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As you may know, I like to paint dark backgrounds using masks.

In the photo on the left, I have already masked Joey's face with airbrush stencil. I leave about a quarter of an inch uncovered all around the stencil so that I can seal it with Nichiban tape.

I also masked the neck of his guitar before I applied the dark paint. I had masked the frets earlier with liquid mask.

Here I have masked Joey's entire image, as well as that of the microphone.

I used airbrush stencil for the large areas, leaving a border which I sealed with Nichiban tape to prevent leaks.

I painted the lights in the background and then masked the actual light area with Nichiban Tape.

Next, I painted the black background, painting around the lights and using clear water to keep the lights bright.

I didn't like the size of the lights They were too distracting. They took away from Joey's face.

I painted closer to the lights with black, but even then, the lights detracted from the face.

I painted black on a scrap of watercolor paper and cut out rectangles to cover some of the lights. I eliminated the ones closest to his face.

You see the final result at the top of the page.