Original DA Upload Date: January 12, 2020
Considering the 1980s were a big decade for physical fitness, surely Gilda would like doing workout sessions?
But of course!
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This idea’s been running in my head for a few weeks now, ever since I found the song “She Don’t Look Back” by the late Dan Fogelberg. I’ve for a while brushed off Fogelberg as another folk-rock musician in the vein of James Taylor, until I listened to some tracks off of his 1987 album Exiles, which “She Don’t Look Back” comes from. I came to love the song for its uptempo beat, prominent guitar, and that distinctive synthesizer sound only the 80s could bring. It sounded like the kind of song Gilda would love to dance to. So was born the idea of drawing something involving her exercising.
…which later evolved into her doing yoga to another cheesy 80s album, Kenny G’s Duotones. When I ended up drawing Gilda doing yoga instead of aerobics (which was my original intention), I decided to choose Duotones over Exiles, to be the album Gilda listens to in this piece. Exiles does have some slow-tempo songs (such as “The Way It Must Be” and “Our Last Farewell”), but it’s not an album I’d put on a ‘music to do something relaxing to’ playlist. Duotones on the other hand, I’d sometimes listen to on CD in high school, as I did homework. Besides, Exiles is a concept album about a break-up. It’s not exactly the most pleasant thing to listen to when you pay attention to the lyrics.
Now to the art itself!
Since this artwork began with inspiration from the 1980s, I knew I had to draw Gilda’s hair in a perm. That was a given right from the beginning. To add to the retro aesthetic, I also gave her fuzzy wristbands (in citrus colors, of course) and bright purple leg warmers (same color as her earrings, which I omitted here). The tank top and shorts are the same colors as her Classic Green polo and skirt respectively.
Since the cover of Duotones shows Kenny G (the actual musician), I had to draw a Grunvalified version of the cover. As a subtle reference to The Aristocats and Kenny G himself being a jazz musician, I drew him as a domestic cat/feline. It’s fitting. Kenny G’s a cool cat, heheh.
While we’re on the subject, I ended up making a minor mistake on that Grunvalified cover, partially due to the fact that I used a low-quality photo reference. I didn’t notice until it was too late, that on the original cover, every other letter in ‘Duotones’ is a navy blue, not all black like I originally thought it was. Which was… pretty embarrassing for me. I’ve seen that cover hundreds of times in my life, and yet I never noticed that not every letter was black like I thought. In my defense, though, that navy blue for the lettering on the CD and LP, isn’t much lighter than the black. It’s much more noticeable on the cassette version of the cover, which used a much lighter blue.
Also, because you were gonna ask, yes, Gilda is listening to “Songbird”. That is indeed how I imagined this scene.
The tree is what I’m proud of the most about this work; it started off as just a thick trunk and a single branch, which I later gave shading for depth, and stretched-out, beveled dots for texture. The roots were created by making duplicates of the tree asset, that were twisted and pinched, then partially erased so that they blended in with the rest of the tree. It was a beech that I had in mind. I know it’s not very convincing, but hey, at least I proved to myself I can draw convincing trees that aren’t birches.
Finally, as a subtle reference to Yoga from Cookie Run, I also drew a bag of pretzels. The pretzels’ flat appearance was achieved with thresholds and posterization over a photo, like with the oven from a few artworks ago. If I’m gonna use stock images, I’d at least like to have them appear stylized, so that they blend in with everything else.
And that’s all for this one. Post in the comments below what you think of this!
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Grunvale – Chapter 11, Part 3: Now Available on DA!
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Grunvale is owned by me. You’re free to draw fanart of it yourself, as long as you credit me.
Duotones is owned by Sony Music through Arista Records.
This artwork was made at 4K resolution, in 2.35:1.
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Also, in case you’re wondering, yes, I do recommend Exiles. Probably the only Fogelberg album I’d recommend in its entirety. It’s quite on the high side of 80s cheese, but there’s still some legitimate talent behind it. Hell, as a fan of music from the era, I’d even argue the cheesy factor makes the album more enjoyable.
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