Painting a YZR500

[adlabs6]

After looking at the trailing suspension arm, I didn't like the shape. It appeared to have an upward bend in it's lower surface, rather than flat. Seems I drew the section surrounding the tire at too steep an angle. I was able to rotate some of the art, the rest I had to repaint. Now it looks better, with a flat lower edge from the axle to the hinge.



From there I've started blocking in the shapes of the engine parts. These will be covering up a lot of territory, and I don't want to waste time painting details that will be hidden. These shapes (right now just 3 or 4 colors, plus some airbrushing on the exhausts to help visually seat them) will help me only paint what will be visible.

Also got the front fork hinged to the frame.

[BLOWHARD]

I'm glad you're painting it and not me! That looks like TOO much hard work

[adlabs6]

Well, I do have some slack. Firstly, this IS based on my pencil sketch. Secondly, my sources are a plastic model and a handful of small photos.

So there are lots of areas where detail may be suggested by the photos or model, but I just can't tell enough about them. These kinds of spots I'm just going to take it easy, and focus on completing a nice aesthetic result, rather than sweating it.

I looked the project over a couple of days ago when I was deciding what to do about that suspension arm looking bent. How far will I go in this kind of pursuit of accuracy? Given my sources, and the fact that I started (and fully intended) this to be an artistic representation, as opposed to a technical or historical reference, I'm going to try to stay in the middle.

Last thing I want to do is get bogged down on technical accuracy midway through what started as a free handed pencil sketch!

[adlabs6]

Most of the engine area is done, or nearly so.

100% crop:

[adlabs6]

More small additions in and around the engine area. More small fixes to the frame geometry. Exhausts painted in detail.

[BLOWHARD]

Nice welds! Hurry up and finish it, what's taking so long?
It looks FANTASTIC so far!

[adlabs6]

Well, unless I have missed something, I do believe that everything "under the cowling" is done.

Too much stuff new and changed to list since my last post. There are two small fixes I need to make on the rear wheel area, minor things that are bugging me. But that'll be just a few moments work.

It's also time to create a new XCF working file before I move forward. I do that every so often to keep the working file light. My process is to hide layers in groups until I have major portions of the work remaining visible alone (not even the white background). I then "Copy Visible" the entire image and paste into the new working file. This way, a group of parts that had dozens of layers each becomes just a single layer.

Just the mechanical works I've drawn, not including the frame or wheels, has nearly 200 layers. With no way to group or hide layers in the stack, navigation in the stack becomes a chore. Each of the prior XCF working files for the wheels and the frame probably have near 100 layers each.

[BLOWHARD]

WOW!!!!!!

[Vigilante]

Man, that's incredible, from the sketch onward. It amazes me how talented you folks are!

[BLOWHARD]

Yeah, super stuff!!! I keep think a little color noise might look good on the rubber tires if you get the blend right.