Award-winning editorial and news graphics artist Ninian Carter shares his processes for producing a complex isometric illustration of a water-bomber aircraft in Adobe Illustrator. Ninian also generously makes his Illustrator file available for download at the bottom of the page so you can open it up and explore.
By no means is this a do-as-I-do tutorial, but it looks like he uses a scale-shear-rotate method similar to Cody Walker’s Advanced Isometric Tutorial.
Mercedes-AMG’s Official Global Website is infused with a technical illustration aesthetic that underscores the company’s eighty-plus years of automotive design and innovation.
“Any subject-matter is no more, or less, complicated than any other if you break it into small enough sections. A big, complex object like a car, plane or ship is just 30 or 40 small illustrations that happen to occupy the same space.”
The career of technical illustrator extraordinaire Kevin Hulsey is nothing short of prolific. His client list reads like a roll call of the world’s major transportation, technology, manufacturing and entertainment companies. His work has been recognized with numerous awards from Belding, Best in the West, Communication Arts Magazine, and the Art Directors Club Of Los Angeles. He began his trade with an airbrush in hand, then traded it in for a Wacom tablet and made the leap to digital media. And his website is an abundant source of inspiration, with illustrations of mind-boggling complexity and accuracy and myriad resources, articles and tutorials.
This all keeps Mr. Hulsey rather busy—unfortunately for us too busy for an interview. However, with his permission, I’ve collected some links to images, resources, and an interview he did with another site:
Pickup Truck Cutaway – Copyright © 2010 Kevin Hulsey Illustration, Inc. All rights reserved.
Motor Illustration – Copyright © 2010 Kevin Hulsey Illustration, Inc. All rights reserved.
“Even after nearly thirty years, and thousands of illustrations, it is still fun to see your work on a billboard or in a magazine, particularly when you aren’t expecting it.”
Big thanks to Mr. Hulsey for sharing his time and work with us, and all the amazing resources on his site!
Update: Wacom case-study on Mr. Hulsey. (now on Internet Archive)
All images copyright © 2010 Kevin Hulsey Illustration, Inc. All rights reserved.
httpvhd://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W3HM1bQzubw
Some Friday morning inspiration. Interesting to see behind-the-scenes and hear about the process and concept.
[Doobybrain via Gizmodo]
Wallis Autogyro Cutaway
Flightglobal has scanned, digitized and made available every issue of Flight Magazine published between 1909 and 2005 – that’s 100 years of aviation history! Most notably, they have a section of the archives devoted to cutaways, where these images were found.
Some are full-color but most are linear, with exceptional control over line density and overall image balance—keep in mind that these were most likely done traditionally on vellum or illustration board with a technical pen!
Rolls Royce Dart Convair Conversion Cutaway
Bell XV 15 Cutaway
Airbus AD300 Airship Cutaway
Spacelab Cutaway
Westland Hovercraft Cutaway
httpvhd://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sn4WF7z8__4&
Technical communication? You’re doing it wrong.
Concept art is a very closely related profession to technical illustration. Concept artists are responsible for designing vehicles, props and environments mainly for the entertainment industry, including film, television and video games. These designs require a high degree of precision, and an amazing grasp of three-dimensionality since their designs will be manufactured either to scale, fullsize or in 3D. The designs often reference actual vehicles, objects or environments to imbue a sense of near-reality. In fact, a rule of thumb is 70% reality, 30% fantasy.
Soviet Ground-Effects Tank
Sometimes, though, that formula can be 100% reality.
Pictured is a Soviet-built cold war era “ground effects” tank. These things were like proto-hovercraft. They would be pushed along by jet turbines and use airfoils to force a pocket of air underneath the craft. This would allow the vehicle to hover above water (and potentially land), move with very little friction — and as an added bonus, be undetectable by radar.
Soviet Ground-Effects Tank
Where do you find inspiration for your concept designs? Let us know in the comments.
Source (via Boing Boing)
UAV Cutaway
Huge thread of cutaways of various military aircraft and vehicles from Italian site Aerei Militari.
Ducati Monster Orthos
The first thing you need when modeling something in 3D (or drawing in perspective from plans) is a good set of orthographics — top, front and side views. Start your search at The-Blueprints.com.
There’s a wide variety of cars, trucks, planes, trains, helicopters, motorcycles, ships and even sci-fi vehicles. Quality and size differ from one to the next, but you’re bound to find something interesting to model.
X Wing Orthos