ANDREW JONES
CANSON RENDERING IN PHOTOSHOP

Andrew Jones graduated from Coventry's transport design course in 1999 and is currently working for 'Design & Realizations', a Uk based Japanese consultancy. Most of his work is for Toyota group and Mazda, but he has also been heavily involved with the exterior and interior design of a production Power boat. Andrew has also been regularly contracted out to Nissan Design Europe. In this tutorial he will explain how to achieve a Canson style rendering in Photoshop. With this technique you will learn how to simply add light and dark to define surfaces and pull the image off the page.

 

I am a great believer in producing a quick biro thumb nail before going into a more detailed drawing. A quick biro sketch helps you ‘stay free’ before getting seriously into a render.

Once you have done this, simply scan the image and drop a white layer with reduced opacity over the top so you can still see your rough biro work.

On a new layer above the white sheet you can create the refined line art, using the path tool and a fine brush. If you stoke the path with simulate pressure on, you will get a nice taper to the line work. Once finished you can switch off the rough sketch back ground or increase the white layer opacity to 100%. It’s also essential to make sure your wheels/ tyres are in correct perspective as it vastly improves any drawing.

To get the Canson paper effect create a MULTIPLY layer in Photoshop. This type of layer allows you to still see through to your art work without reducing opacity levels. Now you can use the gradient fill tool to fill the area with your desired colour. I chose a deep purple to a medium grey. I find a graduated colour change adds something more than just a flat one.

If you click and hold this tool it automatically generates a line that the gradient will follow – so the longer the line the softer the gradient. I simply went from the top of the image right down to the bottom. Then I selected the side frame and reduced its saturation level until it went grey, though you could achieve this simply by airbrushing over. You may also add around 1% noise to the whole layer to give it texture.

The nice thing about this technique is that you get to add light rather than leave areas uncoloured to create lighter surfaces.

Create a new layer (normal). My light source, if you can imagine is above the artists head shining down over the car. Defining a clear light source is essential for describing surface changes. It’s worth while really analysing where you want light to go.

For this I used a large soft airbrush with a low opacity of around 25. The importance of using a large brush is to get a smooth gentle gradient; smaller brushes can tend to create a muddy appearance if you’re not careful. Carefully select various areas that would catch light using the path tool, which gives very smooth crisp perimeters. You can build up white intensity towards the middle of the image to add visual focus.

Create a multiply layer for adding shade.

I created this layer beneath the light layer, so that light zones always stay above. To be honest you can do this stage before the previous – I just like to put light down first – it’s your preference.

I used a large dark grey, angled airbrush (don’t use black as you cant then add more shade). If you change your brush tip shape you can make it more like a marker pen stroke i.e. a thin block. This gives a more dynamic feel to the darker elements.

Here I blocked in the main darker areas of the car including the ground shadow to help lift the image out from the page.