Painting a YZR500

[adlabs6]

A couple days back I was staring at this, imagining the workflow required to create such an image using a real airbrush.

And I spotted a problem! If the rider were to put his arm down at his side, the top most sponsor patch would not be parallel to the ground, as it should be. A crop here:



So I reworked the sponsor patches. Also took a few moments to redo the Yamaha lettering, using a more accurate typeface and weight. A few smaller touches like shadows and adding a slight flare to the open end of the glove were added too.

[adlabs6]

And a few more touches. I cut away the large, baggy trailing edge of the sleeve. Also improved the leather wrinkles on the Yamaha lettering, and tightened the leather crunch inside the elbow and behind the knee.

[BLOWHARD]

Looking even better. One thing you might want to worl on is more volume or roundness in the arm where the M is. It looks kind of flattened out of deflated. But between the letter M and the wrinkles and arm contour I realize it would be pretty hard to do anything with.

[adlabs6]

Good point there BH. I bet I can manipulate the outside uprights on the M to create a bit of roundness.

[adlabs6]

Here's a repaint on the M, plus a bit of geometry trimming on a couple of the other letters, too... Aiming to reinforce a roundness.

[BLOWHARD]

Much better, now he's got a full looking arm. What is next? Will you do another?

[adlabs6]

Thanks. I will certainly do another painting. But this one will be attempted with the real airbrush. I've got the sketch done on some heavy art paper, a scissor tail sitting on a wire against the sky. Based on a photo my brother took, I'll be using the photo as my shading reference.

No idea when I'll actually start on this, but I fully intend to try it.

[adlabs6]

Trying out a completely new set of wrinkles on the shoulder. This should better capture the feeling the material being bent upward from a standing position.



EDIT: Also tightened up the suit striping in the hip folds.

Before:


After:

[adlabs6]

I looked at that latest shoulder repaint for a couple of days and didn't like it at all. Repainted it again. This time, more emphasis on the seam and the fullness of the shape.

Here's a shot of it all together. I think I'm going back with the wheel on the ground for the final print. Somehow it just looks *faster* that way.

[BLOWHARD]

I like the refinements! I agree with the front wheel thing, it's faster looking.