Newbie Designer Intro

Hey guys, I just came across this site while researching examples of vintage canson paper renderings for a project I'm working on. There seems to be quite a bit of talent here, I'm very impressed.

Quick Background:
Custom Car and Industrial Designer from MA. I try different media all the time. Depending on the project, I may do a Photoshop chop but most of the time I prefer hand drawn and photoshop rendered concepts. Most of the people I work with have Pro-touring muscle cars and hot rods, but I never pass up a chance to do some concept car work. I've been lucky enough to have some of my work in magazines ranging from the 2004 Truck Trend design contest win, Camaro Performers and in the current issue of Custom Rodder.

I look forward to learning from your work and I hope that I can offer some help to others. It's probably easier for me just to direct you my work via the link in my signature. I actually have to update my portfolio so I'll get to it as soon as I can!

Thanks!:newbie:

Excellent pieces... what do you use for your work? Illustrator and/or Photoshop? Welcome aboard... Would love to see some tips and tutorials, if you've done any... Keep the autoart flowing. Roboduck

Industrial design huh? I have a chance to go to the Art Institute of Fort Lauderdale for that next summer. Great work!

Great work! Welcome to AF.

Great stuff!! Good to have you around. Looking forward to more stuff from you! B

welcome to AF! You'll enjoy it here. I like your work, especially the marker stuff - it's got way more of a loose, freestyle look to it.

Alex

awesome work!

I look forward to seeing more.

I've got questions for you as well.

-lemorris

Thanks for the kind words everyone!

I'm working on that canson paper rendering right now and realized how out of practice with markers I am. I depend way too much on the "undo" command in PS. I never feel like I can get the swoopy reflection strokes right, filling an area is obviously easy. I get a cleaner, more realistic look with PS for my clients that they can use as an accurate guide for color choice. It takes me forever though. I can't imagine I'm actually making money on my time now.

Fire away lemorris...I hope I have answers.:biggrin:

OK...you asked for it.

Let's take this piece.

http://www.hermancedesign.com/images/full_size/57ranchcom.jpg

Now...Do you render over a pencil sketch?

Illustrator line work?

PS vector tools for line work?

Are you rendering in layers or channels?

Do you seperate objects into individual layers or folders for objects?

What's the size and resolution you're working at? (in general...I know each piece is different).

I really like the hot hilights is it just airbrush?

On a side note you should do a step by step.

Do your clients provide reference or do they just say what kind of car and leave it on you?

What is the air-speed velocity of a laden swallow? (hope I asked that right)

Oh....how could I have not stumbled onto your work before?

Really cool.

-Lemorris

p.s. Here's one of mine so you know where I'm comin from

http://www.58vw.com/af/akw_26.jpg

sorry for the double post guys but this one deserves it's own stage

wow

stunning

http://www.hermancedesign.com/images/full_size/62pontfin.jpg

Sometimes I use a prisma verithin 747 black pencil, sometimes a cheapo bic pen like Foose, depends on my mood. This one I actually markered a bit of it before I scanned it. After scanning, I work in layers (I've never tried channels). I usually have about 50 layers, each having it's own part of the rendering. I use paths to create the outline of absolutely every separate part. Then on top of each of those parts I'll do a "render layer" so I have the outline shape and layers on top that I'm working in. After creating 5-10 layers of airbrushing or lines I "merge down" until all they are all on that render layer. Like this:
http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a215/dabanj6/screendump.jpg

I always work at 300 dpi around 11x17 because that's what I print at.

Trailing taillight is red airbrush with a couple (airbrush) eraser passing through.

When I get a chance, I'll do a tutorial. It's been 12-14 hour days, 6-7 days a week for 8 months leading up to SEMA so.....

If the car is really weird, I ask the owner/builder for as many photos as possible but in general I google all the cars myself. I also buy the coffee table picture books in Barnes &Nobel or Borders when they are in the Bargain Priced section. I probably have 50 of those varying from History of GM, Ford, Hot Rods, Customs, Cars of the 50s/60s/70's and 10 musclecar books.

African or European swallow? One of the greatest movies of all time.

I just started doing this as a side business to pay for diapers for my daughter and to feed my 70 Nova project. My site was finally up this spring. I've only submitted things to magazines twice. Builders/owners submitted them since then. I never thought my work was good enough or marketable until the Truck Trend Design Contest I won in Oct 04 so.

Here's a secret, I never went to college for this. I'm completely self-taught.


I can't believe you like that 62 Pontiac 'vert, I think that is probably one of the ugliest color schemes I've ever seen on a car. But, that's what he wanted and I did the best I could with it. I really need to update my site. My newer stuff is much more presentable.


I really like your rendering style, very clean and graphic. It reminds me of a friend of mine. www.problemchildkustoms.com Looks like you do your linework in AI and render in PS.

I really need to update my site. My newer stuff is much more presentable.
More presentable?! HOW?!

Great work!
Thanks for providing all the background information.

Look forward to see your tutorial.

you are crazy good!

welcome to AF

Here's that canson rendering I just finished up last night at 2AM. I'm a little disappointed how muddy and overworked it looks, though I really enjoyed using this media for a change.

http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a215/dabanj6/render.jpg

very good info

thank you

I look forward to seeing more

ohh for crying out loud!

you complained about that masterpiece!!!!! :eek7:

Hi Ben,

Glad you joined us. I hope to learn lots from you. Not much I could teach you :) I am glad Lemorris is asking questions. I pretty much had the same ones. I luv how you get a nice free form look to your digital renderings.
Thank you for sharing your technique.

Heck you should think about making an instructional dvd. I know I would buy one.

Great job on the camaro. I did a camaro w/ pastels/markers. Check it out on my site and tell me what you think (blk 69 Camaro). I haven't done a pastel/marker rendering in awhile I am trying to get better w/ the computer PS/AI stuff. I am self taught too w/ the help of Lemorris and Jeri Clow. I also buy books on drawing cars when I see them. I started buying the inexpensive coffee table books too at Barnes&Nobles.

Al

Hi Ben,

Glad you joined us. I hope to learn lots from you. Not much I could teach you :) I am glad Lemorris is asking questions. I pretty much had the same ones. I luv how you get a nice free form look to your digital renderings.
Thank you for sharing your technique.

Heck you should think about making an instructional dvd. I know I would buy one.

Great job on the camaro. I did a camaro w/ pastels/markers. Check it out on my site and tell me what you think (blk 69 Camaro). I haven't done a pastel/marker rendering in awhile I am trying to get better w/ the computer PS/AI stuff. I am self taught too w/ the help of Lemorris and Jeri Clow. I also buy books on drawing cars when I see them. I started buying the inexpensive coffee table books too at Barnes&Nobles.

Al


Thanks Al (and everyone) for the warm welcome!

Al, I was looking through your work the other day. Your 69 Camaro is lightyears better than mine, very Foose-like. I started using PS to do renderings because I wanted a cleaner, smoother look to my renderings. I have trouble with getting the marker strokes to look dynamic, random yet deliberate. I never know when to stop I guess. I can also never get chaulk to look smooth with the right amount of contrast.

I bought Thom Taylor's book How to draw cars like a Pro and it was a big help to a point but the abilty to provide clients with a color or wheel change quickly led me to using photoshop more and more. I won't move away from doing linework with a pencil because I can "design" modifications with more control. Like this other 69 Camaro I did months ago. It's pencil linework, PS render. I probabaly have 25 variations of this car. RS grill, standard grill, chrome bumpers, different wheels, spoilers, hoods, seats, stripes, even a convertible version.
http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a215/dabanj6/wallpaper.jpg

I'm replying to this again because I think the work is amazing and I hope to learn more from it.

Thanks Lemorris, I'll have some more soon. As soon as the SEMA rush is over I hope to have time to sit down and do a quick tutorial on my process.

Welcome Ben! I've seen your work over on Scott's site. Hope to see more of you around.

who's Scott?

Scott Gulbranson at lat-g forum.