This is a continuation of the marker work with a slightly darker grey- in this case a 7. The marker is of a different brand so it is almost the same value as the previous at its darkest, and the hue is slightly more purple, but it is good enough.
Stage 6
This step adds black with a common Sharpie marker, getting tighter areas may require a finer pen. Now that we have both white and black on the paper, we can see the car much clearer as the complete range in values is now represented. Unless the car paint itself is supposed to look black, I only apply black ink to shadow, tire, and glass areas. The sharp contrast of black butted up against white on the glass helps the mind read the surface as something that is very shiny and different from the material of the paint and body. The eye naturally is attracted to areas where value contrast is the greatest so the viewer tends to look at the glass and tire. Look at the image above quickly and try to be aware of where your eye goes - does it start at the rear wheel then quickly move up and to the left, landing on the glass, perhaps continuing to the front wheel? Careful control of this phenomenon is key in drawing the viewer in and selling your design. On a large presentation, the path of the eye can be controlled to keep the viewer looking at certain elements of your design. On a quick sketch like this, being conscious of this process while sketching will only slow things down, but once you have learned a few dynamic perspectives that work, it becomes automatic.
Stage 7
Once again, I have picked up the Prismacolor pencils to finish things up. Adding areas of detail color to show different materials or finishes. I have also revisited some of the media I used before to tighten up certain aspects of the sketch. I add a couple swipes of black marker to push the background behind the car where it should be, and help define the silhouette of the vehicle. I am done on paper at this point and it has taken less than eight minutes in theory (in actuality it has taken much longer, having had to scan the picture into the computer at every step!). You can see, though, how at this pace, your can get a lot of ideas out very quickly.
Stage 8
The next step for me is to take the sketch (usually I do several sketches on paper first, then do all of the scanning and computer manipulation at the same time) and scan it at about 200-300 dpi and import the image into Photoshop. I usually punch up the contrast, saturation, and may adjust hue and brightness. In this case , I went with: brightness +10, contrast +10, saturation +40. The image may look better on your monitor, but you have to keep in mind how it looks when it prints. It might take some time to get familiar with your printer and how it changes the image. Keep your original image on file in case you need to manipulate some of the aspects and do some tests. The flood fill/paint bucket tool is helpful for making the sketch especially punchy. I grabbed the tire orange color with eyedropper first then flood the entire background area. I also went in with the airbrush tool and pulled out some softer white, red and orange highlights.
That's it! Print it and save it to disk for posterity. Time to move on, there's 20 more sketches to finish by midnight.
| John Frye is a professional automotive designer, and a graduate of Art Center College of Design. |
