Canson rendering step-by-step tutorial

[Michael D. Nicola]

OK, it seems to me that some of you are still having a hard time with the monochromatic Canson rendering. So let's see if I can't help out with a step-by-step tutorial.

I sincerely apologize for posting this so close to the due date of your assignment, but I didn't realize that you all would be having so many problems (I've gotten A LOT of emails from people today... LOL!!!).

I hope this helps.

[Michael D. Nicola]

1. The first step is to develop your ideation sketch. Use your newsprint pad and sketch away. I don't advise that you go ahead and start to sketch straight onto Canson. After all, the price of one sheet of Canson gets you an entire PAD (some 50 sheets) of newsprint.

Below is the concept that I'll be using for this tutorial. Special thanks go out to Jason Battersby for providing the inspiration for this one (thanks Jason!)

Once you've nailed down your ideation and are happy with the concept, go ahead and move on to the next step.

[Michael D. Nicola]

2. Now that your ideation is done, go ahead and transfer your concept over to your Canson paper. I know, I know, it sounds easier than it is. And stairing at a blank sheet of Canson (or any paper) can be initimidating, but just tell yourself that you'd already done it once for the ideation, and you can do it again on the Canson. Besides, it's just paper, so grow a set and GET TO IT!

Below, I've used a what I call warm gray (you've all seen me do a demo on this paper). In actuality, the real name of the paper is "Felt Gray" . Whatever...you get the idea.

The above sketch is done using both black Prismacolor Verithins and black Prismacolor soft lead pencils. No elipse templates or rulers were used - I wanted to keep it simple and useful for those of you who don't have these tools. If you do, go ahead and use them if you want.

Now, some of you might be saying to yourselves, "Hey man! That sketch isn't exactly the same as the ideation! What gives?". And you're right, it isn't the same. I made some minor modifications to the wheels and I added the rear wing (I wanted to make this into a LeMans style race car). It's perfectly fine to make these kinds of last-minute changes at this stage.

P.S. If you draw like I do, you probably have a trace dusting of pencil lead on the underside of your drawing hand. If so, take the oportunity now to go wash up before you continue. There's nothing worse than screwing up a drawing this early because your hands are dirty!

[Michael D. Nicola]

3. OK, so now that you've finished the rough work on your Canson paper, and you've tightened up your lines abit using your soft lead Prismacolor pencil, it's time to add your black marker.

Your black marker should be used to dark obvious areas like the rocker panel, front grill, air intakes, air extractors, and any surfaces where there's a general absense of light. Remember to darken up some of the intersections where surfaces meet and any surface that faces down too.

Above you can see how I darkened up alot of the openings and lower surfaces, as well as the wheels and tires. I've also darkened inside the wheels and even threw in a front brake rotor too (see what I can do when I have TIME?)


Below are a couple of zoomed-in shots to show a little more detail:

[Michael D. Nicola]

4. OK, so now that you're done with all the black marker work, it's time to start putting down some real colour. And as I said in class, we always start with the lightest colour first.

In the case of this drawing, I start with warm gray #1 ChartPak AD marker and I begin at the bottom of the car and slow make my way up stopping about mid way up the body. I then define my horizon line and begin to fill back down the side of the car. Using the same principles, I fill other areas of the car in the same manner.

Most of you are probably asking, "I understand all that stuff about the horizon line, but where does he know where to put the marker and where not to?". Well, one thing I do is I think about where my 'cores' are (where the pastel is going to go). Remember, there's no marker work in your cores 'cause it's all pastel work. So once I have a good idea of where my cores are, then I go ahead and put the marker down.

[Michael D. Nicola]

5. OK, so now that you're finished applying the lightest colour you have, use a colour that is a shade or two darker than your lightest and begin repeating the process, only this time don't apply as much. For example. when you start to colour in your horizon line again, don't fill down the body as far as you did with the lightest colour; when you begin darkening the bottom of the car, don't fill quite as high as you did with the lightest colour. In this step, I was using warm gray #3.

Once your done this step, you'll really start to see our drawing take shape. I can almost hear this thing tearing down the Mulsane Straight!

[Michael D. Nicola]

6. Doing virtually the same thing as step 5 only this time using a slightly darker colour (in this case, I'm using warm gray #5) we continue to darken closer to our horizon line, and any surfaces that are low and/or facing downward.

[Michael D. Nicola]

7. And again, we repeat the process from step 5 and 6 only this time we use the darkest colour we have (excluding black, of course). In this case, I'm using warm gray #7.

[Michael D. Nicola]

8. OK, this is where the magic happens! Once all your marker work is done, it's time to pull out your pastels and really pull-out those cores. The colour I use for this rendering was Prismacolor #209-P Warm Deep Grey.

Now you've all seen me do it, but I will type it out here: Get a scrap piece of paper, and with the edge of your knife grind off some of the pastel onto the paper. Once you have an amount that you think will be enough to cover your work, take a Webril pad (or tissue, or cotton ball) and fold it so that you can handle properly. Then, put some on your pad and begin to apply it to your cores. Don't go too crazy! Remember the rule - less is more.

Once you're done with this step, take the opportunity to go wash your hands again. By now you will have alot of pastel dust on your hands. You've come a long way so don't blow it by messing up your drawing now.

Note: I haven't even touched the wheels yet! It's OK, we'll worry about them in the next step.

[Michael D. Nicola]

9. If you've made it this far, then you're in the home stretch! All you have to do now is add some white pastel as a highlight above your horizon lines, put some soft lead white pencil in the headlights, bring out some of the detail in the grill, finish off the wheels (I used the same colours for the wheels as I used for the rendering - warm grays #1,#3,#5, and #7), touch up any areas with marker that have an excessive amout of pastel, and you're done!

Here's the finished product:

And yes, before any of you ask, I will be bringing this (along with the rough newsprint ideation sketch) to class with me on Monday for all of you to see and ask questions about.