Painting / Women I've Wanted to Be: Marilyn Monroe

Marilyn, 2014.

Kitty N. Wong
Gouache, pencil and ink on paper.

A new painting I just finished last night from my series "Women I've Wanted to Be".

When I was really little I thought Madonna was Marilyn Monroe but then in middle school when I grew up and discovered the joys of old movies, I wanted nothing more than to be Marilyn Monroe (not Madonna), I memorized all of her movies, took extensive notes of her outfits and tried in vain to cultivate a breathy trans-Atlantic accent.

I think Marilyn Monroe hasn't the hardest face to draw, it's like her features are all too porportional no one can make an accurate representation, or maybe we see too many images of her so we all of such a clear idea of what it should look like. Like hands, hands are so hard to draw because they are so familiar to us and our taste level for what hands should look like are set really high.