My character's name is Sherri- the Urban Cowgirl. She fights crime with her mind, body and spirit. Sheri always wears her yoga gear so she is ready to take on anything, her daddy's hat to remind her of her upbringing, and her sheriff's star to show everyone that she means business. In many ways this character represents me. Yoga is an important part of my life, for both spiritual and physical balance, and I believe it has helped me to ground my own convictions and beliefs. The perfect female super-hero, to me, would be a true Yogi- with control of her body and mind, able to use her whole being to fight evil and negativity. In addition to that, and on a more superficial level, I love yoga clothes. They are comfortable and allow the wearer to move around in any which way: and anyone fighting anything needs clothes that they can move in. As a bonus, some yoga clothes are super cute.
The cowgirl hat and lasso hail from my home- Alberta. Many people don't know this, but Alberta is Canada's cowboy province: rodeos, boots, trucks...we have it all and are proud of it. I wanted to include this aspect, the hometown-girl part, to give my character a more familiar feeling. Many might think the cowboy hat kind of cheesy, but I find it too symbolize honesty, hard-work, and family heritage (all things essential for any super-hero).
The sheriff concept was important for me to odd, because it justifies my character's power. People may not take a woman equipped with some yoga gear and a lasso seriously, but a sheriff designation gives some weight to her authority.
The lasso ended up fitting perfectly with the octopus beside me: one of the tentacles turns gradually into the beginning of the rope. I really like how this ties the two characters together-ensuring that any viewer realizes that the scene is connected. The other element that ties the images together is the presence of circular objects- air-bubbles in the water, open end of the lasso, and then onto the next image.
On the right side my image is tied to the Pac-man with her kicking motion- in part powering the movement of the pac-man away from my character. The lines coming from the foot and going towards the pac-man's hand show this movement and again reinforce that the images belong together.
When painting the image I was weary about my character's proportions. On paper I was able to do some rough measures and continuously change my sketch when something was askew, but that was a little different when painting on the wall. I ended up finding a great solution: I used my own body as a guideline for arm and leg length, height and other proportions. This allowed for my character to have a semi-believable physic (she was given some pretty hefty arm muscles to show her strength).
I initially painted the area that would be taken up by my character's body white to give a background- I did this only in outline form, meaning that I did not paint the entire block of space white, only the part that I would use to draw my character. I did this because I like the haphazard look of graffiti and wanted the artwork of others to come through through the background. I ended up using a marbling effect to blend my background into the graffiti and the blend the white blocks beside me into the graffiti. This marbling was easy to do with a brush and white paint: lightly making strokes resulted in a marble pattern because the surface of the wall is not flat. Perfect.
I then outlined Sherri using spray-paint. I decided on purple because it was a darker color, but was not black, like most others were using. Once I had my outline I was ready to start adding details, like hair, the badge, a face, etc. I was able to color in her hair and pants and try to give her a more realistic feel. Often I needed to grab more white paint to correct somethings that did not turn out in purple. I used my fingers to spread paint in smaller areas to give better details. The lasso remained black so that it could be a true continuation from the black tentacle of the octopus.
I was really happy with how my character turned out. The next day I drove by the wall in the bus and realized, however, that Sherri did not really stand out. This is mostly because of the purple color, it just kind of blends in and is not as bold as the black of the other characters. To counteract this I went out and outlined Sheri in black and made some of the white parts whiter. Unfortunately the weather was against me and the rain lead to some running of the new paints. regardless I am thrilled with the results: I realized for the first time that this character should not be perfect.
Clean and unblemished graffiti does not great graffiti make. After I stood back and really looked at my character I noticed that the flaws did not reveal themselves, they actually worked to make the character unique! This is really cool, especially for a perfectionist like me to realize. I could easily work hours more on my character, but all the effort would not achieve the effect that is currently present. A sheriff star is a sheriff star, with or without super well defined black outlines. If this character was on a canvas this may be different, but the fact that she is street art makes her imperfections acceptable, if not expected.
My character is an important symbol for me and works well in her context within our continuous mural, with connections to both characters around her.
