You can check out the full article at Core77.

For those waiting for the next challenge to start…sorry I’m a day behind and just trying to get back into the swing of things after the kid. Stay tuned! It should be up tomorrow.

Read on below the fold for more info about the process.

As you can see with a cylindrical form, I usually start by drawing in the line on which the minor axis of the ellipses will lie. This way, I can make sure the ellipses look fine while I am sketching. It also gives me a mental place for composition while composing say a sketch page.

After that, I loosely define any form definitions like say the lens by drawing ellipses on the surface in front as well as part lines for the “speaker muffs” to the sides of the lens. I’m not too concerned about the lines for the initial form being perfect. Once I outline the form and general sketch, adding lineweight will help tighten everything up just right.

Using roughly the same process, I then hash out the base by starting with ellipses, outlining the form and then dividing and adding details to it.

Shading then helps add depth and reinforce the message of what’s going on form-wise.

And that’s pretty much it. This sketch probably took me longer than it should have. I had to scan at intervals along the way. About 4 scanned steps were omitted for the sake of brevity, but hopefully this makes sense. Keep sketching!

I know, I know. It’s been a while right?  No videos, no updates etc etc. I’ve had my hands in a few things lately and needless to say, I’v e been SUPER busy. I have some good plans for the site though– a way to simplify things if you will (more on that later, as I don’t want to spoil any surprises).

In the mean time, check out this video on how to rough out a quick page layout. It’s part of a three part series I’ll be putting up over the next little while that will cover roughing out the page, overlaying the sketch with pencil, and finally adding some marker to the sketch page.

P.S. my apologies for the shaky camera – I’m using a new camera rig that I am trying to perfect.

In this first stage of revisions I really needed to understand what’s going on surface wise. I sketch without the roll cage so I could work my perspective in right. The rear wrap around gave me problems so I played with the styling on that a little.

The middle sketch was a quick pencil sketch I flipped and reworked from the back of my first sketch. Flipping a sketch over is good because it shows imperfections in perspective. Flipping a sketch upside down shows how static a image is, gestural lines speak louder then traced lines.
Remember when you rework a sketch and opt to sketch over your original don’t tighten up, stay lose its “Ok” to mess up you can always rework a sketch over and over.

The bottom sketch I added my roll cage in and added a couple construction lines where I didn’t understand how the surfaces move. You can see my rear end isn’t figured out graphic wise but I did chop in some interior and wheel wells.

Note there are still problems yet to revise but in this stage I focused on body surfacing and overall perspective. Tomorrow I will follow up with a tighter sketch aimed towards rendering.

Here’s the final image scan:

I’ve had a few people ask about the construction of shadows. I’ll talk about two types here and I’ll be up front here – I won’t cover every situation or even more complex scenarios, but the principles here will help you construct fairly accurate and believable shadows when sketching.

Shadow?

Shadows occur when an object obstructs the path of light. The shape of the shadow is determined by the shape of an object and is a direct result of light passing the edge of the object casting the shadow. Typically, there are two types of shadow that I sketch – Sunlight, and Drop Shadows. Drop shadows are shadows cast directly below on a plane by the object  as seen below

Since drop shadows are simple enough, I’ll cover another kind here – the Artificial Light Shadow.

Before we continue, if you’re into the more technical of explanations, you can check out this website.

Natural Light Shadow

Technically speaking, there is no difference between an artificial light source and a sunlight source. The sun is so far away that the rays emanating from that light source though, converging at the source, appear parallel on earth. Check out the photo below. Fortunately, I had a sunny day in San Francisco and a chance to take some good photos.

See more after the break…

Since the difference is negligible, we will assume the light rays in our sketches to be parallel as well. Check out the video below the post to see how it’s constructed.

Basically, lines are projected from each corner of the top surface as well as the corresponding corners of the bottom face of the cube. The intersection points are connected and voila! We have a shadow! Simple enough right?

Artificial Light Shadow

Artificial light shadows are basically the same as a natural light shadow, however, our light source is alot closer to us – millions of miles closer to us. Check out the example shown in this photo -

With an artificial light source, lines are projected from the center of the point light source (in this case, a lightbulb) as well as the base of that light source as it intersects the plane on which the object rests.

Since the lines projected aren’t parallel as with the sunlight example, the shadow that is projected will appear to get wider, the further away from the object you go. In the above example, the shadow spreads out wider to the right of the picture.

Check out the video below as well as the sketches to see how to construct simple shadows on paper.

Well, hope this covers some simple shadow tips. Try applying this to some more complex shapes and experiment. As always, experiment and have fun, and if you have any questions, contact us in the forums or post your work for critique.