ferrari tutorial

7/28/2019 Ferrari Tutorial

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About the author

Miles graduated from Coventry Universitys Transport Design

course in 1999 and has since worked as an automove and

product designer for companies such as Pininfarina, Volvo and

SAIC, as well as Movado watches, product design consultancies

and as a freelance product designer.

Knowledge is Power- How to use Insight

Tutorials

The purpose of these tutorials is to explain not only what is be-

ing done but why during the process of a sketch. The aim is that

you can either apply these ideas to your own work or modify

them to your liking. Everybody works in a dierent way and it

is not my intenon here to produce a soware user guide with

a series of commands that can be followed to produce exactly

the same illustraon. This would not only be impossible but

would not in my opinion achieve the best long-term results.

Every part of the process is not explained in every tutorial so

that repeon is kept to a minimum and each tutorial can be

used to analyse slightly dierent aspects more deeply, giving

maximum value and eciency.

These tutorials focus on explaining honestly the thought and

acon process I go through using my normal working methods,

with high resoluon visuals and highlighted areas to eliminate

confusion as to what part of the sketch is being described;simply hover the mouse over the highlighted words and a halo

will appear over the relevant area on the sketch.

This will hopefully give you the power and understanding to

improve your own work in your own way by introducing meth-

ods, ps and a few tricks that you can apply to digital sketches

in whichever way you feel most comfortable. Almost all of

the principles also apply to analogue sketching but the tech-

niques are somemes dierent. It is the most commonly used

soware therefore the commands and tools highlighted refer

specically to Photoshop but are not exclusive to that program.

The power of insight means that you will hopefully start your

next sketch with new ideas and fresh inspiraon that will

inject a big advancement into your work. If you are a studentor hoping to become a student of automove design then, in

my opinion, the faster you can gain this knowledge the beer

in order to gain a compeve advantage. Remember the last

me you made a big improvement in one drawing and realised

you could suddenly work at a higher level than before? Those

eureka moments are what its all about.

One of the reasons I have produced these as e-books is so that

the images are on your screen without the need for scanning.

All the images used in this pdf are included as jpegs that you

can open in your favourite soware and work over if you wish.

In fact I highly recommend working over the top of these im-

ages if you are trying to duplicate them. You can even make a

slideshow out of them to use as a screensaver to remind you ofthe process.

By all means try and re-create the illustraon if it inspires you

(and I sincerely hope it does). I have received many sketches

that people have produced aer following my tutorials and

they are somemes very similar, somemes more of an inter-

pretaon in their own work. Either way they express inspiraon

and usually demonstrate an understanding and advance which

has enocuraged me to connue producing more tutorials.

Above all read and familiarise yourself with the narrave and

how it relates to the sketch at each stage, then try to use it in

parallelwith your own work and have it alongside you as a ref-

erence. You need to work hard to improve your sketching and

there is no substute for pracce but it is what you learn and

apply to your pracce that will make the dierence.

Remember - sketching and rendering is a tool and is only part

of the design process. It is however the rst creave visual step

and sets the tone for the quality of the nished product. It is

also the skill which best illustrates your ability to visualise ideas.

It shows whether or not you understand and can evaluate form,

which follows funcon and completes a successful design. At

the early stages of your automove design career especially

you will be judged most strongly by your abilies in this area

when being selected to study design or work professionally in

this highly compeve eld.

Good luck and happy sketching,

Miles Waterhouse BA (hons) - Transport Design

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When you look at the rst page of this tutorial you will see a

series of brush strokes which have a direconal, almost cal-

ligraphic character. This is down to the use of certain brush

sengs within Photoshop or whichever soware you are using.

These sengs allow you to mimic the behaviour in real life of alarge marker or at pped brush which will give varying stroke

thickness when applied with the p held at the same angle

throughout. The pressure sensivity of the tablet will give you

control over colour opacity. The size of the brush stroke should

be changed before use to get the desired weight by increasing

or decreasing the p size. The video below shows the brush in

use.

This brushstroke characterisc is crucial to the technique used

in this tutorial. It is the source of many of the forms that are

created because single brushstokes are not only capable of por-

traying colour but also surfaces. The ribbon-like quality of the

strokes create a 3 dimensional illusion that can be interpreted

as a surface. A perfect example of this is on page where a

light coloured brushstoke is made under the main air intake

and forms a upward facing surface.

One of the main things I want to achieve with this tutorial is

the value of a dynamic brush seng such as this in sculpng

form uidly and easily. The brush used is included with this and

other tutorials so try it out if you have Photoshop and try and

replicate it if you use other soware.

For those who prefer to work manually you can get close to

this eect using at headed brushes or markers and for larger

strokes in marker ink using a square of lint folded around a

piece of cardboard then soaked in ink from marker rells.

The basis for this sketch could be a photograph of an exist-

ing car or a pre-developed underlaid design. The important

thing to understand is that the main bulk of the sketching and

rendering is done using blocks of colour working as reecons,

shadows and material changes without complete control. They

are dependant on the accuracy of your hands movement and if

they are not to you liking they can be modied later on. Work-

ing digitally allows an innite amount of correcon if necessary

so there is no need to be

cauous in the beginning

stages. This sketch should

show you that you can

capitalise on that free-

dom to take the loose and

energec brushstrokes and

rene them into a convinc-ing design sketch.

As with the Case Tractor

tutorial the colour is known from the beginning because red is

the signature colour of Ferrari. It would be possible to sketch

this in black and white then colour it later but in that case there

is always a slight chance that the design wont look as good

when post-coloured. Also, post-coloured black and white may

not quite communicate the design as well as if the colour was

used from the start. Strong and bright colours such as red are

less easy to achieve if theyre not used at the beginning.

The nished sketch in this case is a cleanly outlined vehicle with

no background or environment shadow. The composion is adramac and dynamic one which doesnt necessarily benet

from a background to help it jump o the page. I wanted to

show that somemes it is sucient to purely feature the ve-

hicle in renderings because it is basically a communicaon tool

for designing a product and can be presented simply.

example brush settings to achieve the effect in Photoshop

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Using a photograph of an exisng car as an underlay, fast

and bold brushstrokes are made using the base colour

of the bodywork. There is enough informaon just from

these few marks to show the character of the car and

some people would be able to guess already that it is a

Ferrari. When you doing this type of brushwork dont

worry about making a mistake. There are lines in the

sketch above that I know are not exactly what I want at

this stage and most of it will need modicaon or correc -

on. The key is that it doesnt maer because it can be

worked over to adjust or x any bad strokes.

Make sure you are compleng the form with the

strokes. This means make sure you are dening enough

of the outline to make the form of the car easy to see.

It doesnt take a great deal and as you can see on the

rooine and far wing it is sucient just to show where

sillhouee of the vehicle is. Use a big wide brush when

necessary and rely on it to form the solid colour rather

than forming an outline then lling it in.


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Using a large airbrush a light sweep of the same body

colour is made down the length of the vehicle. You may

need to have a few aempts at this to get it in the best

posion. The inial brushstrokes of solid colour now be-

come reecons of the environment and the open areas

with no reecons must be smooth surfaces.

Noce how the airbrushing disappears to white before it

reaches the edge of the car. This will be the tonal range

and dictates that highlights will be white. Making white

the limit of the l ight tone means you create the most

contrasng image.


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Using the same brush some dark shadowed areas are

blocked in for the tyres and grille, again bo ldly and

roughly. Geng the wheels wrong inialy should not be

feared because although having odd looking wheels will

ruin a nished sketch they are not dicult to dene and

get right once their basic posion is decided on. Using a

photo for the basis of this sketch meant the wheels could

be traced and simply cleaned up later on using ellipcal

masks. The main thing is to get some form of wheel in

there at this stage so that all the main elements of the

design are present early on.


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A quick mask is used to experiment with window/DLO

graphics. The outline of the glass is sharp but slightly

uneven because of the use of the lasso quick mask tool.

This doesnt maer however because it can be sharp-

ened up later using a small brush and a few lines and

highlights. The design opted for is a pillarless wrap-

around visor which is the cleanest soluon possible.

The intenon is to be adventurous with the bodywork

surfacing so where the grpahics can remain simple I want

to keep them that way.

A bit of wheel detail is added including some tyre tread

marks. Ferraris always have spoke wheels so this fea-

ture is added relively early so that the identy of the

design is reinforced. An ellipcal mask is used to achieve

a crisp shape to the wheel.


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The rst illustraon of headlamps emerges. The same

brush is used to make a couple of direconal sweeps

which meet at the very front edge of the car. This is an

aggressive graphic and immediately felt to be suitable

for the car so a quick mask is created to complete the

headlamp which is shaded with white to grey airbrush. A

suggeson of the same design is added on the far side of

the car with a couple more strokes in a less contrasng

grey, rather than black, for the sake of depth.

One of the lines coming from the grille aperture is seen

to have potenal for creang some form to the sill area.

A quick stroke of lighter colour makes the beginnings of

an upward facing surface formed around the line. This is

an example of making small touches when ideas occur to

you which can be picked up and developed later on.


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The next thing I like to do is create an overlay layer or

transparency layer that allows a dark brush to be used

to increase colour intensity and contrast in areas where I

can see forms emerging. Using the same at direconal

brush simple outlines are drawn around contours and

surface edges. By concentrang this work in the nearest

corner of the car two of the important things of a sketch

with high impact are achieved; . contrast is increased

due to the tonal range changing from red to white up to

dark red to white; . the form is enhanced and communi-

cated in this focal area.

It is a characterisc of an ecient technique when you

dont worry about geng every detail in the sketch. A

lot of me and eort could be put into making sure all

the wheels are beaufully and equally detailed and that

the headlamps are both represented accurately. As long

as you can tell the design is not asymmetrical and the

wheels are supposed to be all the same, there is nothing

more to communicate from duplicang detail manually

at the expense of me and eort.


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It might seem like more of a nishing touch but some-

mes I add badges and small details at an early stage

if they are going to make a big dierence to the feel of

the illustraon. These nishing touches seem like they

should be added to an almost completed sketch. This

might be true when working analogue on real paper but

working digitally, applying a badge that takes seconds

and which can be put on a separate layer that can be

hidden, you can do it whever you feel like it. At this stage

a very ne brush is used for a door shutline in high and

low body tones (red and pink) apart from over the DLO

where black and white are used. White is painted over

the roof line to conrm the backward sloping rooine

and the lower headlamp line is carried through to the

wheelarch producing an interesng bumper splitline. It

was realised then that a feature could be made out of

this splitline running through the lamp and the promi-

nent corner could be separated visually. The front sill sur-

face discussed previously is dened more with a masked

o ground shadow and also shows a protruding grille

area to give a three-volume character to the DRG.


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In order to connue sculpng the front and most impor -

tant corner of the car, the contrast needed to be reduced

slightly in this area. Another applicaon of light airbrush

is made over the front wing and it immediately becomes

more understandable and easy to work with. The three-

volume front has been accepted as a good direcon and

the broad single grille no longer makes sense. Conse-

quently the grille is spl it into three and two smaller,

angled apertures are blocked-in between the end of the

headlamp and the main grille aperture.

The realism level of rendering has just moved up a notch

because the care now being taken is greater than before,

especially around the new grille apertures and the

reducon in contrast is more realisc than the red/white

poster art reecons that existed before.


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Another overlay layer is made and black airbrush is

swept again over the near corner to increase the intes-

ity through the centre of the inial red airbrush sweep.

Some moulded grooves are made on the headlamp

lens by creang a black area which is painted over

with white stripes. A highlight is added to the bumper

splitline which makes it clear that it is a split and not just

a graphic line. More highlights are added to the crease

running through the headlamp as this is the most promi-

nent feature line on this view. Grille slats are added in

the form of pale grey lines (in Photoshop hold down shi

and click in two places for a straight line) that fade out

into the shadows of this sunken aperture.

The sill below the grille needs a denite shape so a bold

brushstroke in light tone is made to create a dynamic

V form corresponding to the centreline on the car. The

form of this sill now matches the forms to either side of

it. It protrudes slightly further to preserve the thrusng

theme of the hood volume pushing through between the

headlamps.


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The at surface on the near corner is an ideal place for

a plasc panel which works as a complimentary graphic

to the air-intake apertures and as a protecve bumper.

This is created by using the quick mask lasso tool again

and then enhanced with a ne brush. A thin black line

is drawn around it to show the split, and a slightly larger

brush is then used to paint a light grey chamfer to the

top edge, which becomes dark as it moves round the

form into shadow. Small touches like this and the gradi-

ent used to shade it show that light is hing it in dier-

ent ways and give it a feeling of volume and form.

The rear haunch blister is mirrored across, then cleaned

up by bringing the white background into the surface.

This is an example of how messy brushstrokes can be

xed easily later on. An environment reecon is made

down the far edge of the main volume to bring out the

line of the hood as it runs along the far headlamp. The

rear wheel posion is felt to be too inboard so is tweaked

slightly, and the front tyre gains an airbrushed highlight

on top.


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The shoulder line is felt to be a bit low so the environ-

ment reecon that is being used to dene it is raised

up and leads forward into the headlamp form rather

than the bumper. This increases the weight and presence

of the car and simplies the surface that the wheelar-

ches need to cut into. This simpler and aer bodyside

means the sill could do with some interest and a ared

out surface leading into the front wheelarch is added.

The main tension is running through the waistline so it is

felt the car could tolerate a more shapely sill with maybe

a plasc panel detail to echo the front bumper treatment

and maybe contain a logo or form an integraon with the

bodywork and underbody panels.

Its decided to complete the link between headlamp and

grille with a prominent, wide split housing the indica-

tor lamp. The sill splitline is enhanced and thickened to

match the character of the bumper split and provide

connuity round the car. The wheels are detailed further

with a hub and badge and the wheelarch shadow is

made more denite.


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The far front wing is not felt to be showing enough form

and is painted over in a light (distant) colour with a

much more prominent crown and muscular line over the

wheelarch.

More rough brushwork is made to the roof and rear to

play with the possibility of some roof blisters over the

occupants heads which echo the muscularity of the

wings.

The addion of more colour i s made on an overlay layer.

Yellow is airbrushed in the foreground and blue toward

the background. This warms up the near corner and

increases depth. It also compliments the yellow badges

and orange indicator.


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More denion is given to the far headlamp now that it

can be placed on a more denite volume.

It is decided that extra roof features are unnecessary and

that the reason for the simple glasshouse graphic is to

keep averything above the main bodywork clean looking.

Therefore another quick masked glass engine cover/rear

window is created. You can see that the top line of this is

incorrect which is a result of it being drawn quickly and

freehand. The main thing is that the lines within the roof

are correct and showing a tapered rail sweeping around

it; the outline can be cleaned up later.

A lile extra rear tyre shadow is brushed in to carry on

the re-posioning of the rear wheel which is now felt to

have denitely been an improvement.


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One of the ways in which I like to rene the outline is

to paint the negave space behind it. The blue overlaid

airbrush is sampled and a textured brush is used to paint

in a quick background colour that encroaches on the

bodywork in certain areas to dene the shape. The blue

that then remains on the edge as the outl ine is cleaned

up will match the overlaid blue appl ied earlier (page ).

The same thing is done on the ground shadow area with

a dark textured brush.


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The windscreen and bonnet are not on the same surface

and this is now made clear with an environment reec-

on made over them which changes direcon at the join

of the two surfaces. The windscreen is now clearly more

upright than the bonnet/hood.

The front wheel is cut and pasted onto the rear wheel

posion with the appropriate transformaons made. This

process is made easy with the use of an ellipcal mask

which is easily manipulated to t the area needed to be

copied.

A dark gradient is applied vercally with the gradient tool

in an aempt to place the car in a more brightly lit area

although this is just a quick experiment to see how eec-

ve this is. As menoned on page 10 there is no reason

not to play around with quick eects and addions on a

new layer as they can be deleted later.


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The rear haunch bulge/blister that was made on page

10 is painted on again and the rooine in cleaned up

further by applying more background colour.

The most pressing issue now is that the far front corner

of the car isnt suciently fomed to match the near

corner and explain more how much sculpture there is.

Care is taken to understand the forms and portray what

they would look like on the sillhouee. This aenon to

the outline is very important for a credible looking design

and forms much of the character of the car.

More crown is given to the hood by painng a curved

line on the far wing.

A ne line is brushed on the rear so that it is understood

that the secon there is quite curved and to complete

the outline.


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The outline of the car is dramac and very descripve so

the decision is made to show it most strongly by enrely

trimming out any background. This also means the car

really jumps o the page and has greater impact in itself.

Cleaning up and renement is done on the rear blister

and pillar area together with the front wing. This is car-

ried out with masked o areas being airbrushed with a

similar gradient to that found on the hood surface. Small

reecons and highlights are then brushed on to indicate

surface changes.

The front sill surface is reduced from a V shape to have

a at boom which is felt to be more rened and to work

beer with the surface at the front of the hood.

Finally the shoulder reecon is cleaned up slightly in

order to strengthen the connuous plan curve between

the front and rear wheelarches.

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