Grubby's first shared project

[GrubbyFingers]

Hi Guys,
You have all inspired me! I have picked up the stylus and got well and truly stuck in. I went through all the Tutes today and I can't wait to start playing with some textures.

As always, I start out getting the linework right in Illustrator. I work in red so it is easily visible over reference photos. Fortunately I took a swag of pics at Avalon this year of a similar subject, so the positioning of panel lines and rivets won't be hard to sort out.

Unfortunately, there are many variants of this subject, so I'll need to check my references carefully.



I'll keep posting as I progress.

Any comments are more than welcome, of course.

Grubby.

[Supah]

Looking like a good start! Amazing quality drawings

[GrubbyFingers]

Thanks, Supah,
There's a bit of engineering, a bit of industrial design and a lot of graphic arts in my background, so the foundations of my drawings tend to be fairly solid.
Grubby.

[anadc4]

When you said you used Illustrator before transferring the image to Photoshop I wasn't sure what that meant. Now I understand completely. It makes for a much much better outline and detailing than my technique of solid shapes done with Photoshop.

David

[sparty72]

When you said you used Illustrator before transferring the image to Photoshop I wasn't sure what that meant. Now I understand completely. It makes for a much much better outline and detailing than my technique of solid shapes done with Photoshop.

David

It Does ..will looke inti this!

Sparty

[GrubbyFingers]

Yep, You can then use the paths as "layer clipping paths" in Photoshop, which act like masks, and are editable.

I usually find I need to go back into Illustrator to create extra paths and masks that I re-import into Photoshop.

[anadc4]

What do you do with the outline? It is quite distinct in your earlier works but can't see it in the later ones. Is there an outline on the Gannet, for instance, or do you eliminate it when the colour layers are applied. I don't have outlines in my profiles. The edges are defined solely by shading.

Sparty - I had never heard of Illustrator until Grubby mentioned it because my professional background is as a journalist, not in graphic design, and I am well past 50 years old, so there was none of this at school. Started out using Paintshop, found it too difficult even for flight sim skins and I was "given" Photoshop 6. It arrived without any help files and no manual. Someone passed on a three-minute tutorial on paths and everything else I've taught myself by trial and error. Not sure if that deserves your response.

[GiantFlyingRobots]

My background is in Graphic/Web Design and I have always had a pretty high proficiency when it comes to using Illustrator, when I first attempted to create a profile Illustrator seemed a natural fit, but as my style evolved I switched to using Photoshop almost in its entirety, I still use Illustrator when I have an unusually complex shape,like a wheel, for which Illustrator cant be beat, Photoshop has nothing that compares with the power of the Pathfider menu as but one example.

Illustrator is perfect for those that prefer the clean style of profile, me I like it loose and dirty.(profiles that is)

[anadc4]

Was told by the graphic artists at work that I should be using Corel for the sort of stuff I'm doing. They see Photoshop as a photo editing program only.

But in some ways that's what I am doing. All my profiles start with a photo - or several of them. Do little from plans except to locate the wing and tailplane. A consequence is there is a always a little perspective and items such as the engines (on a multi-engine plane) are maybe overscaled. There might also be 1% caricature but that is accidental, not planned. To me, it more important the plane look right than to be 100% accurate, if you get my drift. This illustrates what I'm trying to say A81-4 Bristol 170 Freighter

[BLOWHARD]

Was told by the graphic artists at work that I should be using Corel

Huh???? I know of no professional graphic artists using Corel :
The industry standard, for print, at least, is Illustrator!
Plus Photoshop has more capabilities as a visual art creator than any other application I know, how could you go wrong? (except for the price )