The Absence of Vanilli

That is a horrible post title. I apologize to the world.



You know that mysterious third painting I refused to show with my Annelise and Dania paintings? It sucked. The character I wanted to depict was not coming out right at all, and fixing it seemed a daunting task. Finally, after deciding to try to depict actual scenes instead of just character portraits, the light bulb went off in my head about this third gal. I knew *exactly* how she should be painted - and this current work was not going to fit the new approach at all.

So it was time for feminine alchemy! The one chick had to become another from the Maquette story. You know, for a story with a hundred or so important characters, my tale is frighteningly short on sexy young ladies. In my defense: The story deals with how a major event affects power structures, and the big leaders tend not to be 20-something models. (I know... TV lied to you.)

There was only one choice for me: Millie! She is the sweet young nurse (she's 28, but in my story that counts as young) that causes more than a few guys to fall for her as she travels. How did I not select her for a painting before?

What you see is the results of a few hours spent reshaping the painting to my needs. A lot of the proportions are still off, but it's a million times better than what it was before.

For this scene, Millie is sitting in a makeshift bar. She's looking for a group of travelers to join, and this is the place for the "singles" to mingle. Instead of actively searching people out, she sits at the bar and slowly consumes her cocktail. What you see here is her lifting her glass and giving the bartender that "fill 'er up" look.

Had the painting been from scratch, she would have been looking down at the half-empty glass sitting on the bar. But it wasn't, so I had to improvise. Contrary to what is depicted, Millie's hand is not a bloody mangled mess. That is the result of me pulling in my brother and having him hold a glass for me while I did the best to paint it quickly. (He's unbearable to listen to, so getting him out of the room was a pressing need.) As noted before, I suck at hands, so any little bit helps. I still dread painting the damned thing.

Ahh, but that's all in the future. The face is still in need of massive cosmetic surgery, a far easier mangling for me.