"Melina" is my baby, my first "real" piece of art. I'm still striving to create something that nearly equals up, but so far, she has been my number one favorite since I first started this painting adventure.
Background of the character Melina:
When I was a sophomore in high school I wrote an amateurish novel. Writing this book was really just a way to make it through my geography honors class, which I hated with a passion. Melina was a major character in the story who started out as an antagonist and later turned into the heroine of the tale. Copies of this book, published years after it was written, are available at Amazon.com under my maiden name, Janette Benbow. The title is "Track to Treason".
The character:
Melina is defined not just by her long red hair, which is frequently described as a waterfall of flames, but by her fiery, temperamental personality and her envy-evoking goddess-like beauty. Her biggest downfall is her corrupt childhood past, which has created this dark, impulsive character who thrives on sex but can't find love, and her greatest strength is her sex appeal. She is capable of luring any man into her trap. Melina is powerful, and even though her character is hateable, many readers, including myself the author, found herself irresistible and memorable because she is human.
The model for the painting:
When I was a senior in high school, I befriended a girl on my long-distance track team named Brianna Perry. The main thing that attracted me to Brianna was she reminded me of my fictional character Melina, only blonde. Her mannerisms, her features, including her long flowing hair and her seductive beauty, all screamed "Melina!" I was not alone in noticing these eerie similarities. My best friend at the time spotted me running with Brianna and later mentioned to me that I was running with a Melina-look-alike! Not only that, but the character Melina was a long-distance track runner in my published book! Brianna is Melina in the flesh, only blonde.
The picture:
In 2010 I took a digital photography class at my local college. The first assignment was an open shoot, to go take a series of pictures which we would later be showing the class. I procrastinated on the assignment, as I was taking full-time classes and working as well. One day I was hanging out with Brianna (the day before the pictures were due). It was already nighttime, and I knew I had to get the pictures taken somehow. I asked her to be my model, and we went to the old-town area of Yuma, near where my dad's tax business is. Of five pictures we took, this one was my favorite.
Painting "Melina":
When sketching the picture, I first changed the background. The mailbox had to go. Second, I wanted weeds and plants growing up between the cracks on the sidewalk.
When painting it, I changed the color of her hair. I wanted the picture in black and white, like it was originally taken. But I needed her hair to be red. She was no longer Brianna. She was Melina. I also made her legs a little leaner. Brianna my senior year of high school had looked just like Melina, skinny and lanky. When this picture was taken, she had filled out into a more womanly figure. However, this painting wasn't about the current Brianna. It was about Melina.
She took me about five days to paint, on an 8x10, my first baby
Here she is:
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