Was old school, pencils, pens and airbrush, now digital. My speciality is technical stuff for local industry and a national magazine. Been working with Illustrator since v3, but still don't understand most of it! Thank heavens for sites like this with experts and tutorials, or links to the knowledge.
Jaguar XKR
Description After many abortive attempts to get to grips with the mesh tool I gave in and sought help in the form of a couple of on-line tutorials - and this was the result - my first successful use of the mesh tool. I claim no artistic merit for this work, other than beefing up the tones in the bodywork. As it was a trial piece I drew all the body panels seperately to practise getting the seperate meshes to match up with each other. My patience wore out on the wheel arch lips and I resorted to graduated transparent masks to blend them in with the rest of the body. I did use a mesh to produce the masks though, saving time and memory as my old G4 slowed right down when refreshing the old blended masks. I used masks for the rear lights too to save time instead of fiddling for hours getting the mesh shapes right. Purist meshers may take exception to this approach, but hey, it gets the job done.
Application Illustrator
Labels Realistic, Advertisement
Times Viewed 2604
Approved By Huan
17 November 2006 - 11:32
Conversation With
Todd Ferris (toddferris)
Don't look at it as you gave up in spots. Look at it as you did what would make this image great. You did just that. It's very good and still has the illustrative qualities that any art should have.
Geat work.
17 November 2006 - 11:52:
Graham Smith (smiggy)
replied...
Thanks Todd, praise indeed from the auto master! Its a fine line between photorealism and photocopying, and this felt pretty darned close to it at times. I am very pleased with it though.
17 November 2006 - 11:59
Conversation With
voodoodog
Great image. Not too photo-realistic as to confuse it with a snapshot, as too many mush-mesh illustrations end up looking like. I agree with Todd. I use what ever tools I have in the box to acheive the desired results. Sometimes I use a screwdriver as a hammer.
17 November 2006 - 12:17:
Graham Smith (smiggy)
replied...
Thanks Dirk. Now I've figured it the mesh tool is great, I really enjoyed playing with it, but the good old mask is the tool to tidy things up and save time. Now, where did I put that wrench, I've got nail to knock in ;-)
17 November 2006 - 12:39
Conversation With
Jerry Mills (Husker)
Sometime I use a shovel. ;) The ends justify the means and you did an awesome job on this piece. Bravo!
17 November 2006 - 20:20:
Graham Smith (smiggy)
replied...
Thanks Jerry
17 November 2006 - 13:26
Conversation With
PowerChild
Just more of the same in terms of praise- Nice job. And I have to agree with Dirk's toolbox comment. The creators of Illustrator did not intend for you to pick a single tool and use that to complete your entire job. That's just not practical. And in the long run, the simple fact that an image is stunning is far more important than how it became so (...well ok, so I still like to know "how" it was done... :)
17 November 2006 - 20:25:
Graham Smith (smiggy)
replied...
Thanks, I just made the comment about the masking because when people show the wireframe everything is soooo perfect, like a jigsaw with no gaps ;-) I haven't got the patience.
17 November 2006 - 13:46
Conversation With
Dan Leventhal (DanLeventhal)
Like Voodoodog said, I think it's got a perfect feel to it. You'd have a tough time convincing the average person it's not a photo, and yet most artists will still see it as a detailed and elegantly executed study in realism. Honestly, the only thing that makes that a dead giveaway as an illustration to me, is that reality just doesn't look that good =)
17 November 2006 - 20:35:
Graham Smith (smiggy)
replied...
Thanks, I took a print down to my local pub (bar) and they thought it was my latest wheels - I wish!
17 November 2006 - 16:55
Conversation With
Robert Ojok (robertojok)
This is a fantastic redition of the car great attention to detail bigups to you
17 November 2006 - 20:39:
Graham Smith (smiggy)
replied...
Thanks for that, after all this positive feedback I feel inspired to do another one.
3 February 2007 - 15:19
Conversation With
faisal (fasi)
you have nice work i made car to but ur work is realy good i m student and i submit my work 2.this is my 1st work at here.
5 February 2007 - 03:10:
Graham Smith (smiggy)
replied...
Thanks fasi. Your gun is a good start.
7 February 2007 - 15:53:
faisal (fasi)
replied...
thanks you sir.i wanna say to you sir ur car and ur bike is too good in details realy.and after that i try to make some of my work realy i like your work and if i have some mistaks in my work so plz tell me.thanks
12 February 2007 - 03:31:
Graham Smith (smiggy)
replied...
Just remember that Illustrator, and all the others, are just a tool. Our job is to learn how to control it and then use it in our own style. Copying photos is a good way to learn the control, but then we must develope our own styles.
Thanks Todd, praise indeed from the auto master! Its a fine line between photorealism and photocopying, and this felt pretty darned close to it at times. I am very pleased with it though.