Lamborghini Miura in Tokyo
Story
I started this illustration as one last thing to do before the end of last year.
2024 was a very "slow art year" for me, with only one or two pieces released.
I used to have at least one piece a month.
Of course the complexity of these pieces vary greatly, as does the time needed, but I would like to end the year with at least 12 new pieces.
This sounds like a problem, releasing my first piece in March, but we'll see.
Process
I started this with the same 5-step system I teach in my free course (so you can do this too!):
Getting reference (from a virtual photo I took in Gran Turismo 7)
Outline
Big Shapes
Windows, wheels, lights, handles, etc.
Shut lines and body folds
Linework fine tuning
Details
Finishing
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After working a bit more on the sketch, I started adding the local colours.
Local colours are the colours something "is".
You know, the grass "is green", the sky "is blue", and so on.
After doing this "local colour" as a base, you apply colour nuances in forms of light and shadow.
But this part I didn't really get into, until a very later stage.
After setting up a bit of the car's basics, I went and started with the background.
And after some more work in the background details, I did some extra lighting and reflections.
The above is the last image I have regarding the "work in progress", before the final result.
But I want to bring your attention to the fact that this is vector art, and not raster art.
If you don't know the difference between these, I will write a post soon about it, but what you need to know is that in vector is much easier to do clean, precise artwork.
In raster, the usual is to be a bit more painterly, more similar to traditional art, and the medium is actually better for that.
The reason is that vector lines are based on geometric shapes (lines and nodes) on a cartesian plane. More of a mathematical thing, that can be infinitely scaled.
Raster on the other hand, is based on bitmap/images based brushes, so when you paint, you are actually stamping pixels on the document. You are always limited by the size and resolutions of both brush and canvas.
Unlocking the painterly look
At one point I felt restrained.
I was painting within the lines and shapes I had previously created.
And I have been feeling like that lately, but I'm a fan of the ability to infinitely scale my artwork.
That is very useful for printing and creating apparel, so I didn't want to use raster just yet.
Painterly vector brushes to the rescue.
These do not work exactly as raster brushes, and handling them is a bit more difficult in terms of what you need to do to get the look you want.
But if you can handle that, the result is amazing and you end up keeping all the benefits of vector art.
You can't always do it, but when you do, it's worth the effort.
This is what the vector lines only look like.
The art you saw as a finished piece has all this underneath, as vectors.
Pretty crazy, right?
Did you like it? Get your prints!
If you loved this new artwork, you can get it printed in high quality in various sizes in my store right now.
