Sunday, January 11, 2009

Tenement Funster!



My new purple shoes
Bin amazin' the people next door
And my rock'n'roll forty fives
Bin enragin' the folks on the lower floor


I got a way with the girls on my block
Try my best to be a real individual
And when we go down to smokies and rock
They line up like it's some kind of ritual
Oh give me a good guitar
And you can say that my hair's a disgrace
Or just find me an open car
I'll make the speed of light outa this place


I like the good things in life
But most of the best things ain't free
It's the same situation just cuts like a knife
When you're young and you're poor and you're crazy
Young and you're crazy...


Oh give me a good guitar
And you can say that my hair's a disgrace
Or just find me an open car
I'll make the speed of light outa this place


music and lyrics by Roger Taylor



This was done as a project while at S.V.A. in 1990. The subject was to illustrate a lyric from a song. I choose Queen's 'Tenement Funster', written and sung by their drummer, Roger Taylor, for their third album, Sheer Heartattack. I went back into it with some Photoshop fixes, mainly the socks, which I was never happy with in the original. Painted in oils on 15X20 hot press Bainbridge Illustration board. The only two sketches I did for the project are here, where I tried using a different lyric from the song for one of the them.

6 comments:

Johnny Supersonic said...

Very kool. I like the choice of just focusing on the feet.

The Keeper's Notes said...

Thank ya, kindly! Looking back on it today, there are some choices I made I might have done differently today. Overall, I'm still OK with it, aside from some painting issues.

MAY-DAY said...

the painting is well done, it kinda looks like the blue boy painting by Johanathan Buttall from the knees down.

The Keeper's Notes said...

Thanks. Just took a look at that painting. Wasn't familiar with it, but I see what you mean in the pose of the feet I guess, and white socks with dark shoes.

Jason Quinones said...

it is a nice piece of work. cool composition, perspective and subject matter.

plus i knew exactly what painting may-day was talking about by his description. i guess i'm smarter than i thought...

or at least smarter than justin!

(not true.)

(ok. true.)

(no. not really.)

Everybody's gotta be in a Gang said...

Good show, matey.