Infographic designer Ninan Carter [previously] has once again documented and shared his process for creating a detailed and technical cutaway illustration. This time, his subject is Microsoft’s upcomng XBox Series X video game console, highlighting the hardware design and capabilities of the new machine.
Check out the whole process on Ninian’s blog, Graphic Gibbon.
Thanks Ninian!
Christopher Cushman is the illustrator behind some of Sci-Fi’s most iconic and notable cutaway illustrations.
He reached out to share some of his obsessively accurate and detailed artwork, and the story of how a chance encounter with the legendary David Kimble turned from a freelance gig, to a prolific career in Detroit’s auto industry—to illustrating vehicles from the 24th century, and some from a long, long time ago, too!
Illustrator Christopher Cushman
Star Wars Battle of Hoth cutaway poster by Christopher Cushman, colors by Bob Kayganich
What drew you to cutaways and technical illustration?
Sometimes I think all roads lead from Star Trek… I became interested in technical drawings when I got my first blueprint set of the Enterprise by Franz Joseph. They literally explained the entire ship deck-by-deck with hundreds of details. This was around 1975—I was 15. It was amazing to me that drawings could convey an understanding all on their own!
The Star Trek blueprint set illustrated by Franz Joseph
In high school I had a teacher named Mr. Moll who encouraged me to become a technical illustrator. He suggested that I enter a state wide competition, the Michigan Industrial Education Awards. This was my senior year and it was a go big or go home moment, so over summer break I wrote Boeing in Washington state to get blue prints and anything related to their 747. I received a package a week before school started and over the course of that year I drew my first cut away of a 747. It received the regional honor award, and the highest award for my school that year.
I was hooked!
Boeing 747 Cutaway by Christopher Cushman
How did you learn the skills of technical illustration?
The following year I went to Ferris State in Big Rapids Michigan. Ferris was unique, in as much as their Technical Illustration program was the most comprehensive in the mid West, and there approach was to build skills and then teach through simulated real world experiences.
The instructors were John James and Doug Farnham, both veterans of the illustration world. Both had different teaching styles. Mr. James was inspirational and really open to a lot of ideas, while Mr. Farnham featured himself a professor and was always very critical. Between the two we were able to experience two different management styles that would be useful in the real world. While much of the training was on technical illustration, we also had classes on graphic design, drafting, engineering principals, material science etc.
In hind sight, that education really paid off for me because so much of my work deeply depended on me to be able to hold engineering conversations with many kinds of specialists, and then translate that into art that would best work for them.
How did you get your illustration career started after school?
So, post-school I bounced around a bit. I got a gig at Mid America Design in Fort Wayne, Indiana designing manuals for the military, including an upgrade ejection seat installation document used by the Indiana Air National Guard. From there, I worked my way back up into Michigan working for Zennith/Heath Kit in St. Joesph. Again, we made manuals for many Heath Kits, which were electronic kits you could buy and assemble—from the super simple all the way up to a 25-inch Zenith TV. One of the projects I was most proud of was a kit to build a personal robot called Hero.
I moved back home and began commuting to Oldsmobile engineering in Lansing, Michigan. The work was great, but the hour plus commute each way was a nightmare, so I made the big leap back to Detroit. I started working for what in the industry were called “job shops,” basically outsourced talent pools that allowed the big three to avoid having to hire themselves.
I settled at a firm called Modern Engineering, where I drew large format drawings that hung in assembly plants called “production aids.” I worked exceedingly hard, and quickly became an expert often called into meetings to explain certain production processes (thanks to that Ferris training).
In one or two meetings I had made process change suggestions that got noticed at GM, and I was seconded to work at the GM Teck Center for the BOC (Buick, Olds, Cadillac Group). My job now was to help funnel projects to the job shops and work with engineers on various challenges. For almost a year I worked directly out of the Detroit Hamtramck Assembly Plant, and was responsible for the entire production lines worth of production aids. Hundreds of drawings that would help them build the all new models of Riviera, Toronado, Eldorado and Seville’s. Towards the end of that assignment we also added the Cadillac Alante to the mix. Needless to say, when I returned back to the technical center the economy was turning and I faced going back to Modern Engineering.
But my years of networking started to pay off and I was able to extend my journey with the GM Military Vehicles group. This was a major leg up in many ways, as the kind of work exceeded just technical illustration and included product development and design, branding, graphic design, video and display design! I quickly garnered the title of Art Director. The one thing was to leverage the opportunity into greater learning opportunities. I got the chance to see one of my concept drawings grow into scale models and then into full size working prototypes with the FMTV Tactical Vehicle Project and the HETS Heavy Equipment Transporter System.
FMTV illustration by Christopher Cushman
FMTV scale model
While working at GM, you ran into David Kimble. You became friends, then began working with him. What was that relationship like?
As I previously mentioned the work I did with the BOC had me attending many meetings, one of which was at the offices at the Cadillac Fleetwood Plant on Detroit’s west side. I was waiting in the lobby when two men came in, and one of them rather loudly announced him self as being David Kimble, as if the young lady at the desk should know or care who he was.
What was lost on her was not lost on me, and I must admit I sprung up in true fan boy fashion to introduce myself, got to share what an inspiration he was, blah blah, explained that I too was an illustrator who worked at the Technical Center. He asked if I ever did freelance, and offered that he would love to see my portfolio on his visit to the tech centre the next day as he had a meeting there.
Wow, I didn’t sleep much that night. True to his word he passed by my area, which garnered a lot of attention from the fellas in my group who also held him in esteem. I showed him my work and gave him my card, and within a couple of weeks we were off to the races.
He was very direct and clear with his expectations, and I could tell immediately that he suffered no fools when it came to his work. Many, if not most of the assignments were ink tracings of his drawings. My first assignment included the drawings for the brochures for the first Acura products, the Integra and Legend.
Two assignments I got to both draw and ink, a Chevy Celebrity cutaway for the Shell Car Care book and an Impact Wrench for Ingersoll Rand, which to this date is still the most I ever made for a single drawing project. The project was received on one day and had to be shipped FedEx at the end of the next. So two day turn around and I made a cool $3000 which was a lot of money in the late 80’s.
Chevrolet Celebrity cutaway lineart by Christopher Cushman
Chevrolet Celebrity cutaway illustration by Christopher Cushman and David Kimble
Impact wrench illustration by Christopher Cushman and David Kimble
Working for Dave was never easy. The opportunity it presented was never lost on you, and you always wanted to bring your best possible work. Deadlines were often pretty tight, so there was some stress involved. To balance that, he always paid quickly and well which was a plus, and conversations with him were alway entertaining.
The work slowed down just as my reputation in Detroit was at an all time high. I began to get calls from so many places locally to do work, and many of the conversations started with “We are looking for a Kimble-like cutaway, but we don’t have a Kimble budget…” While Dave was amazing, so were his prices, and again there was a tone of flux in the local economy which simply couldn’t afford his work. I would quickly explain that I don’t paint, and that all I could do was the drawing and line work.
At first I would do some of the simple stuff, but eventually I knew I might be competing with him for the same work. Had his work not dropped off I would have passed on it but I needed to eat and continue to build my reputation in town, so the big hits started to cross my board. Detroit Art Staff got me the Mercedes 600 SL and the new C-Class cars, Combs and Dudeck the Cadillac Seville with Northstar, Iconix the Dodge Ram with 10 cylinder Viper engine, Macnamarra and Associates the Eagle Talon and the latest Volvo.
Mercedes 600SL cutaway by Christopher Cushman, colors by Detroit Art Staff
Dodge Ram cutaway by Christopher Cushman, colors by Detroit Art Staff
Eagle Talon cutaway by Christopher Cushman, colors by Detroit Art Staff
Volvo 460 cutaway illustration by Christopher Cushman, colors by Gary Richardson
Eventually the use of cutaways kinda fell of the map in vehicle marketing trading technical details for amenities and comforts.
Your work with Kimble led you to Paramount and your Star Trek work. Talk about your experience working with them.
David did the cutaway for the Star Trek: The Motion Picture, which was a massive 48-inch format poster sold in the theatres. I got my first copy at the opening of the film my first year at Ferris. In the back of my head I knew I was on the right career path! I knew one day I wanted to be involved in Star Trek! One of the first things David did for me was send me an autographed copy which still hangs to this day in my home.
David Kimble’s cutaway poster for Star Trek: The Motion Picture
I had shown him an early concept cutaway of the Star Trek: The Next Generation Enterprise when he went through my portfolio and I asked him if he wanted to team up to complete my idea. He said that he was not interested, citing that he had a horrible experience the first time around financially, and was not interested in getting caught up with it again. He did connect me with the Paramount folks and wished me luck.
Paramount was really just wrapping its mind around merchandising when I first approached them, and sent me a list of approved poster vendors, who either didn’t see the value or wanted my drawing for a song. I ended up contacting a distributor in Michigan who contacted Paramount and set up the final deal, and in early 1993 my 52-inch poster rolled off the press in Chicago.
The process with Paramount was grueling, in as much as my drawing was submitted to the ST art department and was dissected with a red pen. I made dozens of changes, large and small, which got approved! On completion, a full sized duratrans was sent to the Smithsonian and hangs in their permanent collection.
The drawing for the Enterprise D poster in progress on Chris’ desk
Star Trek Enterprise D cutaway poster by Christopher Cushman, colors by Gary Richardson
Fortunately/unfortunately the poster was such a hit that it sold hundreds of thousands of copies, and the distributor began to ghost me on my royalty payments. I had proposed a follow-on Millenium Falcon poster concept and that seemed to get ignored as well. I ended up suing them in court which gave me damages, and the added step of pain and suffering, somewhere close to $70,000. The next day I received a register mail announcing their bankruptcy, and there would be no money coming my way. This was my single worse day as an illustrator.
A couple years later while at my favorite art supply and framing store I saw a completed version of my Millenium Falcon poster concept waiting to be picked up from the framer. They explained that I was set up to become a poster but the deal fell through. Not only had they reneged on my Star Trek money, but they took my next concept to fruition and the bankruptcy stopped the printing!
The story was just getting worse by the moment.
Fortunately, I along with my brother connected with SciPubTech and the Star Wars concepts we created took new life and were completed to coincide with the original trilogy re-release! So in the end, I did prevail.
We ended up creating six new Star Trek posters and three Star Wars posters. One of which, DS9 made it into space! On May 19th, 2000 aboard the shuttle Atlantis/STS 101 an ISS construction flight! The DS9 poster returned 10 days later and hangs in the ISS program office! This amazing experience has shown me that there is no limit how far and high you can go!
Cushman’s DS9 cutaway poster flew to space aboard space shuttle Atlantis on STS-101
Star Trek Voyager cutaway poster by Christopher Cushman, colors by Bob Kayganich
You’ve also worked on projects in the Star Wars universe. How did that come about, and what was that like?
When we connected with SciPubTech, I showed them my Millennium Falcon cutaway and talked about the upcoming re-release of the original trilogy in the theatre. So we had a new motivation to do the work.
Our Star Wars posters are unbelievably accurate. Many don’t know this, but the Falcon was slightly different in each film. So my task was to forensically go in and pull them all together into one drawing! Lucas Film was great with providing archived materials for many of the ships. The one thing I am most proud of though, was that we were the first to market with official cutaways. There have been many books since with slightly different takes, but we were the first!
Millennium Falcon cutaway poster by Christopher Cushman, colors by Bob Kayganich
Your brother, Matthew Cushman, is also a technical illustrator. What’s it like collaborating with him?
He is indeed… same degree and under the same instructors for the most part, but 11 years different. His foray into Star Trek began with his final project, where he drew a cutaway of the original series Enterprise. As his big brother, I lent him all my
technical information from my collection. A version of that drawing became our first product at SciPubTech. It was a big hit!
All of the work we did up and through the SciPubTech days was done manually, pencil on paper, ink on mylar, paint on board. In that respect we worked very similarly. Where we diverge is in technique. Matt is fastidious in his pencils, crisp and very clean, if not a bit light. I am more heavy handed, darker, less clean. The ultimate test of detail came when we participated in the redesign of the Enterprise E, which we collaborated on. There were many elements to the project, and while I did the liaison with the art department, collecting the materials and Paramount licensing getting all the approvals, Matt took on the Phoenix drawing for a mini-poster. But we both did half of the Enterprise poster. I, the front saucer, and Matt the rear and engines. When we completed the final pencils, I put the two pieces together and were off by less than a millimeter! It was a most satisfying collaboration.
Today Matt is more attuned with Adobe Illustrator because of his client work. I largely stepped away from Illustration after 1998 and my move to Toronto. My final poster was of Voyager and the Delta Flyer. I got a second degree in Design and am back playing catch up in Adobe illustrator.
Enterprise E poster by Christopher and Matthew Cushman
What would be your dream technical illustration project?
Well, I may have already got that when I worked on the Enterprise E. Our work ran concurrent to the film production, and we were drawing things that had never been seen! My dream of working on Star Trek has kind of been fulfilled.
What are you currently working on?
There are a couple new things brewing. A series in book form for Battle Star Galactica (new version) and the ships from 2001: A Space Odessey (I have put a lot of work into the EVA Pod drawing).
Progress on the EVA Pod cutaway illustration by Christopher Cushman
I am working on a revised Enterprise D poster. I completed the first one around 1992, or 3rd season, and I want to update it to 7th season and Star Trek Generations.
Enterprise D cutaway drawing by Christopher Cushman
What advice do you have for students or illustrators starting out?
Build it and they will come. It’s a great time to be an illustrator, but you should set aside time to draw some vanity projects. Things you might not get to do in the real world and draw them for yourself. I did with the Enterprise D and it turned into one of the greatest chapters of my life! Opened many doors and opportunities of work and meeting my heroes….
Dont wait! Just jump in!
Where can people see or buy more of your work?
You can see me on my blog and get a more detailed view of my Star Trek/Star Wars journey. SciPubTech.net still sells a few posters, but you can find others on eBay. I am currently rebuilding my Illustrator web site, coming soon.
YouTube channel Learn Engineering is a great series of videos explaining how everyday objects work. The 3D animations of different gears, motors, coils and fields are clear and really help illustrate the easy-to-understand script.
This series of short videos from the Science Channel reveal the hidden workings of our everyday world with photo-realistic 3D graphics to explode appliances, products and machines into their component parts.
The combination of video footage, CGI, interviews, and of course, overly-dramatic narration really pulls you in and gets you interested in the topic.
Freelance illustrator Remie Geoffroi creates a wide range of work—from portraits, lifestyle, sports and business editorials to infographics, exploded diagrams, instructional illustrations and architectural drawings. What unites it all is his clean, technical use of vector artwork and a mastery of line quality.
It’s probably this combination of versatility and consistency that keeps art directors calling. Remie has worked with clients including AARP, Sports Illustrated, TIME, ESPN, Men’s Health, Martha Stewart Living and Bon Appétit, and advertising clients including American Airlines, Coca-Cola, McDonald’s, Microsoft and Volkswagen.
Drawing was all I ever wanted to do. Through high school I took part time jobs at an animation studio, a screen printer’s art department, etc. I went to college for graphic design because I was pretty hazy on what a career as an illustrator would look like. I ended up being hired as a clip art illustrator right out of college, and set out as a freelancer shortly afterwards.
I regularly work with magazines (Billboard, ESPN, etc.), and occasionally advertising agencies, Sid Lee, DDB, etc. I recently illustrated “Tools of Titans” the new book from Tim Ferriss, and a book for Gold’s Gym, coming out later this year.
I have a shared studio space where I work from, or I’ll sometimes choose to work out of my home office if the weather is bad or my workload is light.
I work almost exclusively in Adobe Illustrator. Many of my illustrations that people have assumed are raster (Photoshop) are actually vector. I like the versatility of being able to tweak the lines. I’ve developed a very streamlined, comfortable process for creating vector artwork. I appreciate being able to revisit files years later to harvest and reuse elements.
The assignment usually dictates the style. Art directors usually point to one example or another from my site that they’d like to see. Repeat clients don’t usually request a particular style, as they usually trust where I’ll take a particular project.
Like most freelancers, workflow can ebb from time to time, and those can be nerve-wracking periods. I’ve been fortunate enough to avoid any true work droughts in my 17 years of freelancing.
I’m optimistic new opportunities will continue to appear. App development wasn’t even a thing a few years ago, and it’s become a major place for illustrators to create and find work.
Magazines were supposed to be dead years ago, and yet they continue. That said, I’ve been sad to see a few fall away recently.
A successful career as a freelance illustrator is built upon relationships. Recognize that you’re building relationships with your clients, primarily art directors. Be ready and willing to accept their criticism and make changes. Be professional and on time with your work. Be courteous and understand that there are many other illustrators out there, so your attitude can be a big factor in who wants to work with you.
SpaceX has some great technical illustrations on their website, showcasing the design and features of their current and future spacecraft.
I especially like the use of scrolling animation on the Dragon page. It’s so simple and intuitive, using static artwork and a little bit code to create subtle movement that grabs the eye and really helps tell the story.
Yesterday’s post reminded me of this video about the redesign of the Apple MacBook released last year. This one is a bit more informative in tone and has some great visualizations of otherwise invisible features, the pressure-sensitive trackpad, for example.
This really shows the selling power of information.
John Hartman is a technical and scientific illustrator who seamlessly blends traditional media with 3D and digital techniques to create images that are fresh and contemporary, yet warm and inviting. His work can be seen regularly in Fine Woodworking, Woodcraft, Fine Home Building and more. John agreed to answer a few questions about his work and career.
What’s your background? How did you get started in technical illustration?
It’s a long story but here it is in a nut-shell. I have always been interested in drawing and painting. My early education was in fine art. I also found technical illustrations like those in Scientific American, Popular Mechanics and Fine Woodworking inspiring and they appealed to my interest in art, science and technology. Since my school days predated the personal computer, technical illustration was being created strictly by hand. As a student I was impatient, rebellious and seeing how fastidious hand drafting and airbrush painting was I decided to go another route and become a fine artist.
I found myself living in Brooklyn, working odd jobs to pay the rent. Being a starving artist wasn’t for me so I decided to learn a trade. I also had an interest in music as well as art so I re-educated myself as a piano technician. Fast forward a few decades and I am running my own business rebuilding grand pianos. Knowing of my art background the editor of the Piano Technician’s Journal, the trade magazine for people who tune and repair pianos, asked me to come on board as their illustrator. I spent the next six years teaching myself technical illustration. Starting with traditional hand methods and eventually developing digital techniques that emulate the handmade artwork I loved in my youth.
The pianos are now gone and I am working full time as a freelance illustrator. I’ve converted part of the piano shop into my studio, and have kept the woodworking shop as my man cave. I love this work and wish I would have started earlier. There’s a lesson in this somewhere.
You work in a range of styles and subject matter. How do you choose the right aesthetic for a project?
Well I think the right aesthetic is the one that gets the job done and also appeals to me personally. I have never hidden the fact that I work digitally but my personal taste in art and illustration is rooted in traditional analog techniques. So generally I don’t want my work to look like it popped out of a computer program. I think in my case what comes off as different styles is really a result of my penchant for experimenting with a wide range of tools and methods. Typically I may blend together 3D rendering with hand drawing and a little vector work as well. I love learning new software and trying to come up with different ways to create illustrations. Sometimes I attempt to emulate a particular analogue drawing style, the results vary but I always learn something new. For me, it’s more of a challenge to stay consistent and on track. Except for my personal taste, experience, and craftsmanship the style chooses me rather than the other way around.
As you noted, I enjoy working on different subjects as well; there is nothing better than being handed a unique assignment, and doing the research can be fun as well. But I have never consciously linked a style to a particular subject except in the case of my work with Fine Woodworking Magazine where there is an established style. I do try to be consistent within a project and if the art director points me in a particular direction stylistically I make every effort to accommodate. In addition, with art directors I know well I will often discuss style issues to better integrate the illustration with the page design or create something a little different than usual. Some of my most successful work stems from collaboration with a talented art director.
What challenges have you faced in your career? What opportunities do you see for the future?
Projects that are complex or those that require a new skill to pull off, or have a very tight deadline have kept me awake at night. Over time I have learned to expect these sorts of challenges and I find myself looking forward to difficult projects. One challenge we technical illustrators face is keeping up with ever evolving technology, requiring practice and self education. I think learning new software is vital to staying competitive. Also I find I need to brush up on core software I already know like Photoshop and Illustrator. Since software is doing more of the heavy lifting I find I need to practice my analog skills and foundation knowledge like perspective just to keep from losing this valuable tool set.
What I see on the horizon for technical illustrators is the increased use of 3D animation. On-line video is becoming the leading media for news, education and entertainment. It may take some time but eventually publishers, advertizing agencies and businesses will seek out talented illustrators to create information based animations.
Do you have any advice for new illustrators or students?
Technical illustration is a broad field of study. It covers any illustration assignment that needs to show the viewer how something functions or how parts are interrelated. At its heart is clarity and precision, and consequently it requires more discipline and knowledge. I believe students need to work longer and harder to gain the skills needed. New illustrators and students need to know it’s going to take passion and dedication to be successful in this field.
Technical illustrators need to be able to draw well. This means being able to accurately depict the world around us with line, tone and color. Don’t expect to gain this by attending a few classes in school, it will take a lifetime of learning, and continued practice to maintain. You need to study perspective, how to render light and shade as well as color theory. Don’t expect computer programs to do this for you. If you wish to include the figure in your work you will need to study artistic anatomy as well.
Working as a technical illustrator is not a passive act, you are expected to research and understand the topics you are given. In addition you will need to solve the many technical and design issues that arise with each assignment. The artistic quality of your work is up to you. Hopefully you have a passion for fine art and can bring flair to your work that is attractive. I believe that technical illustration should be beautiful as well as useful.
See more at Hartman Illustration.
Graham Murdoch is the man behind MMDi. Although not strictly a technical illustrator, his 3D renderings of technology and futuristic subjects for clients like Popular Science, Wired UK, Maxim and Bloomberg Markets, should win the admiration of any techie. Graham was kind enough to answer a few questions for us:
How did you get your start in illustration?
My background is graphics and it’s still part of what I do today. Four years of college then ringing bells and following up leads. It feels a LOT busier today, there sure are a lot more cars on the road!
The tools of the day were Rotring pens (there’s still some visible ink in my finger from a 0.2 Rotring that was dropped on it about 30 years ago), CS10 artboard, cow gum, spray mount, 10A scalpel blades, gouache, frisk and a Devilbiss Aerograph (which I could never do anything more than gradients and splatters with). Caught the wave of desktop publishing at just the right time. First 3D package was Alias Sketch! (yep, it came with the exclamation mark), then Bryce, onto Lightwave 3D and now MODO (formely modo) which I’ve been using pretty much from 101.
What’s your favorite subject matter or type of project?
One with time, I’m slow and need lots of it. The more there is the better things get. I’m pretty good at losing it too, though.
What’s your process on a typical project?
Understand what the brief is asking for, reference, more reference, distraction, avoidance, then work, work, work. Sketching, definitely, as a real quick way of laying things out and excersing some different muscles. Hardware has always been Mac-based, from the IIcx through to today’s 27” iMac. In this room there’s also a still operational G3 running OS9, a G4 Quicksilver and a dead G5 (nice job on the motherboard Apple!).
The Formula E Car you did with Popular Science is amazing. What was that project like?
The project was a dream, I have to thank the fine people at Popular Science, particularly Todd Detwiler, for letting me run with that and giving the time it needed. Finding the car’s shell with decals as a purchaseable model was such a big time saver, it meant more attention could be put into the details. As the car was still in development there was next to no reference for the under the hood stuff, so the majority of that is just artistic license. The elements are there; batteries, motor, drive train etc. they just don’t look much like that on the real car.
What advantages does working in 3D have over 2D?
The freedom of options and the ease with which they can be realised. Camera angles, materials, lighting, the whole virtual studio thing. Being able to get a 3D print of something you’ve just made, that’s a bit like the leap TV made from black and white to colour, for me. I really should be exploring that! The disadvantage is that there are so, so many options.
The people that did this stuff with pen, brush and board, o my, un-be-(insert expletive here)-lievable!!
What do you see for the future of the medium?
The expansion of 3D printing and definitely more motion. Total absorption by digital and virtual realities. Of course, we will be assimilated.
You can find Mr. Murdoch’s work on the MMDi website and Behance.
@HalfPics serves up pictures of things cut in half. Quality and subject matter varies, but always something interesting.