Paintings that is!  So I thought I would  switch gears and show a quick speed painting tutorial.  Nothing too fancy….enough to get the idea across.  This digital illustration was created using Photoshop; reminiscent of the “Fast and the Furious” or EA’s “Need for Speed” series.

So there are a few elements to consider when creating a typical illustration.

1.  COMPOSITION – How do you want your audience to view your work?  What’s the primary object of interest?  Secondary object…and so on…

2.  VALUE AND CONTRAST -starting to lay down your darks and lights – this adds to your composition in determining how your eyes are led through an illustration

3.  COLOR – having a solid understanding of colors and what colors mix well with others is always a plus.  It helps you to establish contrasting elements within your comp.

4.  TEXTURES – helps to create the illusion of realism to objects as well as visual interest.

5.  DETAILING AND FINISHING TOUCHES - Adding some more visual interest to the base content of your drawing.

So let’s start with the first step:

Background/Composition:

I basically start off with my background color. The tones here sort of set the dark “mood” that I am trying to set for the entire piece.   Secondly, I start to add in my perspective lines.  The perspective lines below are pretty crude and dirty.  I threw in a “box” to kind of indicate where I wanted to lay out the cars.  The perspective also helps to establish your view.

I then start to block in a rough composition illustrating where the cars will be and the general content of the illustration.  Here I show the cars exiting under the bridge with a dramatic frontal view point.

All the colors and textures are laid in really quick.  You don’t want to spend more than 10 or 15 min laying this out.  I love showing these steps because this looks like absolute crap!  I remember watching Bob Ross (God rest his gentle sole!) starting his oil paintings.  Numerous times I used to look at the beginning of his paintings and I would think…Oh…God NOOOO!!!…not that texture…it’s RUINED!! However, with that soft voice and happy afro,  it  would always come together magically at the end….not that I am going to pull a rabbit out of a hat here.

I start to add in a little more detail to the cars and start indicating what kind of objects I want in the background.  I start to create this dark “industrial” look to the city.   All this will be cleaned up as I progress.  I spend about another 15min. or so on this.

Value and Contrast:

Here I start to add some more contrast to the piece.  You can see a good amount of contrast between the bridge and the light behind it.  I start to add some details to the cars by tightening up the wheels and indicating detail in the headlights. I added another bridge behind the main one in front. There is a little bit of “time” lapse feel by indicating the streaking lights of the traffic on the second bridge.  Not much of a value spread here.  Very dark and dingy piece so far.  I will start adjusting as I go on.

Textures and Detailing:

This is a lot of fun.  Photoshop has so much flexibility in terms of creating brushes with different textures and stamps.  It’s a lot of fun to just experiment with all the cool textures you can create and apply.  I applied the texture on the bridge and start to detail out the background adding buildings and so forth.  I add little highlighted areas with different hues of colors using the color dodge tool.  I also start with a little bit of clouds in the background to give it that foggy look.

Almost done.  Added some reflections to the windshield and a cop car trailing behind in hot pursuit.  I had to airbrush a darker tone to the background around the cop car to help it pop out just a little.

Finishing Touches:

Ok…to add some more drama, I finish it off with some quick lighting effects for the headlights using the color dodge tool.  This adds to the focal point of the piece. Then I ground the cars by adding some surface textures to the road that reflects the light off of the fog lamps and there you have it!!!  This took me around 2.5 hours or so.  Now…if I could have only added a “happy” little tree in there somewhere…

Ramkey