Marker paper rendering step-by-step tutorial #3

[Michael D. Nicola]

Well, here's another step-by-step tutorial on marker paper. I really hope you are getting something out of these!

As with the other two marker paper renderings, this one is also based on a redone classroom demonstration. In this case, the one I did on February 28th, 2005.

So here we go.

[Michael D. Nicola]

As before, I'm starting with the line drawing that I've already traced from the ideaton sketches I did.

As some of you will recall, the original demo was of a car that Francesco Giampietro did for the "commuter car" assignment, where he used a mouse as inspiration for his final design. A good idea, but I couldn't figure out why I didn't like liked the way the classroom demo came out. After some time looking at the original demo, I realized that the reason I didn't like it was because of the angle the vehicle was drawn on - just a simple 3/4 dog-view looking at the front of the car. So in addition to my normal "modifications" that I do whenever I redo any demo, I decided to also change the angle of the car to something a little more dramatic.

Here is what I ended up with:

[Michael D. Nicola]

Ok, now that the line drawing is done, I move on to the first colour of marker. I decided to stick with the original colour of the demo, blue.

As in the previous demos, I chose the direction of my light source before appllying any marker. In this case, the light source is ahead of the car on the driver's side (just look at the outline for the shadow if you're confused).

With the light source decided, I begin with my Light Blue (P-104) Chartpak AD marker.

I've decided to only use this one colour. Again, this is to prove that good results are possible without owning every single Chartpak marker colour. So all the colour you see above is just my Light Blue P-104 marker.

[Michael D. Nicola]

With this car, I've decided that I want to have a few grey sections. So, starting with my Cool Grey #3, I start to fill in the window surrounds, and the underbody area, as well as that small section in the front of the car.

[Michael D. Nicola]

In an effort to help punch out some of the darker areas where I just laid down my grey colour, I decided to go over some of the areas with my Cool Grey #4. Areas like the side intake fins, and the area rigth along the bottom of the door are prime candidates for some really deep shadows.

[Michael D. Nicola]

Now, at this point I turn my attention to the interior. For this step, I've gone ahead and put down some more Cool Grey #3.

Normally, I would have liked to have used a more contrasting colour for the interior, but on a blue car, that would have been something like either orange or a very deep yellow. And while that kind of contrast might have looked really cool, I personally think that it would have been too big a risk of drawing the viewer's attention on the interior and away from the overall design of the car. So in this case Cool Grey will have to do.

[Michael D. Nicola]

To help really punch some of the darker areas, I've gone over some areas with my Cool Grey #4.

[Michael D. Nicola]

The more I look at the interior, the more it looks like it could use some "jazzing up". So taking some inspiration from the Mini Cooper, I'll put some of the same Light Blue marker colour of the exterior into the interior - primarily the seat side bolsters and the little door handle (just behind the steering wheel).

[Michael D. Nicola]

Adding a small amount of Cool Grey #8 to the guages, followed by some black marker at the base of the front windshield, I can basically consider the interior done. Now I need to add the horizon line into the side glass. For this, I'll use my Cool Grey #3 again, followed by a small amount of Cool Grey #4 right at the top edge of top horizon line.

Notice how the horizon line is in both the front and the back pieces of side glass.

[Michael D. Nicola]

Now it's time to add some pastel to our cores. In this case, I'll use Primsacolor Nupastel #225-P Iron Blue.

Keeping in mind the light source, I'll apply most of my colour away from it.

[Michael D. Nicola]

Ah, my favourite part - apply some magic blue. But this is even more special because no other colour brings out the "Magic" of magic blue, quite like a nice base of Iron Blue.

So here we go, again with my Prismacolor Nupastel #244-P Blue Violet (aka Magic Blue).

[Michael D. Nicola]

Now that I have all of my major colours down, I need to help make the car shine. And this is done using white pastel and following the golden rule of car rendering: your lighest light, next to your darkest dark.

[Michael D. Nicola]

Now all I have to do is spend some time on the details. Luckily, there's no visible front lights on this car, so most of my time will be spent on the wheels and tires. So using my Cool Grey markers and some cool grey pastel, along with my black marker for the car's shadow, I'll finish this drawing off.

Here's the final product.

A high quality scan of the final rendering is available in the Winter 2005 Class Demonstrations section. To see it, click here.