Learn How To Create An Amazing Car Illustration

posted by John Owen on August 25th, 2009, in Photo Effects, Photoshop, Special Effects | 23 Comments

I will show you how to create an fierce car illustration. In this tutorial, you will using many different tricks and tips together to form an amazing composition.

Resources

This tutorial partially relies on brushes, I have provided all the links to each brush pack + a mega brush download pack for this tutorial. If you don’t have any brushes then I recomend you download it. The types of brushes you will need: Grunge, Abstract, & Floral. You can find all the brushes & more at QBrushes

Download Brush Megapack (923)

Some of the brushes I used:

Step 1 – Background

Since we are using the blending mode color dodge 90% of the time to achieve cool effects we need a good gradient background so our colors stand out. Create a new document (make sure its not too big or the car wont fit properly), mine was 1304×516, create a gradient with colors Yellow -> Red -> Black (All dimmed though).

Illustration Gradient

Now, if we use this gradient for color dodge it will be way too bright so we need to dim it. Create a new layer ontop of the gradient layer and fill it with black, set the opacity to around 80%. By adding this layer it allows more flexibility.

Car Illustration Darken

Step 2 – The Car

For your benifit, I’m providing you with the already cutout version of the audi. Consider yourself lucky! Place the car around the middle of the post. (If you copy & paste the image, you’ll get a white background so you need to save the image and open it within photoshop.)

Amazing Car Illustration IMG

Step 3 – Fractal Background

In the links provided there were quite a few fractal brushes, create a new layer underneath the car layer and set the blending mode to color dodge. Select a fractal brush with a VERY LIGHT pink/red color. Then create some fractals coming out around the car like fire. The gradient should take car of the color. Example of color you should use for the brush: #fffbfb (notice how light it is).

Make sure with the fractals that only 1-2 layers are used. This will produce the fiery effect coming out from the car.

Car Illustration Fractal

Step 4 – More brushes

Add more brushes on different layers to increase the intensity & complexity. Use color dodge and some other blending modes to achieve the effect you desire. This step is all about experimentation.

Adding the arrows

step4-arrows

Grunge splatters around the car

step4-biglines

Subtle glow underneath car

step4-warning

Floral brushes with opacity

step4-floral

More grunge lines added

step4-biglines2

Step 5 – Fiery Outline

With the standard photoshop brushes you get, there should be a brush which has spikes coming out. Try and find this brush, it looks like the image below.

step5-brush

Use this brush on a seperate layer underneath the car layer. Brush around the outside of the car to achieve a flame effect. (It doesn’t have to exactly like fire, just wifts of it)

Firey outline

Open the blending options for the layer and apply a gradient with fiery colors. I also used the smudge tool to add extra effect.

step5_gradient

step5-fiery

Step 6 – Shadow & Reflection

Now we need to apply a shadow. Create a new layer underneath the car layer and draw a shadow with a black brush. Free transform and then distort the layer to make the shadow the right perspective.

Car Shadow

Car Audi Shadow 2

For the reflection duplicate the car layer and move it beneath the shadow layer. Go into free transform mode and flip the layer vertically.

step6-reflection

Apply a layer mask to the reflection layer and with the brush tool use the color black to erase the bottom part. Make sure the brush is 0% hardness and is quite big. After you’ve done that set the opacity of the layer to around 70%.

step6-reflection2

Step 7 – Car Grunge

Create a new layer above the car layer and set the blending mode to overlay. With a black brush apply some grunge to the car.

step7-grunge

Step 8 – Text

Find a good font and type some text you want, I created a layer to make sure the text is visible with some grunge brushes.

step8-text

Step 9 – Texture

To make this illustration more fiery, create a new layer above your main layer of fractals. Use a paper texture and set the blending mode to Vivid Light. Note: If you want some good textures go to deviantart.com and search for paper textures, you’ll get loads.

step9-texture

Finish

Layer Model:

Click the image to see it fullsize.

Any questions just comment!

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23 Responses to “Learn How To Create An Amazing Car Illustration”

Josh said...

Directions need a lot of help. Step 4 is horrible, there is so much left out, a lot of people will not be able to figure out how to do what you did. Me included. I think you need to break it down into more steps.
John Owen said...

Hello Josh, I do agree with you, step 4 doesn’t go into very much detail. However it’s very difficult to recreate the exact effect I achieved. Basically I used mulitple brushes with different colors and placed them around and behind the car, each in seperate layers. Each layer had different opacities and blending modes. I suggest you experiment with the brushes to achieve your desired effect. Sorry I can’t go into more detail..
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