Abandoned Velma

EDIT:

I got… a DD! Thank you, dA staff, for featuring this - I never expected this and I really appreciate the honour.

Also thank you, everybody who came by to comment - positive or negative, I read through every single one and thought on each. So many swung by to share your feelings and judgments and I'm truly grateful for every single one. :]

If you like my work, I'm available for commissions, just hit me up with a note!


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This painting.

THIS BLOODY PAINTING!

This painting gave me so much goddamn grief. I swear. I probably started and re-started the sketch four or five times, not to mention the half-dozen attempts to paint it. It was fighting me every step of the way, and just did not want to be finished.

Okay, now that I'm finished blowing off steam, let me tell you of the idea behind it.

I've seen numerous fanarts of Velma, depicting her as some über curvy and sexy and geeky fantasy material... and for some reason, I wanted to draw the opposite - a tubby Velma, an out of shape Velma, a having-finished-with-the-mystery-squad-letting-herself-go Velma... I mean, that happens, right? People get done with what they think are their glory days and kind of just... exist instead of living.

So here we have Velma that's been stood up on a date. I picture this being her first date with that particular guy, but not the first time she's been abandoned like that.

Instead of distress, I wanted to show her as being used to this sort of thing by now - she's gotten into a habit of bringing a book along with her, even. I would say she never held out much hope for succeeding with the date tonight, but, nevertheless, tried to make herself look nice. She's not grieving much, as her outlook on the whole situation is rather removed and philosophical after so many failures.

I wonder why she keeps trying?




There were actually two other ideas with Velma that I'd tried to paint, but neither one worked out - one was of her, much older, dressed in business clothes, stepping into the closet to retrieve her old 'uniform' and a spy glass, because another mystery calls; the other was of her trying to work out and get back into shape. Anyway, both ended up looking rather terrible, so I just stuck with this guy.


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