I recently received a commission from a beautiful young
model on Model Mayhem, Veronika Leo (Veronica Gonzalez). She wanted me to draw a sultry pinup of her,
based on one of her photos. We did go through several of them, but when she realized that I could
'create' lingerie out of a bikini, so to speak, and because of her sultry expression, we decided on this photo as a reference :
Veronica asked me to change the photo reference to “..a pin
up type of look-_ with lingerie…very sensual”, since this was a special gift
for her boyfriend. And since she already
had lingerie pictures in her portfolio, I wanted something a little bit
different. So, after I laid out the
drawing from the original reference, I started to sketch in some of the details
and mulled over what type of lingerie I could create.
The trickiest part of smaller portraits like this (14” x
17”) it to get the drawing to look like the subject, not just the photo
reference. I usually hang about 3
different views of the model around my drawing board, to remind me of what she
looks like. At this point I was trying
to get a lot done on Veronica’s face, then move my way down. I knew she’d be wearing thigh high stockings;
I just wasn’t sure about the actual lingerie outfit.
The cut off feet was a point of contention to some; most people didn't like it, but I wanted to get as much in to
a 14" x 17" format that I could. It's isn't easy drawing half a foot,
but I used a lot of other reference, which was
invaluable in giving me some perspective of the shoe, the stockings.
I
played around with the lingerie a few ways, and kind of came up with an outfit
organically that I think worked. Then it
was just a lot of shading, detailing, etc., before I finished up.
Veronica was such an inspiration for me to draw; she’s a
beautiful young lady, and very expressive in her poses. Her input was invaluable, and she was very
excited about the art when she picked it up.
We hope to work together on something again very soon.
