The first three in a series of pin-up girls I'm working on; focusing on extraordinary ladies who did some rather interesting things. Now I love a good traditional pin-up girl pic, but I wanted my drawings to be a shift away from the typical image of a girl who's all surface and little substance.
Beryl Burton was the 12 hour cycling time trial world record holder, as well as general cycling champion. She held the record for years, beating the blokes as well as the women.
Beryl Swain was the first woman to race in the Isle of Man TT race, a hair-raising road race that takes place every year. The men that organised the race decided to ban women from entering for the next 16 years, saying it was 'too dangerous' for women to enter.
Sister Rosetta Tharpe was an amazing ahead-of-her-time electric guitarist, gospel blues singer and incredible performer, whose life of contradictions (playing church music and secular innuendo laden songs, marrying 3 times and having a number of lesbian lovers) points to a woman living life just the way she wanted to. There's a good article about her
here.
The idea is to turn these girls into two-colour screen prints, as well as add to the set with more fantastic females. Watch this space.
