Tutorial Fun with Photoshop

With a unique and humorous rendering style, Lemorris guides us through his “step by step” process of auto rendering. Watch, as he starts his preliminary design with traditional methods, followed by a computer scan and then on to some superb “plugged in” craftsmanship utilizing Photoshop. So set back and enjoy this little “toon toot” by Lemorris… it’s sure to leave you both artistically informed as well as with – a big smile on your face.

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I landed a gig with a VW dealership and it’s pretty cool. They let me pick the cars I draw with their salesman in them and then they give me money. Totally terms I can live with. The car we’re going to take a look at tooning is a 73 VW Thing owned by my good buddy Mike Grady.

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The first “thing” (bad pun) I do is a pencil sketch. Now…I’m not gonna fib…this is after like 4 tries and some tears. I usually start really rough and then I scan the drawing into Photoshop. I adjust the levels so the pencil is a little darker, then I make a layer above my background layer. Fill it with a blue color then set that filled layers property to “color”. That’s how I create the blue line look.

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I used to just say the blueline look was cool and I wanted to feel like the animators do but there is actually a pretty good reason for this. After I make my blueline look I will scale the drawing up a tad then print it out. I go over to my light table and tape a clean piece of paper over it and start to transfer the drawing again. Since I use a standard 5mm tech pencil, the blueline look makes it easier for me to distinguish where my new lead lines are falling. It helps me see at a glance so I like the blue line look.

In this step on my light table, you can see how I try to refine bits and pieces. I will erase a lot and work some areas over and over but many times if a line doesn’t want to “lay right” for me, I will make a mental note and revisit it on the next transfer or fix it on the computer in my line work.

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Speaking of linework, that’s next. After I scan in my pencil drawing and make it blue line, I lock that layer in Photoshop. Then add a layer above it and I will name it “lineart” and set it’s layer property to “multiply”.

Now here’s a cool thing my daughter taught me:

I select a brush size normally something like 7 or 9 pixels (since my drawing is 300dpi this isn’t too huge). Then I select the “secret” brushes pallet. F5 is the shortcut on the PC. It is available from the “windows” menu too.

brushes

I check the shape dynamics box and set the drop down to pressure and then slide the slider to somewhere in the mid 40’s.

Now…here’s the coolness.

I select the pen tool (make sure it’s set for paths) then I start to draw around the contour of my sketch on the empty layer. Note: the pen tool is your friend. I highly recommend learning how to use it. I don’t have to go around the entire drawing. I just step in pieces where there are tangents or across curves then I right-button click on the path and select stroke path. I make sure the box labeled “simulate pressure” is checked and I select the brush as my tool to stroke the path with and BAM!! The path gets stroked and the “secret brush pallet” settings create a varied line width look, which really helps the digital rendering retain some of the natural hand feel that is inherent in the pencil drawing.

I know that seems like a lot, but try it…very cool. Note: I just record the steps as an action and assign it to a function key so when I draw a path I press F6 and it strokes it with a brush and simulates pressure and I even added the delete as I don’t often save those paths in this method.

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Here you can see the completed line work. I change the brush size for lines inside the contour and I try to adjust the slider in the “secret brushes” pallet to help vary the line in general. I use the ellipses tool for the tires and wheels. Yes I do them on different layers and many times I will have an inner tire layer, an outer tire, inner rim bits, outer rim bits, center piece, spokes, etc layers. After I stroke them (usually not simulating pressure) with their various line widths, I use erase for what doesn’t need to be seen, then merge the layers into one again.

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In this method the next thing I do is create a new empty layer and draw all the paths that represent my highlight and shadow lines. I’m not sure when or why I started doing this but I do. I like having the shapes planned before I go to render. For some this isn’t necessary, it really is a preference thing for me.

I select all my paths then stroke them with a one pixel red brush, no pressure.

I then duplicate the highlight layer and duplicate the line layer and I merge the duplicates together. This becomes my selection layer.

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At this point there is usually a knock on the door and it’s “The Good Times!” comin to the party, and they got a six-pack of COLOR!!!! wooo-hooooo!

Using whatever selection method I want (in this case a combination of the magic wand and the polygonal lasso tool) I make a selection that is the entire body. I then fill the new layer with my base color. Note: I also make a new channel containing this selection as it will come in handy often and I can get the same selection just by ctrl + clicking on the channel. Oh…learn your CHOPs (Channel Operations) cool stuff there too.

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I usually render in the tires first as they anchor the piece for me. Making selections I first fill with a solid grey (pantone 423) then on a new layer with the same selection I will draw a foreground color to transparent gradient across and then go back in to the tire with different brush sizes set on a very low flow. I usually flow 9% or less and just build up my tone in many passes.

I do the same thing for any chrome bits using blues and greys and just building them up slowly with low flow settings. Remember your history pallet. It’s your friend too.

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Next I move into the body and take the same basic approach. I have a base color, a shadow color and a highlight color and I work them in as best I can. I am not a realist by any stretch. I’m much more of a “feelist” if you will, so I kinda render shapes how they feel cool as opposed to how they might really be.

Here you can see the area on the fender selected via the magic wand and on a layer above the base color layer I have rendered in a darker tone.

Here are a couple render shots to compare. You’ll see when I decided how I wanted it to lay.

By reselecting and erasing and testing I landed on a look that was working for me.

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gun3_15

Here’s another secret. I don’t draw the license plates totally. I found a license plate generator online that will let me select the year and the state. I then punch in what I want and it makes a graphic for me. I drop this into a layer and select ctrl + t which gives me the transform tools. I position my plate within my drawn frame and then select the inverse of the plate holder opening and delete any of the generated license plate that may be sticking out. Now…in this particular plate the green was pretty soft so I went in and darkened it and drew in a beveled edge so it would have some weight so I don’t feel bad. As a matter of fact, tools like license plate generators help you get some authenticity without spending hours on an item like that. I find them to be useful in certain spots.

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gun3_16

I know it doesn’t look like much changed but this was a pretty big step. Here I re-rendered the rear bumper and switched the light to the other edge and changed to a much more subtle blue on the black. This really helped to sell the black metal look and it made me pretty happy.

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gun3_18

Next I got the pseudo folds rendered on the top. It’s a pretty graphical approach but I thought it worked well with this particular vehicle.

I got the little bits of chrome taken care of and at this point I just have the guys head to add.

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gun3_19

So…taking the same approach I sketched up the toon big head of the salesman for this car and I placed it in position.

I do the line rendering for the head separately and drop it into a new layer. Then I fill a base color in under the face line and lock transparency on that layer. Then I render in my tones.

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gun3_23

So after I finish the guys face I add a new layer. This one is named “bling”. Using sparkle brushes I found online and got from Jeri Clow, I add little sparkles and dots of white to help punch out the paint. I also adjust the contrast for a little pop in the overall piece and I add my little signature thingy…. I mean “Thingie”.

That’s really about it for this particular method…so, we’ll call this one finished. As you know there are a thousand ways to do everything in Photoshop so I hope you find something in here that may help you do it your way.

Thanks to the cool cats at Motorburg for giving me an opportunity to do this and thanks to the Motorburg Community for always being helpful and supportive.

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It is Motorburg’s pleasure to welcome Lemorris Harris as a contributing artist. We’ve watched for some time now, as he’s become a valuable part of our own “Big Block Party Forum” and we have continually admired his professionalism and valuable input to the community.

Lemorris has been doing automotive art since the late 1980’s. Up until 2006, his art was all done using traditional methods such as pencil and pen & ink… mostly directed towards producing screen-printed T-Shirt designs. In 2006 with the help of great folks like Jeri Clow, Greg Tedder, and George Trosley he was able to start on a more digital route to rendering his art. It is to this “mentor team”, that he wants to say that he’s eternally grateful and to dedicate this tutorial. Visit Lemorris Illustration & Design online

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5 Comments »

Ryan said:

A great read with a nice look behind the scenes.

# 4 December 2009 at 7:11 pm

Nelson said:

Very nice, Lemorris. I had assumed you used Illustrator, so this is quite cool. I’m going to want to try out the ‘paths’ tools real soon!

How does the VW dealer make use of the art?

# 4 December 2009 at 10:25 pm

lemorris said:

Thanks guys! It was a blast to do. I’m really honored by being asked, really means a lot to me.

To answer Nelson:

The VW dealership is the nations largest in size and sales and they really embrace the air-cooled and the water cooled VWs so it’s a great outfit to work with.

They make shirts of all the drawings I do and then if a person buys a car from that salesman, they get the shirt. People collect all the shirts as they are sold and they also have made cops and stickers and other print media from the files.

It’s nice to work with a client that gives you a lot of freedom of design. I should thank my buddy Roy for making this happen. He posted some of my art on a board I don’t go to but the dealership owner saw the work and contacted me.

-Lemorris

p.s. I’m freakin out a little bit that \The\ Nelson Dewey asked me a question. Big fan man…big. CARtoons Feb. 91 issue, page 27. My first.

# 5 December 2009 at 12:30 am

Ger Peters said:

Thanks for the tutorial Lemorris! That trick of stroking your pen paths with the brush tool really adds a lot to the drawing! Time now to turn to Illustrator and have the benefits of both pen and brush combined in a single tool… but you have to have a graphic tablet of course ;o)

# 5 December 2009 at 1:58 am

Keith Runawaychair said:

Lemorris! Great tutorial my friend. It made me see how overly complicated I work. Thanks for that. Can you take a digital snap of one or two of the t-shirts with your art?

# 6 December 2009 at 3:09 am