Transformers 240Z. Why not...

[MOTORHEAD427]

Max.

I use photoshop to color because I`m sick and tired of dealing with markers, pastels, acrylic and all that. And it costs too much money.

About the tablet:

There is no difference between freehand and tablet when it comes to sketching or airbrushing. You get used to it very easily.

 

Today, I still paint, airbrush and draw/sketch freehand. But for quick color sketches like this one, I prefer photoshop and so should any artist who knows how to use photoshop or similar programs.

Let me know if you have any questions.I`ll try and help...

 

Eric

[phantaz]

doodling?? he calls this doodling...... that looks like a 3 month project of headache and frustration if i tried to do that!!

i have a hard time getting the date time stamp on my photos !!

 

i also luv that airbrushed look it has to it. very very nice.

 

going to go burn all my attempts at drawing now.. be back later.

[Corzette]

Your son has a lot of talent.

Make sure he receives the necessary education. How old is he?

 

ERIC

 

Eric he started drawing when he was 5 or 6. He usually has more detail but did this in a couple hours. I will try to scan some of his better stuff and post. Go to this link and see some pencil drawings and Japanese Anime that he did when he was around 12 or 13. He taught himself but would like to make something of it. Yes VZ he is going in the Corps next month and is quite excited. I wish I could say the same...I know I am hypocrit but Im proud of him for it.....lol. Heres the link:

 

http://www.picturetrail.com/gallery/view?p=999&gid=1579512&uid=533777

 

Ill try to get some of his current work scanned if I can later this weekend..

 

Terry

[MOTORHEAD427]

Terry.

I really like your son`s artwork.But it seems he doesn`t want to go to school for it.

I wish the best to him.

 

Eric

[veritech-z]

Alright, since I've got nothing BUT time on my hands, I drew a Z31 transformer at work today. It's pretty old school style transformer, so if you Z31-ites don't like it, maybe I can do a different one. For my second trick, I will attempt to use photoshop to color it.

I'll get back to you guys and let you know how it works.

[typhoone]

how come everyone seems to have good art talent except me? I used to be really good at anime, but i got tired of people asking why i could do anime but not other forms of art work....this was asked alot in art class....when we were doing stuff like "The Last Supper"...yeah...there is no difference between the two....right....lol. After that i just quit drawing.

[Gollum]

No worries typhoone, my only real art skills are in music. I've tried to draw in the past, and I've enjoyed it as well. But I could never see it being anything close to talented like these folk.

 

Though much of the work done to cars here could classify as art...

[veritech-z]

Sigh...I'm never happy with my photoshop coloring results...might as well be MSPaint for all I can get it to do...

[MOTORHEAD427]

Max.

I think you have potential.

When it comes to vehicle design it is OK to use rulers, shape guides and especially ellipse guides.

As for coloring: Light is the most important element of a nice illustration/color sketch.

I recommend either observe car magazines (popular hot rodding has the best pictures) or get a couple of dark color 1/18 scale diecast cars and try different light angles on them.Take pictures and use as reference.That will improve your "visual communication".

Let me know if you have any questions.I`ll try and help.

Eric

[veritech-z]

Eric, I don't work with color primarily, and my comfort zone isn't really car stuff. I taught myself how to draw from reading comic books in middle/high school, and never took an art class until I got to college. I've got a Bachelor's in Studio Art, but the program I went through kind of operated under the assumption that you already knew the fundamentals and just exposed you to different types of media (my focus was printmaking, mostly intaglio). Well, I kind of picked up my fundamentals "on the streets", so I always felt at a disadvantage when it came to that type of thing. Also, they really looked down on doing commercial type art, so I was never really exposed to photoshop or any of the other cool software that might have allowed me to actually do something useful with my degree...so here I am at a parts counter at the slowest car dealership in the universe, drawing transformers and paint jobs for people I've never met just so I don't go insane...I'm trying to put together a portfolio so I can go back to get my masters at UCF in video game design, the program there is run by some guys from electronic arts (who has an office in orlando and takes most of the graduates) and is an accredited masters, so I figured it was worth it to try and go for a career change. I've got another thread going about my portfolio ideas, I'll see if I can find the link...

-edit- http://forums.hybridz.org/showthread.php?t=117386

I'm thinking of ditching the first one in favor of the last one, but I'm really floundering on this project because I've never had to put together a portfolio (another useful skill that would have been nice to have learned in college) and the admissions guy is being really vague.

[MOTORHEAD427]

I taught myself how to draw from reading comic books in middle/high school, and never took an art class until I got to college

That`s funny...I did exactly the same thing. I started out drawing stick figures when I was 4.I used to try and copy comic book characters from comic books.

The good thing about an art school is, you meet a lot of people just like you and swap ideas/techniques. Other than that I haven`t learned anything at the Art Center College in Pasadena and dropped out.It was too expensive also.

BTW. There is an upside to being an artist. You`ll never need a diploma. All people want to see is your portfolio not your diploma.

 

Here`s a link you might like. Check out this guy`s portfolio:

http://www.goodbrush.com

 

Good luck to you Max!

Eric

[veritech-z]

That was my take on art school as well. I met a lot of great people, and got exposed to a lot of different media, but as far as actual nuts and bolts technique, I don't feel like I was TAUGHT much, but that doesn't mean I didn't LEARN much through my own exploration of the medium. I think I'm beyond hopeless at teaching myself photoshop...I'll probably have to take one of those adult learning courses to catch up to where I should be. I'm just such a visual learner, I'm one of those people that will draw you a diagram as soon as tell you what I'm trying to say. I have a hard time hearing something and applying it if it isn't right there in front of me. I tend to gravitate towards the paint bucket, and ignore the effects...I really like how Kenji was able make that glow effect on his transformer..

 

Oh, the goodbrush link didn't work for me, I'll have to try it from home.

[veritech-z]

Wait, now it works. That guy is awesome! His stuff is just impressionist enough to be interesting...How is that done? Is he doing it in photoshop, or is it painting? It looks digital to me, but that could be a result of the scanning...

One of my biggest influences was always yoshitaka amano. He has a studio in Paris, I was going to try and find it when I was there, but it turns out it actually a functional workspace that doesn't really like to have guests...

http://www.amanosworld.com/

[MOTORHEAD427]

Craig Mullins (http://www.goodbrush.com) really is very talented. He knows a lot of different techniques. I know that he likes to mix different programs in creating his artworks. Mainly photoshop and painter(I think) But he also uses high-rez texture photos and skillfully blends them in to his renderings.

For texture files you might need, go to: http://www.mayang.com

I also use texture files for my more professional renderings(stuff that takes usually 6 hours and more) Saves a lot of time.

If you want to be in the anime/game design industry you might want to get used to using texture files. Of course this all depends on how well you use photoshop as a "tool".

Most people don`t understand photoshop.

Photoshop is based on understanding the logics of 2 main things:

1-Layers

2-Selections

these are the two main things you need to understand.

There is a big mistake most beginners make.

They want to learn "everything" about photoshop.

This is one of the renderings I work on, on my spare time.

The "boxes" you see on the screen are the only ones you will need.

Layers

Paths(To create precise selections)

Channels(to save your selections for future use)

History(if you mess up and go back)

Tool box(all the tools, brush, eraser, move tool etc-it helps to learn hotkeys)

Colors, Swatches, Styles(if you feel you need them)

 

Upper info bar.

File, Edit, Image(the one I use the most),Layer, Select(selection options),Filter(Blur is very useful!!!)View(viewing options),Window and Help(Really helpful for beginners)

 

If you noticed, I`ve created many layers.One for red color, one for the initial sketch. One for black shading, one for white, one for the armor and a separate one for the sword/katana.

I will merge some of these layers later on. and I`ll get rid of the unnecessary ones.

 

That`s it. The rest is up to you and your imagination.

About this rendering.

I will probably go to http://www.mayang.com and get an appropriate background for it and then slightly modify it. Maybe a nice sunset.

 

Don`t worry about anything other than what I mentioned here.

One of the keys to use photoshop in a proficient way is staying away from unnecessary options that it is offering. This is all you ever need.

I will gladly assist anyone who wants to learn more about photoshop.

Thanks.

Eric

[veritech-z]

do you find it's easier (as far as working with the image color in photoshop) to keep your initial sketch as free of shading as possible, like coloring book style, or does that not really matter?

[MOTORHEAD427]

I actually sketch the same thing twice.

First time I lower the airbrush flow to about 3% (upper info bar) once I`m done, I resketch over the first one, but this time slightly darker(about 6-7% airbrush flow).I try not to add too much shading. This helps me correct mistakes I might have made with the first sketch.

This is another option most beginners don`t see. It is wrong to use the airbrush in full 100% flow.Even when I "fill" larger areas such as the samurai`s red cape, I didn`t go over 40% airbrush flow.

 

Before tablet, I drew and colored my sketches free hand and scanned them into the computer and added effects. With tablet i don`t think I`ll ever need my scanner again.

Eric

[veritech-z]

so with a tablet, can you actually "sketch" straight into the program, or do you like lay your pencil sketch on the tablet and trace it? I've never used one and I was always curious how they worked.

[MOTORHEAD427]

I forgot to mention a very important thing.

Before you start a sketch, you need to create a "new" background/canvas(Under file go to NEW).

For the size. I usually prefer 8x8 with at least 300dpi. The one you see is 600 dpi.

This is very important. No matter what size the canvas is, always choose a resolution greater than 300dpi.

ERIC

[S30TRBO]

you got to see this guy: http://youtube.com/watch?v=BRDe4cNexW0

 

Here is his site: http://www.pixelgod.net

[MOTORHEAD427]

Max and everybody else who is curious about photoshop:

This will be a very long post. Beware...

I`ll try and show you how I created a rendering on photoshop from scratch.

First. Create a new file

 

Create a new layer for your sketch

 

Make sure you adjust the airbrush flow

 

I wanted to make a shock trooper rendering.Make sure you have a good reference photo!

Finish your sketch

 

Create a new layer for BLACK and fill in black areas:

 

Next, create a layer for the secondary color.In this case, red:

 

The third color will be white. So, to avoid confusion, change the background color simply by Hue/Saturation under IMAGE--ADJUSTMENTS:

 

NEVER USE PURE WHITE!!!!! Try eggshell or off-white:

 

Next, I`ve added some gray shading over white:

 

Create a new layer for BLACK shading. Adjust the airbrush flow accordingly. Preferably 2-3%

 

Now it`s time for the most fun part!!!! Weathering!!!!

Create a new layer below black shading layer.

 

The hardest part is over.

Now we need a nice background. In this case I wanted a sunset. I picked one from http://www.mayang.com.

After downloading the picture I simply opened it on photoshop.Then I used the move tool(the black arrow thing) to drag the picture over the clone trooper rendering.

 

After adjusting the size of the background picture with free transform option(located under EDIT) I set it up as the bottom layer.

 

Now the problem here is that, hues and lighting of these pictures don`t match each other. So by using levels (Under IMAGE--ADJUSTMENTS) I made the background look a little sharper.

 

Next. It`s time to crop the canvas. Simply hit "C" key for crop tool and get rid of unnecessary part of the canvas.

 

At this point you must have noticed that I already got rid of the "SKETCH" layer.I don`t need separate layers anymore so I merged them all linked.

 

Some fine tuning with levels

 

Get rid of the fuzzy edges with eraser(airbrush mode)

 

ET VOILA! It`s done for now. I can add the Imperial Star Destroyer some other time:

 

And here`s my reference picture:

 

I hope you enjoyed this.

I`ll be more than happy to answer your questions.

Thanks.

Eric