I’m often asked by Customers how I create the artwork that you see featured on our website. In this post, I’ll be sharing my artistic process as well as details on the equipment and software I use.
Step 1: Research
The first step involves a lot of research. For each car that I draw, I look at numerous pictures of the car from various angles. For older cars, it is really important to cross reference several photos since modifications could have been made over the years.
Step 2: Draw
I create all my artwork using Adobe Illustrator. Illustrator is a vector-based software, which means that you can scale your artwork to an unlimited size without losing any details. This software also allows me to change the color of the car relatively easily, which is how we are able to offer customizable prints to our customers! Illustrator is basically the industry standard for vector based graphic design, so I’d highly recommend learning how to use it if you plan on becoming an artist or graphic designer.
In terms of hardware, I use a Huion Kamvas Pro 16 Graphics Drawing Tablet. The neat thing about these graphics tablet is that you can draw right on the screen. With a graphics tablet, I’m able to draw highly detailed illustrations and I use the zoom feature in Illustrator to get every last detail just perfect. I’ll often use a second or even third monitor to display my reference photos of the car while I’m drawing.
The hardest part about drawing each car is getting the perspective right. I spend a lot of time and effort on the perspective because if even one car is drawn from a slightly different perspective, it can throw off the look of the whole design. There’s no easy tricks for this part unfortunately, just years of practice and drawing and you’ll start to develop that sense of perspective.
Step 3: Print
Once the design is finalized and a customer places an order, it is time to print! I love this part of the process and seeing the art come to life. I still find a great deal of satisfaction seeing a new design come off the printer for the first time. In our print shop, we exclusively use Professional Epson Printers which are the industry standard. We print on the most premium papers (they are very thick as far a paper is concerned) and use archival inks which means you prints will stay looking great for years to come.
