Stage 4

It’s at this stage I always feel the drawing coming to life. Using a Warm Grey 7 I have darkened down the areas of the vehicle most in the shade, then a Warm Grey 2 to darken the front slightly. The reason for using grey for the shaded areas is that colour will lose some of it saturation when in the shade. Something to note here is that most other base colours will look better if you use Cool Greys to darken the shaded areas, although you should feel free to experiment. Remember to shade the small detailed areas too, for instance in the grill and spot lamps.

Stage 5

At this stage I usually feel the need to work some of the details back in using a biro. I have sharpened up the details in the lamps for instance. Remember however that as in stage one it is best to avoid building up lines that represent folds in the bodywork. Also try to avoid all lines being of the same thickness. Remember, by adding weight to some lines and keeping others fainter the drawing has more character.

Stage 6

Now that I have blocked in the basic light and dark areas of the body I am ready to move onto airbrush work. At this stage I generally move to Photoshop, the principle is the same however whether you are going to use airbrush, pastels or the equivalent tools in Photoshop. The idea is to put smooth gradients onto the paper without being hindered by having to work around areas like the wheel arches, lamps or windows. To do this you will need to have a method of removing areas of overspray. If you are using a real airbrush you will need to mask off all the non-bodywork areas of the vehicle as shown. If you are using pastel, or like me Photoshop, then you can use the eraser to remove areas of over spray. It is worth taking care at this point, as it is very easy to forget to mask smaller items, such as the spot lamps. Here I am aiming to further darken down the bodywork on the shaded side of the vehicle. I have therefore masked off all areas of non-bodywork.