VW Thang from a Newbie

[Gumby_Mac]

Drawing newbie here. Actually, seems weird saying that since I'm a graphic designer. I guess I haven't been practicing or perfecting what I learned in college enough. That's why I'm glad I found this forum, as I'm looking to improve my sketching and automotive rendering skills.

I consider myself pretty proficient at illustrator and photoshop, but I feel I lack the rawdrawing skills every designer should have. So I've started drawing and sketching in my spare time. I love cars, especially VW's so I lots of subject matter to chose from and now this forum to get tips and advice.

That said... here's my first post: It's a VW thing.



I did a cheat trace in illustrator to create all the outlines then brought those over into Photoshop channels where I began to shade it. It doesn't have a lot of reflections in it because it's a big box, but in my next drawings I want to get better at doing those beautiful reflections in the chrome and paint, kinda like LeMorris's stuff.

Tell me what ya think. I know there's always room for improvement or else none of would be here. One of my college instructors would always make us criteque each others art but we had to say at least two positive things and one negative thing. So let me know what you like and where I really messed something up... you won't hurt my feelings!

[An Angry Clown]

wow.. you are very good!
everythings perfect!
love the shading, the under shadow, and the colour choice
also, trust me, you're not a noobie!

[G-man422]

Very nicely done.

[lemorris]

nice!

I don't know what you're talkin about.

I need to learn how to do what you do.

-Lemorris

[GirlBear]

you may be a noob to af s and d. but obviously not 2 drawing. nice job!

[Gumby_Mac]

Thanks for all the warm comments! You guys know how to make a n00b feel welcome.

I think this is my 2nd or 3rd attempt at a high-quality automotive "sketch" (if you can call it that since it was all done on a computer). I'm not too bad at photo-chopping and using illustrator since I've been using them about 5 hours a day for the last 8 or so years, but in that time I've hardly picked up a tortillion or a pastel and I couldn't tell you the difference between a 2H and a 4B pencil.

Lemorris, our mutual friend Spook turned my onto your artwork, and it's inspired me to get back into sketching and drawing (cars anyway). I LOVE the way you render reflections and tonal changes in your art. Tracing a photo is easy enough for me, but the reflections and the way light plays with the surface (or especially with chrome) has been harder for me to capture.

One book that looks like it will help me out a lot in that area is "How to Draw Cars the Hot Wheels Way". It has several in depth sections on bringing out details and how light would reflect off a car (highlights/shadows & such) and getting proportions and perspective right. Highly recommended read!

I also bought the Motorsports Illustrated tutorials a few months ago and now I'm using the channels in photoshop for rendering. It's a lot easier than having 2 dozen layers everywhere!

In the end, I guess nothing replaces good-old practice, practice, practice! Hmmm... maybe if I could spend 4-5 hours a day on my drawings...

[Blip]

Wow, that's great digital work.

And, Jeri C's tutorial are a great reference, I've got them too.

[lemorris]

cool

I produce a pencil drawing first then scan it in. I work out all my reflections and stuff at that stge, then I trace my pencil drawing...not the photo.

The pencil drawing carries a little more character for me and the imperfections add life.

I need to get with Spook on some more work.

-Lemorris

[rexsins-art]

very nice work man,im the opposite to you im happy with my drawing skills but want to move into the computer side of it,lemorris has inspired me aswell ,look forward to seeing more of your stuff and welcome

[Gumby_Mac]

Originally Posted by lemorris

I produce a pencil drawing first then scan it in. I work out all my reflections and stuff at that stge, then I trace my pencil drawing...not the photo.

The pencil drawing carries a little more character for me and the imperfections add life.

-Lemorris

Hmmm... interesting. So do you just draw from a picture you have in front of you? I can see how that would make those smooth reflection lines a lot free flowing. It's hard to be extremely expressive with a mouse, not like you can with a pencil. I'll give that a try on my next one.

I thought you traced and then went back and sketched in the reflections. For me the hardest part so far to recreate is chrome. I was hoping Jeri's tutorials would show more about how to produce reflections and chrome.