Blonde Bombshell Marilyn Monroe...

I realized the other day that I don't paint a lot of caricatures of women. I don't know why... maybe I'm scared that they will beat me up or that I won't do their beauty any justice. As I was sitting at my desk yesterday I was thinking of something to paint and searched on google for iconic movie stars. You'll never guess who was at the top of the list... that's right Marilyn Monroe!

I'm a big fan of Illustrator Coles Phillips and have been wanting to  paint a one of his famous fade away girls for a long time now. So when I found the reference for Marilyn I was super excited to get to work.

As with all of my artwork I learned a ton with this painting. One of the big things that I learned was how to soften the features a little more than I normally do. You see, Men usually have harder more chiseled facial features and women's are softer more rounded. As preveiously stated I don't paint a lot of women so I had to figure out how to paint a little softer without losing brush work. I did this by treating it more like I would an oil painting. I did a lot of blending to help define the form transitions of her face. Also, I painted the cast shadows a lot softer as well. I think this helped to created a more delicate skin texture.

Overall I really enjoyed painting this! I'm always open to suggestions for my next painting so if you have any post 'em up in the comments section. Take care!