Creating a Car

Ok before I start, I'm gonna say that this is more of an intermediate tutorial...so this tutorial is more for people who have a experience using the pen tool and brush tool...

Nevertheless, if you wanna have a go at it...by all means, go ahead! Its definitely do-able!

You will be creating THIS image!

1. Ok, first we wanna start off with a blank canvas and draw the main outline of the car. Since I'm a lazy bum, I decided to draw HALF of the car, and then simply duplicate the image and flip it horizontal... you'll understand what I mean once I'm done. This way both sides of the car will look exactly the same. I used the pen tool to create this outline.

2. Now create a new layer UNDERNEATH the main outline, and we just want to fill the car with a "flat" colour. This is our base colour and it doesn't have to be perfect...as you can see, I just chose a standard gray. I chose to cut out a piece for the window area, but this is not necessary.

3. On a new layer, we want to create some "minor outlines". Using the pen tool, I started to create some minor outlines. The lights outline was a 2 pixel stroke, whereas the indents of the hood were a 1 pixel stroke.

4. Now make a new group (beneath the outlines, and on top of the "flat base") and make a new layer in that group. I started to shade the mirror. For this you want to use a relatively small brush with very soft edges. You can use the eraser (at a low opacity and with soft edges) to make the shades blend well) I used several layers for this mirror (1 for shades, 1 for highlights, and 1 for minor details). I like to group my layers, to make it easier for me, and to make my file much more organized.

5. On two new layers (shades and highlights), use a soft brush with 0% hardness, and start to create your shades and highlights for the car. Again, using the eraser helps a lot in this stage.

6. Now create a new layer called "blacks". Put this layer about your main shades. This is where I add the main dark objects of the car... ie. the interior, the lights, and the grill. Again, these shapes were made with the pen tool.

7. Now above the black layer, simply create the inside parts of the grill area. I used a group folder for this part, so that I could easily manage all of my layers. I put all of the highlights and shades of the grill in this folder. This step was done with the brush tool as well as the pen tool.

8. Now create another group above the blacks layer, and this will be for the headlights of the car. I simply used the ellipse tool for this part(hold shift to make the ellipse round). Don't forget to add the shading and highlights for the actual light as well.

9. For the second light bulb, all I did was duplicate the first one, move it over, and scaled it down a little bit.

10. Now to add a little realism to the lights, create a new layer underneath the light bulbs, and start to use the brush tool to create some highlights and shadows...this adds depth to the light.

11. Now your basically done! Just add a few more highlights and shades here and there, and add the wheels and the shadow, and your done!

Now that your done with half of the car, all you have to do is flatten the layers (shift+ctrl+e), duplicate the image, and go to edit>transform>flip horizontal.

And by adding a nice background this is what I got: