FMP: Diamonds on the Soles of her Shoes

"People say she's crazy, she's got diamonds on the soles of her shoes, well that's one way to lose these walking blues, diamonds on the soles of her shoes..."

Her is one of my four final pieces for my FMP. This is probably the picture I am most happy with, I feel the composition and the colours work well together.

The idea behind this image was that the 'poor boy' was looking up at the 'rich girl' from his home in South Africa where he was a diamond miner. This is both a reference to lyrics in the song and the blood diamond fiasco that happened around the time that the album was made (which some people believe the song has made reference to). He is looking up to her lovingly, as she is almost unattainable because they come from two different worlds.

The 'rich girl' sits almost on top of the world as she is perched about New York, specifically Broadway, which shows a number of different buildings including theatres, dancehalls and bodegas (a bodega is a small supermarket!). These two worlds have been separated by water, which features in all of the images. As the girl looks down, we see her focused on two characters, who are actually her and the 'poor boy' who find love against the odds and end up 'sleeping in a doorway' together.

The idea for the landscapes of these islands was that they were a bit whimsical and fantastical, hence water cascading down into the abyss and mountains with faces and features. The colour palette was taken from the earthiness and tribal-like twigs I painted for my promotional materials.

I am not 100% happy with the final outcomes for my pieces, but I think they express a personal representation of each song from the album, interlaced with the ideals of others' accounts as well. It is hard to decipher a song accurately unless you have the lyricist telling you the meaning! All songs mean different things to different people, it is up to you to pick out the elements that you want to understand or create a narrative from. The idea behind these illustrations is that it just gives you a starting point, and you can go from there...