Thumbnail, Drawing and Underpainting

This is the thumbnail, the full drawing and the finished underpainting. The final step is to paint the color on with gouache. Actually, I've already started painting it. It's exciting because I've never used an underpainting before, and according to most painters the underpainting is an important step. For the underpainting I layered washes of india ink. I'm a little worried about the amount of denim clothing I'm gonna have to paint -- they can't all be the same color and shade. That would look lame.

The final, full-color painting will be featured in a Blind Melon fan book. Comments appreciated.

Blind Melon project sketch

Blind Melon Sketch

12"x13"

col-erase pencil

This is a photograph of a 12x13 finished sketch for a painting I plan to donate to a Blind Melon book project. I drew caricatures of all five band members. I tried to be flattering or at least to make them look young and well groomed. That job wasn't hard -- quite frankly, they were a good looking bunch. Least they are if you can dig a guy with long hair. They were fun to draw, especially the far left figure which was the first one I drew.

Unfinished Sketch - having trouble

I need input on the above drawing. I traced him from my sketchbook, where he was part of a larger drawing with multiple figures. Here the figure is isolated on a sheet of tracing paper and partially penned. The lower half of the body is a problem for me -- I've blocked it out to get the forms, but I am not satisfied. In the end the figure will be wearing tight corderoy pants, a T-Shirt and some sort of loafer for shoes. He holds in his right hand a microphone that I've only loosely sketched in.

How can I improve this? I'm not confident in my use of anatomy. I particularly mean the yet un-penned part, but constructive input for any aspect of the drawing is appreciated.

P.S. The figure is supposed to be Blind Melon's singer Shannon Hoon, of whom I've previously posted a sketch. Unlike the last sketch which was from a photo, this was drawn from imagination. The drawing is intended to take after the music video for the song No Rain, and I want the finished piece to have the iconic Blind Melon butterfly girl and ideally the other band members.

Blind Melon - Shannon Hoon

This is a drawing of Shannon Hoon who was the frontman for the band Blind Melon. When I'm not feeling particularly creative, I sometimes draw from photos or video files. I don't worry to much about being exact since photos aren't perfect themselves. I try to fix awkward elements in the photo. I usually focus on photos of young men which limits what I learn. I'm really just exploiting a loophole in my ADD. I think it is something to the extent of - nothing can hold my attention unless, of course, it's sexy.