HOW-TO: The Maestro BARRY WHITE

For quite some time now, I had wanted to do a picture of Barry White. It was supposed to be a montage of some of the classiest soul singers of my generation with the likes of Luther Vandross, Peabo Bryson, Bobby Womack, Al Green, Whitney Houston, and others. Sadly, when Barry passed, I made it a priority to get the piece completed sans the other singers.Well, the "Sultan of Seduction" is the result. There was a certain look that I was looking for with Barry. I sifted through the 2 or 3 images I had in my stash, and did endless research online looking for any Barry fansites that carried that image that I needed to complete this personal project. Once I felt secured in the facial arrangements, I set out to do the job and this is how I did it. I wanted it to be a small montage. Nothing too drastic, or overwhelming.

STEP ONE: Like a few other times, I began this piece the same way. Using Prismacolor Verithin colored pencil and began my loose layout. Nothing too tight or detailed, but very loose. Plus I wanted to stay away from the sketchy look as well.

STEP TWO: The color combination I'll be using in this step is 2:1 ratio of Light Brown and Dark Brown. Unlike my first step with the Verithin colored pencil, my airbrushing will be tight and detailed. This is the foundation to this illustration and a very important step. By the time I'm ready to wrap it all up, the details will look like I took patience with it and not be cluttered or muddy.

STEP THREE: This is how it looks after several minutes of line airbrushing and detailing.

STEP FOUR: The same color combination used just a little further approximately 10 minutes into the piece.

STEP FIVE: The values are extremely important at this point. You can see the flesh begin to develop depth and roundness. Notice the emphasis on the cheek line and nostrils or the attention to detail beneath the eye lids, hairline and beneath the lips. Even facial moles are detailed in this step as well. Then, all of the values are tied in together by lightly spraying the subject area evenly within several passes. You'll see the face's depth begin to take shape. To save a little time, the same steps are carried out on the adjoining 3 other faces. The exact pattern is incorporated into them with technique and precision. From hairlines, right down to the pupils.

STEP SIX: Time to switch colors. The color combination I used here will be Createx Dark Brown with a few drops of violet and light brown. These colors will accentuate further the shadow or darker areas on all of the faces. Nostrils, pupils, lines beneath eye lids, chinline, earlobes, hairline will be all sprayed in this step. The color separation from nubian skin tone, to darker skin tone begins here. There's not as much airbrushing here as the last step, but I do not undermine it's importance in the creative process one bit. Once the details have been sprayed out, I lightly spray all of the subjects and once again, they start to come together. The images will begin to give off a photo-realistic feel at this point.

STEP SEVEN: Then, I spray lightly all of the subjects as evenly as possible with golden yellow. I spray just enough to start to see the glow above the light and dark brown that I had put on early. Once it's there, then.....

STEP EIGHT: I begin to lightly spray and gradually tinting the shadowed areas with 1/2 ounce of flamingo pink with 6 drops of light brown, 6 drops of yellow, 2 drops of tinting white with a 1/2 ounce of extender. This is a very critical step. I've ruined several illustrations with overkilled spraying of this color so it's important that the moment I begin to use it, that I keep in mind that it's meant for just the lightest spraying possible. Almost akin to a tint. When applied correctly, it looks great for the lips, the corner of the eye mainly the tear duct, beneath the eye that serves as the interior of the eye lid, the cheeks, tip of the nose and earlobes.

STEP NINE: Once I've applied that correctly, I spray a light passing of light brown over everything to gradually bring out that nubian realness.

STEP TEN: That's it for the flesh tones for now. It's time to start working the rest of the image and I start with the hair. I could just paint the hair a solid black but, where's the fun in that? I switch to a different airbrush, my Iwata HP-SB Deluxe and begin to create fine line waves in the hair. However, I'm using a paint mixture of 1/2 ounce of extender, 1/2 ounce of dark brown, 1/4 ounce of violet, and 10 drops of transparent black. When I begin spraying this step, it appears like a dark purple. But the more I spray and build, the darker the color becomes.

STEP ELEVEN: On this step while airbrushing this same mixture and adding depth to the hair, you can see it beginning to take on a black hue. Below, the entire beard on the right side of his face is almost black. I continue on this path working not only the hair, but anywhere there are dark shadows away from the light source.

STEP TWELVE: The waves are more noticeable here. I've gone ahead and taken the liberty of omitting the step where I work in the black of his jacket, but you can see what the result is. And guess what. I won't be spraying any black paint from this moment forth. Continue on to the next page now to see how I complete this piece.

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Don't STOP Now..

A dedication created posthumously in memory of Barry White. September 12, 1944 - July 4, 2003. R.I.P. Maestro.