Joshua Hoffeld Marker and Photoshop rendering

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After the colour is chosen, open the grey scale layer to fill in the gaps you erased in the colour layer. Should look like this. A complete rendering! I like to take the colour dodge tool (to lighten up an area to show a light reflecting ) like the area where the body side meets the rear. Shows where the body turns and how much radius I want.

After scanning in the drawing and opening it in Photoshop, I'll do some quick clean up (dirty scanner, random pencil/marker bits). Then copy the original layer and turn it off eyeball). On the copy layer I'll erase away the shadow, tires, glass and any other parts that are not body colour. Ill use multiple paths to get a clean line and save them. Never know when you'll need the same paths again. After all that, you should have a 'floating' body in space. Then command+u to open the hue/saturation function to change the grey values into colour! Suppose your boss/client does not like the choice of colour...you can make changes at ease provided you haven't flattened the file. ALWAYS HAVE THE UNFLATTENED FILE SAVED! I like the Hemi Orange (with a little red to kick it up).

I may have jumped several steps to get here. After the shadow values were established, I worked on the bottom area between the exhaust and rear tire. I nearly matched the value as in the shadow below but not as dark as the R/T graphic running underneath the car. From there I worked on the main reflection on the side of the car. Remember, the light source is in front of the car. The body side has three distinct value areas as you go from the shoulder to the crown then to the rocker area. I start from the rocker (darker value) then my way up to the crown where the reflection of the environment shows. I like to keep simple reflections since this is a "straight" bodied car. I'm fading the values from bottom up and across towards the light source.

I start with rear tire area which will give me a strong contrast since that area is closest to the viewer. Ill work with prismacolor markers 20, 40, 60, and 80 and black. Use the black in the rear wheel well and part of the tire as it meets the shadow. Then place 80 on the shadow and fade to a 60/40. The shadow towards the front will fade faster to a 40/20 since you are heading towards a light source (less on contrast). The rear wheel then gets attention. This was time consuming but rewarding. If the details look tight in line drawing, the values will make it pop. You have to understand how a tire is shaped then add the proper values. The basics of light to dark on shapes apply here (as I recall my earlier days at Art Centre!). Once you learn those rules you can break them or least cheat. When the tires/rims and shadows are done time to move onto the body

Create and Scan your line work. I like to work out all the perspectives first on bond paper then transfer onto A4 Letreset with indigo verithin pencils. I'm a messy sketcher but I know ill clean up at the end of the rendering process. After the perspective looks correct, Ill work out the reflections according to the light source (arrow in front of the car) and shadow. Once all that is worked out, start applying values!

All of this takes practice. The roof has about a 40 value as it gets reflection from the sky. The window graphic is simple. I draw a curve across the glass since the glass has a curvature to it). Then I indicated seats, b pillar in a darker value while leaving the rest about a 40 (because from this view you can see the windscreen so I indicated glass and not upholstery) The rear of the car was simple.. color in the brake lights, then black out areas on the inside. White prismacolor pencil indicate some reflection on flat black paint. Then the exhaust with little detail as with the fuel cap. Then you're done! I did cool grey value rendering because of 2 things. 1. I can see the values with ease and correct any mistake. 2. I can then scan the drawing 350 dpi and make any alterations in Photoshop.

JOSHUA HOFFELD
Marker and Adobe Photoshop Rendering

Joshua Hoffeld is a graduate from Art Center College of Design in Transportation Design (Fall 2005) and holds a B.F.A in Industrial Design from R.I.T (NY USA). He is currently seeking a full-time/freelance design position in the Automotive/ boat/ entertainment industry. You can veiw further examples of Joshua Hoffelds work by visiting, Joshuas website.

page last updated; 2014-06-15

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