"Forgot Her Hat", Pinup Painting Sketch (Patreon)

     Here's a sketch, on watercolor paper, of a pinup I'm planning for the Cheesecake of Horror series. I've started blocking in the clouds just as value masses, to work out the composition, but when it comes time to paint, I will actually lift off most of the graphite with a kneaded eraser, because paint over pencil can get ugly. 

     This piece actually raises an issue I've been dealing with lately. If you've seen my (very) old work, you might know that I used to do magical realism (those were the days--unmedicated and miserable half the time, but I produced the best work of my life back then). I used a combination of found reference and photos of models I hired (Hey, Melodi! Hey, Sarah! Hey, Traysee!), and worked very much within a framework of realistic proportions. Even when I did pinups back then (before I got into comics), everything was very realistic. But since returning to the idea of producing painted art (not for covers), I've carried over the cartoony look I'd grown accustomed to. Here's the question: Which is better? Or more to the point, which should I pursue? There was a time when virtually all pinups were done realistically, with a few artists stylizing their figures to personal taste, but not to an extent I would call cartoony. But these days, pinups are done ranging from photorealistic to insanely "toony". I don't want to segue into something unexamined. So I'm asking you all (and I'm looking at you, lurkers!), which do you prefer, realistic or cartoony pinups?