I was actually in the middle of starting another painting when I thought of this. I was listening to 'Nobody's Child' by Electric Light Orchestra, and several of the verses starts with 'painted lady' so I suddenly got this idea. I wasn't going to paint the same lady described in the song however, I wanted to do my own interpretation.

At first she was going to be a woman covered in black tatoos leaning against a rusty wall, but for some reason I sketched the first idea in white over a black background and then painted some brown tones on her skin and whoosh, the painting changed completely and I created this.

The symbols on her skin don't mean anything at all, I didn't look up any reference at all, so every marking is made up.
I think this worked out very well, I managed to paint her rather quickly without excluding detail, and the background is merely suggested, so I didn't spend forever doing that.

Enjoy, comments are welcome and appreciated as always! ^^

Time spent: 4-5 hours
Details: [link]
Tools: Adobe Photoshop and my Wacom Intuos3 Graphics Tablet
Art ©AmberDust 2006

My Inspiration.

Painted lady, stop that closin' in on me
Painted lady, you're supposed to be a dream
Painted lady, you better stay away from me
Painted lady, why you loosinin' my tie
Painted lady, what's that twinkle in your eye
Painted lady, you better stay away from me
Painted lady, with your jewels and your beads
Painted lady, don't you do these dirty deeds
Painted lady, you better stay here with me
Nobody's child 'til I saw the light of your smile
Painted lady, nobody's child
You have set me free

Nobody's child, you came in and stayed for a while
Painted lady, nobody's child
You have set me free

Nobody's Child ©ELO (Electric Light Orchestra)