The Two Girlfriends, After Toulouse-Lautrec

"The Two Girlfriends, After Toulouse-Lautrec" by Sarah Elaine "S.E." Ramirez. Oil on canvas board, 11" X 14".

My BFF and I are the models for this. I wanted to create a somewhat modern homage to the original, because I felt we could relate to it. I used both oil paints and oil pastels to do this, and since the original was oil on cardboard, I used canvas board (which in the realm of painting, is basically just glorified cardboard). The "unfinished" look is intentional. I originally wanted to copy his lines exactly, but ended up trying to capture the spirit of the original rather than duplicate it line-for-line: knowing which lines would highlight and which would shade, etc. In my opinion, I think this particular image shows a darker subtext than the original, but then again that is kind of the point: some women still live in the demimonde with no one but each other to understand or love them.