Doodle Bomb: The Creative Process

The Tiger Girl doodle bomb, or “bombette” as my friend Megan calls it, is done!  While other doodle bombs, or re-covers, have been done tongue-in-cheek or as an homage to the covers’s subject, this one is more of a transformation of demure cover model Elle Fanning into a Bridgitte Bardot inspired Tiger Girl. Let’s take a look at the before and after and in-between photos.

Elle Fanning Interview Magazine

Interview Magazine original cover.

First step was to give her the “kattsy” treatment: stripes, eyes, ears and a mouth shaped like a heart.

Tiger stripes--the transformation begins!

Tiger stripes–the transformation begins!

Sometimes I like to draw on clear film overlays or color copies to work out basic ideas for my doodles. The orange one was a Josie and the Pussycats inspired look.

Orange Tiger Girl.

Orange Tiger Girl.

The blue one was inspired by one of my own paintings. The cheetah print and blue background idea stuck and I used it for the final image. The use of cheetah print reminds me of the Interview Magazine covers of my youth as illustrated by Richard Bernstein.

Blue Tiger Girl.

Blue Tiger Girl.

In the end I decided I would not draw over the open chest area and instead let it contrast the busy cheetah background. Most of the work was completed using Posca markers, excepting the hair which I wanted to have a hand tinted look so I used a marker that was not opaque. I really liked the blue outline around the stripes idea, but decided to go with the black stripes on skin for the final.

Elle Fanning Tiger Girl.

Elle Fanning Tiger Girl.

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