Ava Gardner

“When I lose my temper, honey, you can't find it any place.”
Ava Gardner

Ava Gardner. Digital Drawing - Photoshop CS6, Wacom Intuos5.

Loved her ever since I watched Mogambo. Wide screen, Technicolor: Clark Gable appearing out of the jungle, dressed in his peculiar safari dress, baggy shorts, thin legs, Ava Gardner eying him up and down, then laconically: "Bless your big, bony knees."

Drawing process

Tried to apply my analogue workflow, using Photoshop and a Wacom Intuos5m tablet (great tool, by the way...). Started with a rough sketch and was surprised, how accurate the digital pen is working, after I managed to configure tablet & pen properly and created some convenient PS brushes. Working with pen pressure dependent brushes is simply awesome for a former mouse driver like me.

Rough sketch: Photoshop Snapshot.

Basic black, shades of grey applied.

Now, the real fun here was working on the details, skin texture, fine strokes and highlights.

Final stage, working on the details.

“When I’m old and gray, I want to have a house by the sea. And paint. With a lot of wonderful chums, good music, and booze around. And a damn good kitchen to cook in”, Ava Gardner once said.

I couldn't agree more. And well, I've got it all! Our kitchen is not that great, probably. But I've still got time to fix this, before getting old and gray...