Varga Girl Postcards

My second series of postcards for my Art2Mail exchange was of 1940s pin-ups, in particular Alberto Vargas pin-ups. I think his pin-ups are such iconic images. For many people, I think he's what people think of when they think of old pin-ups. Beautiful, coy women who are sexy but not in an especially overt way. Of course Vargas did do nudes as well and there is definitely a range from baring very little to baring everything. I didn't use any of his nudes, but even if I had, I don't think you'd be able to tell, with these silhouettes.

I found this particular image of a woman sunbathing surprisingly difficult to execute. Somehow I made my template too large, so I had to resize her feet. I completely flubbed her fingers. And then, too, my attempt to stitch on the bathing suit (if you click through the photo, you can see a larger version of the image which shows more detail) was only somewhat successful. I thought this very basic shape would be so easy, but... not so much. I love, still, the blue background because it looks almost like water, like she could be lying at the beach or beside a pool and thinking about something cold and sweet to drink.

This is another card where my attempts to stitch a bit more form into her body came out only so so. It's not bad at all, I don't think, but a bit awkward around her bum and the size/shape of her left leg. Anyway, I liked the fabric I found in my stash for her hair. I'm not sure anyone else I showed this too was very fond of the brown, but I thought the kind of variance in colour was nice for giving her hair more depth.

Oh, this one is so lovely, I think. I just love how sort of delicate everything is - the fine stripes on the background, the bouquet of flowers, even her pose.

One of my favourites. I love the bright background colour on this one and her pose. In the original, she's holding a very large feathered pen, but I didn't want to try to recreate the shape or texture so I just left it out. Her fingers are a bit awkward with nothing to hold, but I think it works anyway.

This is my favourite of the bunch; I think she's gorgeous. The white pops so beautifully off the red, and I think there's something old-school and perfect about her wearing (taking off? or putting on?) a polka-dot sweater; it seems for me to reflect the time-period these images came from, even if polka dots weren't really in fashion then.

For this card, I wanted something in sort of light and breezy colours, like a windy spring day. I liked the yellow and green together up until I actually fused the hat on and I find it a little bit... meh. The hat, unfortunately, didn't take shape terribly well. (It really needed the depth of shadows.) It doesn't have quite the same pop that the pink and red cards have, but I love her shape and the implied movement of the wind.