“Hey, that’s a direct lift from a paperback cover by Barye Phillips!”   And I respond: guilty as charged.   I was inspired to do my own version of a Dell paperback cover that Barye Phillips did in 1961 for the novel “The Golden Hooligan”.   I loved the way she had the woman hidden in shadow behind the curtains, with just enough material covering her to allow store owners to put the novel on the shelves. 

I made a few changes in my version.  Her curtains were gold, these are more of a dark blue velvet. Also, I tried to have a look where the woman’s face was just coming out of the shadow and not totally obscured.  I experimented with different colors for a side-light behind the curtains (one of the things you have to like when it comes to working in digital art- it’s easy to adjust colors) and finally settled on a lime-green-yellow.  It just popped more to me and if it seems a bit more garish, then… cool, it got your attention.  But I hope it works, too.

After I finished the image, I forgot who did the original and assumed it was Robert Maguire based on the dramatic lighting in his painting.  But doing a little Google (and it actually took a bit), I found it was a lesser known Phillips.  There’s no main website with her work; you’ll find a piece here and there, in Flicker pages and pulp cover galleries.  But she’s worth the search.