Blade Runner Spinner - start to end

[Anville]

Yo.

Been planning this for over a month, will probably be in ten or so parts. Basically I will be showing my working method for the concepting/sketching/inking/separations of an art print to be screen printed, and will be giving out a few tips and such that Ive learned along the way. I will be throwing in my design theory and philosophy, so don't take this stuff as fact, just how I prefer to do things.

This print is the third in a series produced between me and Nakatomi Inc of the "Icons of Motoring", and near the end of the thread we will have some pics posted of the final product during printing, to show the whole process of the print. At its current state, the inks are done, but as you will soon see, it takes a while to get there.

If anyone sees something that could be done better I am not above hearing suggestions. Speak your mind.

Part 1
====
Getting the workspace clean is a must, the mind can think better when its clean.


Necessities.


Thumbnails I did at work earlier that week to try to grasp how I wanted the print to look. The direction of the car was decided early on to be different from the angles of the other cars in the series, so the prints don't look to similar. These sketches were done with an alvin techliner, which are a blast to sketch with.


Rough 8.5" x 11" sketch. Not really happy with the angle of the car aimed at the camera, but good idea on where we are headed.


24"x18" biggie sketch paper ready to go. Print will be 18" x 24" but I don't ever work in the size that the print will be. Always try to scale up to enlarge detail. Hence, this original art will be drawn at 20"x15" and scaled up to 24"x18".


Making sure the lines are parallel to the edge of the paper.


Going round the way, and checking with a t-square.


Super rough outline of the car. You can see I placed it above the horizon of the picture, as having the object dead center in the piece is uninteresting, and can be a subtle change from having the focus "dead-on".


Here I am roughing out proportions, and honestly this can be the most difficult part of the piece. If the car doesn't look quite right, the rest of the piece can suffer by association, so this will require a lot of work to get it right, but worth it in the end.


Part 2 tomorrow...

[8ball]

Will this take awhile?

Red Bull and Gummi worms, should I do the investing?

[Quinine]

As usual, I love the process pics. Thanks for sharing. Hope to see more soon.

[standard]

yay for light tables and triangles.

[Barry Obama]

recieved my mad max print love it

[GR8Dane]

You need to send that Horkey Converge to me. It will distract you from your fine work sir.... and I do not want to see that happen!

[Anville]

8ball - this will go on for a bit, this is probably one of the most complicated pieces of art i have done, so there will be a lot of content shown on the creation of the spinner.

Kozik - glad you got it. Rock on man.

GR8Dane - Looking at the horkey converge boosts motivation, cant give it up yet. Still can't believe I got it for 50 bucks (and I was pissed at the time it wasn't on gloss stock...how things change).

Part 2
====
As this goes on I am realizing how psychotic I am about this stuff, and I might take steps that seem unessential, but hopefully this whole insane process can give some people ideas about how to approach a difficult piece of art.

Another rough sketch of the car was required at this stage, seeing as I wasn't quite getting the angle of satisfaction. This was done in about 10-15 mins, and just placed in a few elements that will go in the final art.


The next stage is a value sketch with some copic markers, to get an idea about executing the light direction for the sketch.


About to use the copics on a blank sheet, to create a rendering for value study. A rendering is different from a drawing, as in there are no lines in a rendering, just values and shapes.


This was quick and dirty, but it is always important to know where you are going value wise with a piece this complex. With all of the buildings and whatnot I have in my head for this image, this definitely helps. As you can see, the main light sources in the image are coming from below, and some will come from the neon signs and the lights on the cop car which I did not include for this sketch.


Here I extended the whole car, and began detailing one of the front wheel pontoons. Usually the darker lines are lines that I am comfortable with, though they will sometimes get changed. On the left you can see the movement of the pontoon, and the placement is undecided at this point. After a sketch, I will stand back 20 some odd feet and seeing if it looks allright.


Drawing on the board, looking at it and checking proportions.


This is what the drawing looks like after 3-5 hours of work.


Here is a preview of it after a 15 hour weekend. Sadly, I don't have process pics of me filling in the car and building details, but I can show most of the process after the buildings and pipes are laid out.


Going to take a few days to get ahead on separations, next update will be friday most likely.

Time to crash, next part coming soon.

[tenspeed]

I would love both your drawing skills and your cat.

[James flames]

love this

[DRG]

Enjoying this, look forward to more.