Rupaul's Drag Race, Season 4: Episode 1
So! The DRAG RACE has begun! After an amazing third season, Rupaul's Drag Race is off to a great start with season 4, and I'll be doing weekly portraits of my favorite queens, just like last year. Click here if you'd like to see the poster I made featuring every queen on the show!
Last season, I didn't offer a whole lot of commentary throughout the season, but this time I figured I'd be a bit more candid about my opinions, as if anyone might care.
The winner of the week! When watching the previews for this season, I had wrongly dismissed Sharon as “the goth queen,” but she also seems to be one of the funniest and most creative, with a wide range of looks. I'm excited to see lots more of her this season.
Wow, what a powerhouse! Big girls have had a rough time in past seasons of the Drag Race—the intensity of the show and its cattiness tends to prey upon the insecurity of most of the curvier queens, but as soon as Latrice Royale showed up, it was clear that she's bringing a funny, funky, fighting spirit to the show. She definitely has the attitude—I'm hoping she brought enough great catwalk looks to stick around for a long time!
Man, I LOVED Jiggly's first look. With the hair, the dress, and that lollipop? Geez! Yeah, she might have gone overboard with her apocalyptic look, but she brought itduring her performance.
I really, really liked Milan's first look, in the zebra-print suit. She also has a very expressive, distinctive face, which helped make this portrait my favorite of the week. I dig her energy and style, and since she seems very “Broadway,” I'm hoping she'll spontaneously start tap dancing and/or singing throughout the season.
For some reason, I was immediately stricken with The Princess. Maybe I just have a soft spot for the edgy, androgynous queens (Lord knows I love me some Raja), but The Princess is also really cute (in and out of drag), has great, kooky style, and she seems to have a good attitude—all of which make her a strong contender.
I really liked my first look at Lashauwn, with his gold armored outfit and towering, geometric hair. I think he's doing everything that I like about drag—pushing the envelope, embracing excess, etc. But he's clearly one of the youngest and least experienced queens, so we'll see whether he's able to keep up with the others...
Phi Phi is a beautiful queen (and out of drag, he's downright gorgeous) though I don't have a good sense of her style, yet. And admittedly, I don't have her likeness down, either—whereas a lot of the other queens this season are easier to caricature, I haven't quite pinned down Phi Phi. Not that I won't keep trying!
I love Kenya's fiery attitude and smoldering looks. She's clearly a great performer and will hopefully stick around this season for a long time. When looking at Logo's site, I was surprised to see that she's just 21, but seems like a strong contender against the older, more experienced queens. Can't wait to see how it all pans out!
I really like Madame Laqueer's kooky sense of style, despite the fact that we didn't get a ton of time with her in this episode. Both her first look and her apocalyptic one were polished and funny, so I'm looking forward to seeing what else she's got.
Dida is gorgeous and seems to have a strong personality, but I'll have to wait and see whether she has the same level of polish and style as some of the others.
What!? A drag queen named Chad? Could this season be any better? Chad Michaels is gorgeous and clearly polished, though I hope he pushes his looks to the same delirious extremes as some of the other queens. You know I'm never happy with just another pretty face!
Willam seems to be the most divisive character of the new season, and I suspect that's partly his doing, and partly the producers'. Is he the new Shangela? We'll see. Regardless, Willam makes for good tv, and for good catfights.
Alisa is beautiful and seems sweet, but each season's first episode tends to weed out the young, inexperienced queens, and Alisa suffered for it. Regardless, she kept it classy. I just wish my portrait captured her better! Ah, well...
So yeah, I know—I'm not getting particularly catty about any of the queens so far. Because there's plenty of that on the show, and because I genuinely like them all at this point, which is why I wanted to take the time to draw at least simple portraits of each. But I definitely won't be drawing all the queens for each episode. I'm hoping to take a similar tactic as last season, where I draw the queens and outfits that most inspire me, week by week.
Thanks for checking out my work, and let me know what you think!