

The former camelot that was DEATHROW included
powerhouses CEO Suge Knight, beatmaker maestro extraordinaire Dr.Dre, Snoop Dogg
and Tupac Shakur. And yes, it would make a very impressive illustration if I
could get it to look as right as it did in my head. After 2 failed attempts, it
was this or nothing. So, let me show you how I got here.
- STEP ONE: Utilizing multiple images from the Source and Vibe magazines
or just any advertisements that included pictures of the foursome, I went
through nearly 30 or so pictures and narrowed down the playing field to these
main 4. First I used Prismacolor Verithin Dark Brown to render a very loose
outline on all four major subjects. This was one of the first times that I had
ever used colored pencils in my drawings so I kind of freestyled a little to
see how it would look. Once the layout was completed, I began initial
airbrushing. The colors used here are my favorite combination of Createx Light
Brown and Dark Brown 2:1 ratio with several drops of violet put into the
mixture. This is strictly for details and values only.

- STEP TWO: More values and details are slowly airbrushed in. You can
begin to see the main figure in the illustration (Suge Knight) begin to
develop and take shape.

- STEP THREE: I basically followed the same steps and
exacted the same method to flesh out and outline the remaining subjects in the
illustration. Once I had them outlined I lightly sprayed the entire area with
this color combination before moving on to the next
step.

- STEP FOUR: This step, I utilized Dark Brown with several drops of violet
and light brown. I used this for only the dark values of the subjects such as
shadows on the sides of the nose, nostrils, hairlines, mustaches and eyebrows.
Once that is done, again I lightly spray the entire area and continue to tie
in all of the subjects values.

- STEP FIVE: Several steps will take place here. I spray the entire area,
but this time with golden yellow. It's not a heavy spray, but a gradual left
to right incorporation of spray, lightly and evenly across the subjects. Once
I've done that, the lips are airbrushed in with a combination of 1/2 ounce of
flamingo pink, with 6 drops each of light brown and yellow, and 2 drops of
tinting white. I then combine 1/2 ounce of extender with these colors. This
color combination is for the lips, the tips of the noses, earlobes and the
bottom portion and corner of the eyes.
Before I go any further, I use
pthalo green with 3 drops of tinting black for Snoop Dogg's shirt. Then I
begin work with the beards and mustaches, eyebrows and any area that is
considered a shadow. 1/2 ounce of transparent black and 1/4 ounce of extender
is used for this. To the top right of the illustration, I use 100% transparent
black and slowly work my way to the left of the picture leaving a small
unairbrushed area to spray in golden yellow. At the heart of that, a small
blast of opaque white is sprayed in as well as sprayed into the whites of
everyone's eyes.

- STEP SIX: Dark brown is sprayed into the eyeballs to complete work
there. For the jewelry, (rings, earrings, necklaces and watches) I used
transparent sky blue with several drops of tinting white. I had to play with
the drops to get just the right hue that I was looking for and then I sprayed
them in.

- STEP SEVEN: I go on to glue in rhinestones for diamond
earrings for Dr. Dre, a nose stud, ring and watch for Tupac Shakur and the
diamond encrusted ring and diamond earring for Suge Knight. This is where the
airbrushing takes a break because this took a little time.

- STEP EIGHT: All of my rhinestoning is finished finally.
This was a painstaking step, but it looks good having spent a couple of hours
lining the right size stones in their proper place. I take my airbrush back
out and start touching up any spots that I may've missed during my first
initial run through of the illustration.

- STEP NINE: And finally, Camelot completed. Once again, it's a wrap.

The DEATHROW © trademark and the names
and distinctive likenesses of Suge Knight, Tupac Shakur, Dr. Dre & Snoop Dogg appearing on this site are for artistic purposes
only. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED