LondonJohnIII on DeviantArthttps://www.deviantart.com/londonjohniii/art/Velma-and-the-Nightie-of-the-Tentacle-628559869LondonJohnIII

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Velma and the Nightie of the Tentacle

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Hi,

Yesterday fellow DevArt subscriber Zeldanerd7789 mentioned whimsy to me in a nice comment on a recent Submission.

While I'm deadly serious about working to study the styles and techniques of artists, I will admit to trying to keep a sense of humor about many (but by no means all) of my Submissions.

This got me thinking about the art and style of the British seaside 'saucy postcard'. I have no idea if the saucy postcard tradition exists anywhere else in the world. I hope it does!

Postcards came into being around the late 1870s and the idea of adding images to them came a few years later. By the time of World War One photographs and illustrations were gracing postcards the world over. But a few artists drafted into the British army began to draw cartoons centered around and making light of their life in the armed forces and fighting on the Front.  Humour is always a good way to alleviate tension and stress and the lighthearted cartoon postcards sent from the troops to loved ones back on the Home Front became something of a lifeline to everyone involved.

The tradition of the comedy postcard carried on between the Wars. In the 1930s the cartoon began to take on a more naughty side to it. Usually depicting saucy and buxom young ladies in skimpy swimwear, hen-pecked husbands and all manner of essentially innocent fun. The comedy typically emerged from mistaken ideas of conversation and all manner of double entendre.

It's the sort of innocent and playful comedy that worked its way into the popular 'Carry On' films. By the 1950's some of the cards were very naughty indeed! Not p0rn naughty. But naughty enough that on more than one occasion at a British seaside resort a police raid confiscated the cards. On one occasion over 5000 naughty postcards featuring the style of art and comedy I've tried to capture above were confiscated and destroyed. This official destruction and hostility to the cards makes them very collectable items today!

Several postcard companies flourished at the time. But the big one producing the most cards was Bamforth Co (known as the Bamforth Collection) and were drawn by Donald McGill (1875-1962). Donald was a prolific artist - in his life he produced over an estimated 12,000 postcards. The style I tried to catch here is more in keeping with the style that flourished after McGill had died. But it aims to keep the essence of McGill's legacy and that of the saucy postcard in general. Many people at the time simply saw McGill as a degenerate pervert - yet what confounded people was that one of McGill's oldest and closest friends was a Church of England bishop.

By the late 1980s tastes were changing and the saucy postcard (and the postcard industry in general) was on its last legs. By the early 2000's Bamforth and it's then owners had closed their doors for good.

The aim of the saucy seaside postcard wasn't to demonstrate perfect draftsmanship or a magnificent grasp of colour theory. Nope. It was a means of drawing scantily clad girls in a colourful and light hearted setting with a joke attached to the concept.

So, here's one legged Velma. Making full use of her peg leg while making a bewildered late night phone call to a friend!

I hope, in the spirit of the postcard genre, she amuses more than offends.  :)

Best wishes to those who stop by here.

John
Image size
2349x3265px 4.42 MB
© 2016 - 2024 LondonJohnIII
Comments9
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zipper9319's avatar
LOL! Love everything about this one!! I'm a huge fan of your tentacle additions and this one is outstanding. Your shapely and scantily clad Velma would naturally result in a longer and thicker tentacle ;)   I'm kind of rooting for the tentacle hoping it gets a good enough grip to pull off her peg. Great job!