A few more Renderings

[DocJr]

Thanks for the awesome feedback of the Stang! The only thing I'm defensive about is the design of the car, I just supplied the rendering, not the mods or paint scheme.

My name's Nelson and I'll be turning 21 this January, and yes I have some training. I go to the Art Institute of Pittsburgh for Industrial Design/Transportation Design. It gets confusing, because Transportation Design isn't and major at my school, it's just a track, meaning I have 10 courses of Car Design, so it's really a mix between products and cars.

I'm a firm believer in a man going after his dreams. I know it's hard to get into an actual Automotive studio, but I'm going to do it. I'll probably have to get my start in the aftermarket somewhere, but it doesn't matter to me, 'cause as long as it's automotive related thats OK.

I probably have a higher passion for Hot Rods though, I've been around them all my life. I have magazine subscriptions to PHR and R&C, and when I'm not designing new cars for school, I'm usually, cutting into a classic via pen on paper. Most of my new stuff have classic styling, and my Instructor says that's OK haha.

A little about the cars I'm posting now, I sent the '60 Chrysler to R&C a few months back, because I was feeling hungry. It's not in there yet, and it may not be anyway, but it was worth a shot, they always have drawings and designs in their mag. The purple '68 Olds is my mom's, this is the design, the actual car hasn't been touched. Another car that hasn't been touched yet is my '69 Olds. (The black one) I did that one in '06 so the design has changed since then. Chip Foose has seen the 2 Olds', and said I had a lot of potential, coming from the Man himself, that was a good confidence booster.

Like I said before critiques are awesome, and if something needs to be said, say it! ahaha.

[Hdesign]

Great work, you have a bright future!

[city_ofthe_south]

holly crap you rock!

[SRD Art]

Nice work. As has been said before watch the proportion and perspective. Your front wheel on the Purple Olds looks too small. Look at photos and other renderings of 3/4 perspective views and you'll see that the front wheel is actually quite a bit bigger than the rear. The blower doesn't follow the same perspective lines as the rest of the car. In real life the blower would be crooked on the hood. The axle on the black Olds seems to hang too low. You have a tendency to lay the farther away wheels back a lot. Maybe that's on purpose, but professionals from industry that look at your semester presentations will ding you on that one. You can seperate a good designer from a bad one in 1 or 2 seconds by the perspective of ellipses alone. You can fart around with tweaking overall perspective for a bit of flair but it still HAS to look right to get a job in Detroit or LA. On the other hand this could be your style on your old car stuff. When I was in school they really gave me a bad time until I started drawing things a little less cartoony. I struggled to get perspective right my first couple of years in school. Now my stuff is mostly like what city of the south said, more like a picture than a drawing. I think that stems a lot from doing the Trans design program, but I'm o.k. with that. It's hard to do both styles at the same time, you tend mesh them together and depending on the application, that isn't always a good thing.

Tweaked styled art is way cool if you can pul it off well. Check out Jimmy Smith's work- http://www.jimmyshotroddesign.com/ This guy has this type of art down! Although his stuff looks out of proportion and perspective, for what it is it's actually correct. His art flows and looks right. Not always an easy task to pull off and he does it very well. Keep fine tuning things, you're almost there.

Here's a tip on your shading. Looks like you're using chalk in there. Some areas like on the lower rockers on the purple Olds looks too choppy. An easy fix for this is take an Xacto and scrape along the length of the chalk to "shave" off some small fine chalk particles. Mix it with about an equal amount of baby powder to create a smooth silky colored powder. You'll have to experiment with color choice and powder amount because the white powder will lighten the color a shade or two. Spread it onto the art using a q-tip or better yet a Webril photo cleaning pad. http://www.artstuff.net/webril_wipes_and_pads.htm (These pads are for cleaning delicate lenses and such and can be rolled to a tight point and are like a smooth soft blending tool. I have bought them in a local packing/craft store.) Dip into the chalk powder and lightly coat the area. Matte spray fix the art and do it again. Follow this process until you have the desired effect. Spraying in between adding color helps keep colors and/or layers separated and avoids the muddy and speckled look when it all mixes together. Make sure you erase any smudges or mistakes in the chalk before you spray though!!! Attached is a hand drawing I did practicing this technique in school. This 62 Impala wagon was an excercize in shading and reflection. I used a magazine photo and did it on 16x20 white matte board. It's done with black marker, a few Prismacolor pencils, and the chalk method above. Look at the core reflection and shading lines near the front corner of the top of the fender. Building layers can give a smoother airbrush like look. Make sure you get a good windshield shading on there too. Look how bold the core on the windshield of this one is, it really pops. I later used the school's large scanner and brought it in the computer and added the green weirdness photoshopped background. Backgrounds are a good thing. There are products on the market that you can use to mask off parts of your hand drawing and do some nutty things with backgrounds. Sponge or plastic wrap technique, paint splatter, marker strokes, etc. Hope this all helps!

[DocJr]

Thanks for the tips 406nova. I totally realize perspective and proportion are crucial, it's like a never ending battle haha. I actually do use the pastel/baby powder/q-tip, pad method, both of the Olds' were done a few years ago, hence the lack of experience with this method. The Mustangs gradations are a lot smoother than the Chrysler's I think I used a ton more baby powder, (and fixative). Along with these old skool techniques, I'm trying to dabble in computers. I find using photoshop as a rendering medium is a little harder for me to do, practice makes perfect though. As a professional I'm also trying to learn some fundamentals of 3D Modeling, which again I need more practice.

Thats where I look up to people like Kris Horton (Modeling) and Ben Hermance (Digital Rendering). Thanks Ben for your comments, I've been looking at your stuff for a while now, and it's amazing.

Jimmy Smith is one of my favorites too, your absolutely right, some things are a little out of proportion and perspective, but it's awesome.

Steve Stanford is also amazing, his technique for color and presentation is just out of this world, it's so clean.

It's awesome to talk to you guys, I don't know why I haven't done it sooner. Once again, thanks for the critiques.

[SRD Art]

I agree the Mustang looks much better. Are you on a PC or Mac?