OK noob ? maybe but i need help !!!!

[pauliedrft]

ok ive been working on a panel for a friend of mine for about 7-10 hours (mind you ive never done a car before so its taking some time )
But it is a picture of a lexus sc300 and for the life of me i cant seem to get the concept down on how to do the rims (only 2 showing front driver ,rear driver ) but any help would greatly be appreciated ..

[yardartnut]

Originally Posted by pauliedrft

ok ive been working on a panel for a friend of mine for about 7-10 hours (mind you ive never done a car before so its taking some time )
But it is a picture of a lexus sc300 and for the life of me i cant seem to get the concept down on how to do the rims (only 2 showing front driver ,rear driver ) but any help would greatly be appreciated ..

Welcome to the forum!

can ya post a ref. pic...a visual of what you are trying to do would help

[pauliedrft]

I had to stop because it was frustrating me to much. I started another one but the rims is my biggest problem . As i stated this was my first car attempt and im not very happy with it ..

[yardartnut]

Thannks it looks pretty good, but I see your point..the car is great ...the rims needs some a lil help...
Someone with lots experience in that field will surely chime in & assit you..
What I would suggest is to cut a wheel stencil to give you a road map & sharpen to work from.
Lightly spray there & free hand it in..
But over all thats very nice job!

[pauliedrft]

Yeah camera singled in on the rim in the back ground also . So that doesn't help what it looks like . When i started it i made allot of holes around the actual car i based it off of .To give me a connect the dot kinda free hand practice other than that its all free hand . Thanks for the complement. I have a perfection problem and to me everything needs improvement . Maybe being on here will help tame it down a bit..

[yardartnut]

Originally Posted by pauliedrft

Yeah camera singled in on the rim in the back ground also . So that doesn't help what it looks like . When i started it i made allot of holes around the actual car i based it off of .To give me a connect the dot kinda free hand practice other than that its all free hand . Thanks for the complement. I have a perfection problem and to me everything needs improvement . Maybe being on here will help tame it down a bit..

Thats why its great to post here ..others will calm ya down, cheer ya up, cry with you, or put a burr under your saddle!!!!

[KDSilverBrush]

welcome Paulie. This depends on how much detail ya want to put into the rims, I'm assuming it's relatively small, so looks to me all ya need to do is add a little light shadeing in a few spots on the rims, maybe add some where the spokes connect to the outer rim, and inside each gap on the spokes, around the center cap. Hope this helps. I'm sure someone else will chime in with more advice for ya. Other than that, it looks real nice, well done .

[brushbyair]

Paulie, first welcome to the forum.
As for helping with the wheels and rims, first as yardartnut mentioned, get a circle stencils or cut some to get the sharp edges needed on the wheels and rims. One thing that stands out the most to me is that the rear wheel seem to be pointed into the car which throws of the semetry of the painting, you have painted them as you were looking directly perpedicular at them, when the car is at an angle. Sharpening the outer edge of the tires will also help they currently look out of round.
One thing to remember, free hand painting does include the use of shields and stencils, don't be afraid to use them, they are a great tool to help the sharpness of you painting. You are off to a good start, just use ALL of the tools available to you. Hope these suggeastions help you out.

[PaulDaniel]

Hey Paulie,
Great work so far man. Don't get too frustrated there, it's lookin great so far. If I still had a picture of my first auto portrait attempt, it would make you feel a lot better about yours. I tried to do a picture of a Porsche but it ended up looking just like a VW Bug!! So every time I showed it to anyone they would say, "wow thats a cool lookin' Beetle! "It even has a spoiler on the back of it!" You can understand why I don't still have that photo. As far as advice goes....I agree with the advice from Brush. The painting could be tightened up with some spray sheilds and some stencils, making the edges look more crisp and clean. The background could have soft edges but the actual image of the car should be in focus, much like in photographs and such. People seem to be caught up on the concept of free hand but the truth of the matter is.....tools are tools and if you've got em'....use em'. Carpenters can't build a house with just a hammer, cooks can't run a kitchen with just one pot, and AB artists can't get every effect thats possible by free handing it. Every trade has different "tools of the trade" and they are very important. I use to, and still have people ask me when they look at my work, "is that freehand?" I simply explain to them, "well most of it is, but in order to get the range of different effects I had to use different tools to do it." Don't get me wrong. Free handing is the key to being able to do all the things that AB Artists are able to do with an airbrush but it's not the only trick up our sleeves and instead of being imbarrassed about using other techniques and tools we should feel more proud knowing that we have the knowlege that we have.

[Gators]

Paulie,

Brush is correct your wheels are not in plane with the car. You can get away with the front wheel being a little out of plane (because they turn) but the rear wheel is too perpendicular to the viewer. It's basically too circular, for this view of the car the rear wheel should be more of an ellipse. The AB work is good and I'm sure that you can correct that rear wheel.

[pauliedrft]

thanks guys i really appreciate the help and confidence . I need it ,my problem is when i look at anything, paintings ,pictures. I tear it down in my head and see what i think would be done to airbrush it and see every technique and strategy i would use.( Even when its done ) Does anyone else do this mental tear down or am i just a lil crazy ???? but over all thanks allot And any suggestions on what free hand shields to use ?

[PaulDaniel]

I do that "mental teardown" too. Some people say that I'm too hard on myself or that I'm a perfectionist, but I think it's healthy for an artist to look at what they've done and try to figure out what they could have done better. In my eyes, it can only help you improve.

[Dean Dubois]

Don't worry Paulie. Every artist I know is too critical of their own work so yes it is normal. But that is what distinguishes you as an artist - the pursuit of always wanting to improve your talents means being your worst critic.

As most have already mentioned here, try using templates or stencils. In the case of doing automotive art I find simple oval and circle templates invaluable. You can buy them in all kinds of sizes and angles.

Another thing you might want to try is take the reference image you're painting from and make some xerox copies of it in the same size as your painting. Then using an xacto knife carefully trim out the rims, place this page over your painting (lining up the rim holes to match their position on your art) hold down with your fingers and lightly mist over the cut outs. Now when you remove the paper mask you have the rims in the right perspective and size. You can do the same on another sheet with the spokes cut out etc. Then finish it up with the details.

You can use this quick mask method on any painting to help get proper size and perspective. By trimming out the separate details on separate sheets they will all be the right size in comparison with each other. I used this method for the first time to paint a wooden milking stool and it worked great!

Dean.