting ring, pregnant Nicole in and out, in and out, in and finally out of jail all in the same day, and Anderson Cooper designing a line of titanium jewelry for gay men.  You know, the usual stories.   The one that really stood out was my precious but troubled Amy Winehouse had gotten into a fight with her husband.  The husband was scratched to hell and Amy's eyeliner had been compromised. 
In a series of text messages that Amy sent Perez Hilton, she explains what happened.  Here's the first of three texts she sent him:
Amy Winehouse: “Blake is the best man in the world. We would never ever harm each other. Take back what you said on the blog. I thought you was my girl. I was cutting myself after he found me in our room about to do drugs with a call girl and rightly said I wasn’t good enough for him. I lost it and he saved my life.”
Call me crazy, but ever since I caught a glimpse of Amy's beehive hairdo, I've seen her as Wonder Woman.  I don't know why but I've always had that association.  Both are strong gals you wouldn't mess with.  I hope my sweet Amy gets it together.  She's a wonder Wonder Wino!

Watercolor, gouache, colored pencil, and ink on paper.

To Rehab or not to Rehab?

Oh Amy, why do you make me do this?
Depending on which report you believe, Amy Winehouse is either in rehab or is hold up in a hotel room recovering after a three day bender.  I love that drunken bird and I have nothing else to say about that situation.

What I would like to talk about is the above image.  I begin every illustration or painting with a pencil sketch.  Sometimes, I will admit, that initial sketch has more energy than the final piece.  As I was working on my planning drawing, I began to like its messy quality.  Seemed appropriate given the subject's current situation.  So I kept adding on to that pencil drawing.  I added ink then colored pencil and some gouache.   I let the painting create itself. 
And there you have it.

A print can be purchased here.

One more for the road.......

Amy Winehouse and her boozy beehive

I want to profess my fondness for that kooky bird Amy Winehouse.  I love her music, her voice, her funky beehive hairdo, and her screw it attitude.  I eagerly read every gossip story about her.  A lot of her stories, unfortunately, are about her canceling performances.  I personally would be pissed off if I had paid to see her and then find out she was boozing it up instead of putting on a show.  That's what happened this past wednesday. She was set to perform in Liverpool but backed out due to "exhaustion."  Surprisingly though her condition didn't stop her from an evening of drinking in London instead.  Bad, bad, boozy beehived bird.
Maybe if she brought the bar's essentials with her, then she could go ahead and keep her scheduled performances.  There's plenty of room to store stuff up in that beehive.  Just a thought.

This is painted using acrylics and a bit of colored pen on a 14" x 11' piece of paper. 

Trippy and Toothy: Amy Winehouse

It pains me to see this photo of my precious Amy Winehouse.  I don't know if she just has a naturally jacked up grill or if it's something far more destructive.  Which ever, I had to floss and brush my teeth before I sat down to do these drawings.  As I was drawing the above image I really got into the swirling lines of her hair.  It reminded me of one of my favorite album covers by Milton Glaser.  So I took the above image a step further and did this:

This is an aside story.  Earlier today before I saw that photo of Miss Winehouse I had coffee with my pal Ashley who had seen Amy perform at the Coachella music festival the previous weekend.  Ashley said that Miss Winehouse was clearly drunk during her one hour set and she kept asking for her "medicine".  Ashley said in spite of her obvious intoxication, that Amy put on an amazing show. 

Oh Amy, please get it together.

Top drawing: pen on paper

Bottom drawing: pen on paper with photoshop

My New Muse: Amy Winehouse

"They tried to make me go to rehab but I said 'no, no, no'
Yes I've been black but when I come back,
you'll know know know
I ain't got the time and if my daddy thinks I'm fine
He's tried to make me go to rehab but I won't go go go"
Those are lyrics from Amy Winehouse's single Rehab.

Ms Winehouse is a british singer who is known for her drunken antics and amazing r&b, 60-ish soul music.  I love her.  She looks like she stepped right out of John Water's movie Crybaby.  I dig the hair, the crazy eye shadow, the tattooes, and above all her haunting voice. 

This is done with ink on paper.