sketchbookfactory

I’m not big into music. I mean, I like it and all, but I don’t seem to appreciate it as much as everyone else does.

That said, about eight years ago I was walking back from Octoberfest and there was this band playing and they were so awesome that I stopped to watch. The next thing I knew, two hours had gone by and I hadn’t even realized it.

The band is called Traveler and they play all kinds of music inspired by the music of other countries. Gypsy, Celtic, Middle Eastern…stuff like that. When they play outdoors there are usually some belly dancers around. The lead singer, Scott Jeffers, plays the fiddle like nobody’s business, and sometimes he plays other some other cool-looking, instruments too.

The other night we caught them playing at the Dubliner and I did my best to document the experience…

I sketched these out in pencil first, then went back over with a pen. Then I used a couple different grey markers for a quick and dirty wash effect.

I always have a tough time drawing musicians because instruments are pretty intricate looking and if the person moves, even just a little bit, the angle of the instrument completely changes, so I either have to start over, or just fake it.

These guys are especially tough to draw because they have a lot of energy and they move around a lot. I was happy I managed to get anything down at all.

After I got home, I decided to add some color in order to better capture the mood of the evening. So I scanned a couple in and painted them with Corel…

See those fancy stars in the background? I spent a lot of time trying to create something like that in Photoshop. Then, after failing miserably, I discovered that Painter actually has a brush called “sparkly stars” or something like that, which created the exact effect I was looking for.

After I painted this second one, I started to think that it might actually make a better composition if I cropped the lead singer out and left just the guitar players.

Does that bass player look cool as hell or what? I had a lot fun trying to capture his chill posture and the serious expression on his face. I also spent a lot of time on the position of his hands.

Anyway, I still can’t decide which version looks better. But check it out! You can make polls on this blog. Please take my poll and vote for the one you think looks best.