Author Promotional Art Case Study: “Edy.”

The Request

Author Odessa Blaine reached out to me requesting an original painting of the opening scene of her debut novel WHERE THE ROOTS TANGLE that she could display at her upcoming book launch and subsequent events. She wanted the art style to resemble that of Erté’s 1920s Art Deco flapper gouache paintings.

Project Snapshot

I acted as the creative director and artist/illustrator. The sketches were done in pencil on paper, and I completed the final painting with acrylic on canvas, using matte medium and matte varnish to bring some of the gloss of the paint down to resemble the requested style.

Moodboard/Idea Board

First step: research! After reading Odessa Blaine’s opening chapter (the scene she wanted illustrated for the painting), I researched Black women from the time period (1920s) to see how real women did their hair and makeup. Edy reminded me of Josephine Baker, so I had to include her in my research.

Black and white screenshot photograph of entertainer Josephine Baker: a Black woman with short black hair wearing a black outfit, smiling at the camera.

Screenshot of a black and white photograph from the 1920s Harlem Renaissance of a Black woman with short black wavy hair and wearing a black flapper dress reclines on a white couch.

Screenshot of a sepia-toned 1920s photograph of a Balck woman with a short finger wave bob haircut around the time of the Harlem Renaissance.

I also wanted a few examples of flapper dresses that best captured her free spirit and nonchalance of these first pages. The final image in the gallery shown below endedup becoming the one I painted. These photographs made up the moodboard for Odessa and I to work from.

Next: Art style! Odessa specifically wanted Edy’s painting to feel reminiscent of the legendary Russian-French Art Deco artist Erté, well outside my personal art style. Before I attempted any idea sketches for Edy herself, I needed to see if I could mimic Erté’s painting style.

Screenshot of the gouache painting Flapper, 1990 by Erte. It shows a white woman with short blonde hair in a red flapper dress holding a gold and silver fan against a black background.

A pencil line sketch imitating the face and fan of the woman in Erte's painting Flapper, 1990.

Screenshot of Erte's painting, Wings of Victory. A white woman with short gold hair under a hat and wearing a gold and tan loose tunic rleases a blue grey bird into the air. A sun partially hides behind blue and grey clouds and a brilliant gold sky.

A pencil line sketch of Erte's painting Wings of Victory.

Iterations

After I felt comfortable mimicking Erté’s style, I made a few sketches of the women from the Harlem Renaissance research as practice. From there, Odessa and I discussed the psychology behind certain visual design choices and decided the image should have Edy’s feet facing to the left.

I created two images. One displayed a natural pose and more realistic hairstyle. For the second, I embodied Edy’s in-your-face, unapologetic, devil-may-care attitude.

In this image, I rose the porch rail and her ankles to emphasize her height, left one arm dangling, and gave her a curly bob closer to Erte’s own Art Deco style. Odessa chose this one.

Pencil line sketch of a woman with short curly hair in a short flapper dress holding a martini glass. she is relaxed on a wooden chair and has her legs resting on a balcony railing.

Painting Process

After setting up the pencil line drawing on the 16″ x 20″ canvas, I shared a photograph with Odessa one last time to give her a chance to make any final changes. We discussed the final color palette choices, and I got to work on the final piece.

Pencil line sketch on canvas in preparation for acrylic painting.

Acrylic painting work in progress. Some sections are covered with blue tape to assist with clean straight lines. A deep navy blue sky and an open door way have been completed so far.

Work in progress acrylic painting. The blue tape has been painted over a pale bluish white to indicate the night time shadows of the balcony and railing.

Acrylic painting work in progress. The midnight blue sky and open doorway are complete along with the white balcony. The woman's dark brown skin has been completed but her dress, hair, face, and chair are untouched.

Acrylic painting work in progress. The background is complete, and this image crops close to the woman to show that her dark brown skin, short black curly hair, and white dress with silver beadwork are complete. Her face is started.

Acrylic painting work in progress. A close up to show the pencil fine flapper style eyebrows, full red lips, eye detail, and short curly hair of the Black woman featured as the subject of the painting.

After the final details, Odessa received photographs and video of the final painting. I needed the video to show how the silver and blue beadwork of the flapper dress change colors in the light, which would delight the readers that came to her events and saw it in person.

Lessons Learned

I created this piece with the materials I felt most familiar with for the size selected (acrylic on canvas). During production, I realized that while I could easily mimic Erté with pencil and paper, the teeth texturing the canvas got in the way of fluid, thin lines. This inspired me to research what substrates I could use instead in the future for a smoother surface.

Even mixing the matte medium into the acrylic and painting in thin layers, the finished product still retained some of the shiny gloss that makes photography and printing the original difficult. I realized that working with gouache in the future like Erté did might make these processes easier for me in the future–and I may not have considered trying it without this project.