Original DA Upload Date: January 3, 2021
Just a fifties-style pin-up of the matriarch of the Hynde family.
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I’ve been wanting to draw some retro-style Sally for a while. Actually, I already have. For Instagram. But this one I feel looks better on a visual level. Navy-blue has been the color I’ve used to associate with Sally the most, but recently, I’ve felt purple is more her color. Purple, like gold, is a color associated with wealth. Gold is pretty self-explanatory, you all know what’s special about that. But purple has a bit of a historical reason for being the ‘color of wealth’, that has been largely forgotten since the Victorian era. Ladies, gentlemen and all those in between, strap yourselves in, you’re about to get a history lesson.
From the days of Ancient Rome up until around 1856, purple dye was extracted from snails, using a very intensive and largely unrewarding process. They had to crush and kill thousands and thousands of snails, extract their mucus, then expose said mucus to the light for a precise period of time, just to get a small amount of purple. And when I say small, I mean over 100 pounds, not 100 snails but 100 pounds of snails, would produce only a gram of the dye. Because of how expensive and labor-intensive it was to produce dye, pretty much only royals would wear purple.
That is, until 1856, when the young chemist William Henry Perkin, while trying to develop a cure for malaria by synthesizing quinine, ended up creating a black powder from aniline and potassium dichromate. Believing this result to be a failure, he attempted to clean the powder from his flask with alcohol… and in the process, accidentally created what would become known as mauveine, the purple dye that made him famous.
To this day, however, purple is still associated with wealth. Though many have forgotten the reason, unless they know the story behind purple dye. Which you now do.
Anyhoo, while I’ll probably still use navy blue in Sally’s wardrobe, I’ve come to associate her a lot with purple as well. Since she is a wealthy lady, a personal injury lawyer married to the son of a rock musician. Margo, Paddy, and Molly are headed to great things that their parents will help them nepotism their way into!
Now to the piece.
What is it about 1950s attire and everyone looking good in it? Like, seriously, every fictional character, if they have a 1950s-style alternate outfit, it’s one of my favorite outfits they’ve worn. Even Rita of The Loud House. I was certain I didn’t want to see her dressed in 1950s attire, and yet Write and Wrong presented me with what is probably my favorite outfit of hers.Even my own characters aren’t immune to my they-look-better-in-50s-garb opinion! And of course, it turns out Sally does too. My only regret with drawing Sally in this outfit is that I wish I hadn’t done it sooner. XD
The car was traced from a photograph of an actual Thunderbird. For the colors, I used a posterization filter on the reference image, to give the car a flat, 2D look. And the car’s branding was changed to the fictitious ‘Electroavian’, partially because I did take some liberties with the linework on the Thunderbird. It’s not a perfect trace. Besides, I suck at drawing cars. I need more practice with it.
I imagine this image takes place on or near one of the arboreous mountains surrounding Grunvale, probably Hatcher. The grass (which was done with a boar fur-textured brush) looks fine, but the forest background… I’ve done better.
Overall, though, I still think this piece turned out well. And to answer the above question, yes, I do think Sally is hot. Stay tuned for more great art! 2021 is already shaping up to be better creativity-wise for me than 2020!
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Grunvale is owned by me. You’re free to draw fanart of it yourself, as long as you credit me.
This artwork was made at a resolution of 5076×2160 (aspect ratio 2.35:1).
The Gallery of Stormy Adler 
