Giclee print edition of 100 on archival Hahnemühle Photo Rag paper

35.5 x 28 cm (14 x 11 inches)

(Frame not included, but click here to see an affordable frame you can order online.)

Carol Lombard was my Granny Marjorie’s favourite Hollywood actress. She looked a little like her when she was young, and wore her hair modelled on Lombard’s trademark style her whole life. 

In lockdown I immersed myself in the glamour of old Hollywood, the lighting, the cinematography, the dramatic beauty. I also tracked down more of my favourite drawing surface, a polyester film that looks like tracing paper but takes charcoal really beautifully.

Alas, the Mylar I found didn’t have the same tooth as that I’d used previously, and the charcoal just didn’t want to sit on it right. I experimented with painting swathes of clear gesso on the Mylar, and then drawing on that. I loved the effect engendered by the absorbent invisible gesso sucking up the dark dust and glancing off the mylar, like a drawing had magically emerged from a paint tube.

I perfected the technique whilst studying studio shots of starlets, analysing composition and lighting the same way I do when I’m drawing the Old Masters. It was a masterclass in portraiture.