Ferrari Concept Car

Last weekend I broke out some new markers, pencils, and paper to make a fresh new rendering from scratch. This gave me the opportunity to practice some new technique with new materials. Years ago I did a bunch of Ferrari style concept cars since they are my favorite. I really wanted to try and render something red, so I thought this type of car would be a good start. I also wanted to try a view that I'm less comfortable with just for practice. Normally I'd draw a car with the front end on the left and work to the right- this time I did the opposite. The car itself is a mix of F360, F430, and F458 styling. I used a little bit of marker, chalk pastels, pencils, and acrylic paint for details. The only thing I didn't use that I normally would is an airbrush. This gave me the chance to practice some other mediums so that later I can use the airbrush more efficiently.

Ferrari F-50 Rendering

This one's an olde but goode. I started drawing cars in the 6th grade and pretty much never stopped. This particular F-50 I started in high school and finished the coloring about a year after graduating. This is back when I was doing everything in pencil and colored pencil and I was learning to use multiple versions of the same color. Now it's much easier to achieve smooth gradations and color transitions using an airbrush- but we all started somewhere. This was the last colored pencil drawing I did... the shop I worked at at the time was where I began airbrushing. Fortunately, this one has a home an a wall at my friend Alix's house   :)

Ferrari 355 Rendering continued...

Quickly after I started doing the 'paint' on this piece I realized I was really doing this the hard way. Yes, I can admit that. But at this point, if it's going to be finished then it must be finished in the manner I started. So I've been masking areas, working color transitions... dark to light, then light to dark, then highlights... then some more pencil to freshen up some lines. After all that, I untapped the main mask to reveal exactly where I'm at at this point. Everything looks Ok... not wonderful, but not a total waste either. Next up would be the wheels and windows. I am also getting ready to get started on at least 1 new rendering today of something else entirely. It'll give me something to bounce back and forth on. Hopefully by doing that I can combine a few coloring techniques and new ideas to make things look better.

The pic is a bit darker then the rendering actually is... but yea. Some areas still need to be darkend, and some still need to be lightened/highlighted more- but I'm figuring on doing those touches very last.

Again, even if this particular rendering becomes a wash, I've still learned plenty of what to do and not to do on the next ones. Can't learn without making a few mistakes, right?

Ferrari 355 Rendering

Since I'm supposed to be on 'vacation', I decided to spend some of my time reacquainting myself with a few things as well as trying to learn new things. In this case I decided to mesh a few things together- Drawing, Airbrushing, and Ferrari's. All things I love. If I were to practice painting a Toyota Corolla, I might not care as much for the finished product. Even if this piece becomes a disaster, I've still learned from it. My initial drawing is on smooth bristol paper. I masked out all the body color areas as well as the ground reflection so all of the coloring could be done at the same time. And it's a good thing too because it's taken layers of different colors to get everything where it is... so duplicating them at this point would be a challenge. I've been using Golden Brand Fluid Acrylics for all my shades of red. Rather then paint the whole picture red and go over it with transparent black and white for shading- I'm using different shades of red to build shape. The body is close to being done.... it needs the appropriate pinks in the right areas to show highlighted reds and to add a gloss look. Then the addition of the grills and scoops will clean up some of the edges as well as deepen those areas. So far not too bad... I managed to burn up one of my airbrush compressors yesterday by over use. I'm havin lots of fun tho!

The pic doesn't quite do it justice... the painting isn't that grainy and there is much more distinction between reds. Straaaaaaaange...

New happenins

So I've technically been on vacation for 2 weeks now... with 1 week to go. But I'm getting restless and eager to keep myself both busy and entertained. I recently got a time lapse camera as a birthday present from sister Tammy, and I also recently decided that I wanted to put some time into drawing on paper while I have the chance. These 2 things are a perfect mix. My subject matter is a 1999 Ferrari 355... I didn't find a picture of it in the angle I wanted, but I found one that's close and used several other reference pictures to achieve the angle I wanted. I set up the camera and set it to 30 second intervals and worked in 2 stages- main body shape, then wheels. Ferrari's are quite curvaceous... so transposing the curves of the cars into lines can be tricky... especially if you're changing the perspective from your reference photo. Wheels, while more straight forward, still require good balance and perspective. I decided to turn the front wheel in a little bit (better pose/stance) as well as just making up the wheels (instead of going with the originals). It took a few tries to get them how I liked, but I got it to work. I also added a wet ground reflection to help make the pic more interesting. I've gone just about as far as I'm going to with pencil. A few more little refinements and it'll be ready for paint. Yes, I'm actually going to try to do the color/shading of this one with an airbrush.

More videos to come!

Thanks Tammy!