Question on Shading Technique

[Vacajun]

Having absorbed so many terrific tips and techniques here, I would like to know more about the progressive shading technique used by Jesters and AircraftProfiles in laying out their initial profiles. Specifically, the use of colored backgrounds (grey, black, yellow, etc.) to evaluate the adequacy of shading and highlighting.

Could you chaps please give a few examples of how this approach helps?

[Aircraftprofiles]

Let me see...First of all, i use a grey (R: 128, G: 125, B: 128) for starters. I make the background the same color and have the all grey (no detail) in a seperate layer.

Then i add the shades in one layer and the basic highlights in a different layer. In order to make a more "metal-like" finish, i add the brightest highlights in a seperate layer, in order to make a justments to opacity and the shape of the highlights.

In the progress above i frequently remove the "no-detail profile" below the shadings/highlight. I do this to see if the shades and highlights can define the shape of the aircraft without the aid of the profiles below.
Once i´m happy with the result, i alter the background color to white and then black. The white i use to evaluate the consistency of the shades, and the black to evaluate the consistency of the highlights.

The last thing i do is to add a random color to the background just to see if the shade works with colors and not only greyscale tones.

I hoep this answers yoru questioon. There´re many details i have left out of this description, but please feel free to ask if you want to know more !

[Jesters-Ink]

Hi Vacajun,

I think my methods are a bit iffy to base any real methods on.
I use the colour test to hunt down obvious lighting errors which I tend to miss when using cammo patterns and colours.
Also, I do not use Photoshop as it was intended.
I build up lighting, (both highlights and shade) with multiple passes using many brush strokes all on separate layers.

Here you can see a simple drawing I was working on around this time last year for someone who will remain nameless “Ronnie”.

The black image shows where the highlights are too strong with the white image showing where the shades are either too weak or too strong.

The grey and colour images give you more of a general overview and you can see from both that the errors in the lighting are not so obvious.

I hope this helps?

[Vacajun]

Fantastic!! Great idea.

Thanks, gents

[JMSmith]

hey ratbag!,

ya didna tell me this yesterday you were to busy taking the micky out of my toe.
i think the black version is just brilliant, now why did i not think of this

oh well, back to my rivets.

[gamary]

oh well, back to my rivets.

What are you riveting, John? You always keep your profiles a secret.

[wh1skea]

GM, you should know by now, that it doesn't matter who's doing the profile, when it comes to rivets, all the rivets are John's.

[gamary]

it doesn't matter who's doing the profile, when it comes to rivets, all the rivets are John's.

True, but if you say it out loud he'll be asking for royalties on all of our drawings. shhhhh!!!