SOUTHERN FRIED HIP HOP U HEAR ME?

I had the pleasure to do a quick turnaround piece for the Oxford American this past week. It's a portrait of the Southern hip-hop artist Ms. Peachez. "She" is a controversial cross dressing man from Louisiana who uses stereotypes of poor southern blacks to poke fun at hip-hop hits and the perception of the South in general. Or, at least thats what I think she's doing. Decide for yourself here and my favorite here.

I love doing pieces for Oxford American because they basically leave it up to you to deliver. No sketch approval phase, nothing, just straight for it. But with this freedom you can drift, I did an almost finished piece before scrapping it and starting over.

After thumbnailing a bunch of different directions, including some really bad ideas like a Ms. Peachez brand tub of fried chicken ala KFC. I decided this image below would be the one.

It was too busy, so I cropped it and started dropping in some flat color areas to see if it would level out a bit.

Something still wasn't right. It was a little too detailed and looked like some weirdo coloring book uh, boring. So it was back to the drawing board.

And the final piece. I thought a more traditional, almost, formal portrait would balance the zaniness and of the subject. Well, that and some cute flowered stretch pants.