5/21/10

early lady day


Being a big fan of many of the early female jazz singers, I thought it would be fun to do an illustration of Billie Holiday. I tried to keep things simple and graphic, yet still capture the feeling of what it must have been like to see her perform in a small smoky club in the 30's and 40's.

56 comments:

Glen Barbosa de Carvalho Batoca said...

Hi Michael!
Beautiful,great work my friend!

Seven said...

Nice emotion and you really set the mood with the color palette!

Roberta said...

Ah yes "Lady Day" and perhaps a little background music by Louis Armstrong!

paolo_gaspare said...

Wonderful! Great graphic appeal.

Ciao
Paolo

Jason James Curtis said...

Mission accomplished Michael.

Lovely colours and details. You've captured the mood because it's not hard for me to imagine the sound of her voice...and oh what a voice!

Mr. Spoqui said...

Wonderful! I'm a fan of jazz too! Saludos

DSM said...

I'd like to know more about this; there's a tissue paper collage feeling to it. I presume it's digital?

I like the story of Billie's TKO of two sailors who put their cigarettes out on her fur coat at a club.

salli s. swindell said...

wow. i can hear the music. so inviting and full of atmosphere.

Sayantan Halder said...

lovely...

justdoodleit said...

You stuff dealing with musical themes are some of my faves...They are very moody, evocative and lyrical (pun unintended)!

Cheryl Lynn said...

This is just so very beautiful it's crazy! What a lovely tribute to a great entertainer.

Have a great weekend!

Vanessa Brantley Newton said...

Oh Gosh this is soooooooo fabulous! It's crazy as Cheryl puts it! It really is. I love the mood and feeling of this piece. I am both a jazz singer and play keys as well and I would love to have this as a piece of inspiration. You have out done yourself with this one Michael. I bow before your greatness! Hats off to you.
Hugs
V

Kitty Kilian said...

Great face, great colours, nice style!

NANCY LEFKO said...

wonderful!

Dante Terzigni said...

everything is rocknig in this ..the hands & the expression are perfect!

BILLY said...

Hey, how long! Most always accompany you ...
Always sending very well ... This is it.
Perfect.

Hug.

michael robertson said...

Hey DSM- this piece is a combo of digital, paint and collage. I used an abstract acrylic and collage piece I had done previously, photographed it and combined it with the Billie image that was done digitally. I played with the color, saturation and opacity till I achieved the look I was going for.

Thanks for your comments everyone-I'm definitely going to do some more sticking with the music theme.

Carla said...

Lovely work, would be great as a print.

Unknown said...

beautiful face and expression! great work!:-D

Jason Dove said...

Michael, Great subtleties of color and texture. The emotion is also well captured. Great piece!

TsipiLevin said...

Beautiful work! I can hear her sing :)

MrBibleHead said...

Hey Michael! So cool! Great mood piece and love the collage and graphic combo! Great tribute to a great entertainer. Nice work my friend... you ROCK!

R.Dress said...

She's great! My wife and I listen to her music all the time.

Sally Taylor said...

This is beautiful and emotive. I love the transparent layers.

Francisco Martins said...

OMG!!! I love her! :D
This looks sooooo cool! :)
Love it Michael, really amazing work with this one man!
Cheers from Lisbon!

Tom said...

Great as usual, Mike!

Anonymous said...

LOVE IT. Great work, Michael! :D

donny* said...

this makes me want to stop everything, open the sketchbook and turn on the complete decca recordings. beautiful interpretation of lady day, michael!

lil kim said...

love it! great style!!

Shyam S. Deshpande said...

Beautiful works !
very inspiring :)

Thanks :)

Duncan said...

Beautifull eaxpression, particularly with the hands, you can almost hear her sing.

DSM said...

Michael, nice to look at this again. I really do like the collage; thanks for the tech-tip. That Billie story was gleaned from the Ken Burn's series JAZZ which ran on PBS... a great dvd set. Come paint in Key West!

Jen Valvert said...

very very cool blog!!!!! saludos!

Kelly Light said...

HUGE LOVE for this!

anil ks said...

..you are creating the mood michael..great colors and textures..lovely graphic style..

ali kurzeja said...

Wow! This is so beautiful, Michael! Love the colors and textural detail.

Vincent Desjardins said...

I love this Michael! I love the composition and the limited color palette, not to mention the wonderful graphic shapes.

Unknown said...

beautiful painting!!

Tomás Serrano said...

It´s full of emotion.

Shirley said...

Wonderful, Michael! You can FEEL her musical passion..love it! It has that special "I was so lucky to be there" kind of club feel. She's amazing..

abhishek said...

looks like she sooo involved in singing:)
super!!

Chelsea Kirchoff said...

This is great! I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE the hands!

kanishk said...

It´s full of emotion.
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Ned said...

i love this illustration... very good!!!

ned
http://www.unmondomigliore.net/

Roger Simó said...

Oh man, you got it! It's full of the atmosphere that I always thought these clubs probably had... And only with the image of the singer!

Kukadellum said...

Thank you michael!
You are great to!
:)

Mauro Souza said...

Belas cores!!
abraço,
mauro

Piroca said...

Michael, great Billie! Plzzzzzz, do Gal Costa or Maria Bethania next.

Alexiev said...

Great singer woman...

Best wishes from Buenos Aires...

http://www.alexiev.com.ar

Proyectos - Illustrations

Alexiev Store - venta de originales

get zapped said...

Fantastic!! You really captured Billie. Love your style!

Bella Sinclair said...

This is fabulous! Great job on positioning her fingers, and I love her expression too!

jazzlamb said...

Absolutely beautiful!

Gabriele Antonini said...

so beautiful

Unknown said...

Love it! Your retro themes are especially great. A poster of this would work quite nicely in my house :)

Camisa dez da Gávea said...

Simply great! This illustration reminds Gauguin.

Unknown said...

oh! billie holidaY! I like this picture and your style!
nice!