Airbrushing cars....not on them...pictures of them

[kaotik]

Anyone know of a tutorial on painting pictures of cars?
ive tried searching but googling "airbrushing cars" doesnt really work
any help appreciated I know a few guys on here have done some killer pieces and looking at them makes me wonder "HOW?!"

 

[Stu-Art-Designs1244]

i find when doing cars i treat it like a portrait in a way, start with your lightest areas first and then work into the darker areas. i prefer doing them in white first on a black backround, that way you can get all the reflections and lighter areas down and then when you go over with the color they pop a little better. but if doing them on white i tend to start with the wheels then i tend to do the darker areas first! its very easy to make a mistake when doing the reflections so take your time. and if your doing a backround i tend to do that first. then mask it off and finish with the car itself. also make sure you get ur light source in there so it really pops out. keep you edges smooth but dnt fade them away too much so u cant see them. you need a few hard edges in there aswell. it took me quite a few goes to get the reflections right on cars and they are by no means perfect now your best bet would be to jsut do one and see how it comes out, then post it here and then we can see where you are at. but yeah go slow and take your time and it will come out great hope this helps a little

 

[kaotik]

thanks stu I think your right, I will have to just dive in and hope I can swim

 

[RandyHortonJr]

Depends on how real you want to get. I don't do "photo real" cars, because a lot of my customers don't want that. They want a realistic artistic image of their cars, or a cartoon version.

Here's a few in process pics of MY style...

And here's a few of one of MY car "toon" cars...

 

[JPulliam]

Hey kaotik,
I'm by no means an accomplished car illustrationist but they are my choice of subject. I have only done a few but I learn more one each one. just jump in and try something. If it does'nt work, don't do that again, LOL. Jump over to my gallery and take a look. If I can help let me know.

 

[Strictly Attitude]

I take photorealistic point of view and work close to a computer screen so I can inlarge the area I'm working on to see every last detail. I usually start off with a projected image and get all the major parts mapped out and work in the detail as I go http://www.airbrushforum.org/works-progress-finished-artworks/2203-new-work-started.html here is a link to an open car I did recently there are progress pics in it.

 

[Stu-Art-Designs1244]

thanks stu I think your right, I will have to just dive in and hope I can swim

, just take your time and like someone said, try and get the image on ur pc or what ever you are using and enlarge the area so u can see all the details. that way you will get it looking as close as possible to the real thing. good luck mate

 

[kaotik]

Thanks guys. I will be giving this a shot real soon. Being heavily into the car scene I've had a few requests to do this kinda work so hopefully u can pull it off.
Will post progress pics when the time comes