When I bought this unfinished pencil and watercolour piece by Dave after his death, my goal was to have it completed by the artist who I believed would do the most justice in honouring Dave's intentions with the piece. I chose Sandy Plunkett who Dave himself had chosen to help him with THE ROCKETEER. When I approached Sandy with the notion he gave me a very considerate reply: "Well...first of all, I'm flattered that you consider my skills with water color good enough to take over where Dave left off. It's a beautiful piece you bought.
I'm really torn as to the decision I should make. One the one hand, the challenge is very tempting and on the other, I'm somewhat intimidated by the idea of matching Dave's abilities. Let me tell you what I'm thinking and then you can give me your reaction. You caught me at a good time in that I'm heading to NY City tomorrow and wont be checking my e-mail for a few days. But that also means I'd like to postpone the final decision until I get back and can think clearly about it. But right now I'm thinking that I WOULD like you to send it to me. I feel that I won't be able to make up my mind until I see the original and then judge whether I feel comfortable with the paper, size, etc. "
Then after the arrival of the artwork, Sandy emailed me:
"Dave's watercolor arrived yesterday. It seems to have survived the journey in good shape.
"It's very interesting to see it in the original. First off, the paper- I've never seen any quite like it before- it looks so porous that I'm surprised it takes watercolor. I suspect I'll have to use the paint pretty dryly so as not to have it buckle. I hope I can adjust to an unfamiliarly surface. Do you have any idea water type of watercolor paint Dave used? It's also interesting to see how much colored pencil he used for the modeling- that's something of a relief.
"About the finishing...I think I can handle the right foot and extend the left leg a bit, but there's not enough room to include the entire left foot. What really throws me though is the background- there's hardly any indication as to what he had in mind. Presumably a blanket of some sort, but I'm very hesitant go in there with anything but the lightest tint, if at all. Which brings up this question - just how complete should the piece be. I might get in there and find that "less is more" so to speak. And that makes me wonder if I'll be able to bring it close enough to completion to satisfy you. The money here really isn't the important thing. Primarily, I just want to bring this piece a little closer to fulfilling Dave's intentions."
When I replied, I told Sandy that wanted precisely to have Dave's obvious intentions met, and very little more.
Sandy then responded: "Thanks for giving me such latitude- that makes me feel a little more comfortable proceeding. It is strange that Dave left out the pupils in Betty's eyes. Fortunately, that problem will be easy to take care of. I guess the degree of finish for the overall piece will be determined as I go along."
A little later Sandy wrote: "Just thought I'd give you a little progress report. I finally started in earnest on (trying to) finish Dave's painting. Interesting challenge. The missing foot and leg didn't prove too difficult (though I did have a friend model her foot for me.) But the process made me realize that getting them in proper proportion to the rest of the body a subjective matter. From the disortion in the proportions of the arms, I'm guessing Dave was working from some sort of photo reference. So this meant I should size the calf to match that fact. Hopefully it will look prefectly natural to in the finish. The hair is a little more difficult. After looking at a lot of Betty Page photos and drawings, I realized her head is an unusual shape. Or perhaps it her hair style that causes that illusion. Very distinctively "Betty Page" but not something you'd notice until you have to draw her yourself. In any case, I'm in the middle of trying to get the hair right. Cross your fingers."
Sandy came through with flying colours, as I'm sure you'd agree!
I purchased Dave's unfinished original in July 2009 and had it shipped directly to Sandy. He shipped it to me, completed, in September 2010.
In conferring with Kelvin Mao for the Dave Stevens estate, he suggested to me that Dave had drawn this piece in the same large artist's tablet as the other watercolour portrait piece I have in this gallery:
http://www.comicartfans.com/GalleryPiece.asp?Piece=469670&GSub=146
which is dated 1979. Dave may not have gone through a pad this large for some time, but the piece was likely begun in the early 1980's.
