h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

I hope that readers have clicked on the link early on in this article and seen the original painting.

When this entry came up for illustration, some of the Community Artists were concerned that readers might mistake it for the painting itself: there was argument in favor of using a thumbnail of the painting (not possible for copyright reasons) or a Cubist-style picture of Picasso.

My illustration is derived from an African mask and is intended to reference the point that "Demoiselles"'s revolutionary nature derived greatly from African art. Picasso was fascinated with African art and collected it all his life. Even if I had decided to do a portrait of Picasso, I would have done it as an African mask!

WINK, the author, intimated that they were doing a university project on Picasso, and I thought at that time that any portrait of Picasso himself ought to accompany the central article for the project. Since I finished the illustration, Italic Mina has told me that WINK is an absent researcher and there is no such project. That's a pity.

A larger question was raised during our very spirited debate on the Community Artist list: is it appropriate for there to be a blob illustration for an article about a painting or an artist, if it isn't by the artist-subject? As an art student, I have no problem with it at all, but others of the group disagreed.

We decided it would be a good idea to start this thread, make sure that my illustration's provenance was made explicit, and invite further comment.

Lil
Community Artist

Hey Lil! So much controversy, they forgot to put your credit at the bottom of the article!

Lovely illustration, though, if I didn't get round to saying so before...

That has been rectified...

Great graphic Lil

Thank you both!