I typically focus on looser sketches on this channel for a few key reasons. First because I think rapid visualization is an amazing tool as a designer to both collaborate and influence in real time. Second because they are fun to do. But there are times when a 20 minute sketch just won’t do and yet moving to CAD would be too much. This is a quick example of my typical workflow on a more long-form render. This entire process takes about 4 hours, so it isn’t quick, but the result is something a bit more impactful. In the future I’ll do a one of these where I really break down the steps, but for now, this is how I do it:
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SKETCH: This can be by hand or digitally in AutoDesk Sketchbook or Photoshop. The important thing here is to get the overall design down. This particular rough sketch took 6 underlays to get to this point!
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SHAPE: Either in Illustrator, or Photoshop, or Sketchbook, I block in the shapes in just grey forms. Here I am really paying attention to the silhouette, the proportion, the snap of the lines. Spending time here ensures you won’t be wasting time on the next few steps.
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SHADE: Just using black and white airbrushes I shade the form in pure B&W. You can really see what you are doing when you remove color from the equation here. If it reads in B&W, it will read in color.
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DETAIL: Everyone wants to rush to this part, but if you spend a lot of time on 1-3, this step goes quickly. Here I have selected some areas to be glass, added some stripes, graphical color blocks, as well as struts, wheel details, tire texture, and various grille patterns in the voids.
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HUE: this is a subtle step, but I put a new layer over top, set the layer style to Color only, then airbrush some warm and cool tones to push and pull the concept on the page.
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LOGOS: as a last step, since this is a race car, I added some sponsorship logos.
