Mazda RX7 FD illustration, process and video timelapse

Hello there folks

As promised I have a new and original art post, my third within a week. Which is total overload for me but excited for this unusual occurrence : -)

I'm following up my previous illustration of the Nissan Skyline Gtr for @nelkeljdm.

The task is to create an anime re-style of his awesome Mazda RX7 FD and the partner image to the Nissan GTR

After discussing with @nelkeljdm about which car to-do next, he picked out some amazing photos taken by @garethb who created some seriously cool light wand photography of the RX7.

We settled on a front view to compliment the Nissan gtr rear view.

RX7 Final Image with GTR

This time I painted the image with my iPad and Apple Pencil using the application Procreate. Its actually the first image I created with the iPad and really was an enjoyable process. Having the photograph as a base meant that I could concentrate on the style rather then the technicalities of creating a new angle from scratch.

Timelapse of my process, sped up considerably, the line work and shapes took alot of small refinements which doesn't come across in the video

Detail crop

Breakdown
I started by drawing the main outline for the car, I wanted to go for a bold and striking look for the rx7.
I refined the blue outline over and over until I was happy with the shapes. Once the outline had solidified, I moved on to the highlights across the body. I added the blue highlight around the white reflection to create a vibrant image.
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As the image quality increased I started to play with the background colours. By far the most complex part of this image has been the alloy wheels. I selected a limited colour palette to help create that anime style used across the car. Breaking this rule for the background as I wanted contrast between the sky and car body.
To finish the image, I used a soft airbrush to add subtle gradients across the flat colours.

Final image

This was a fun project :) and thanks to @nelkeljdm for providing the opportunity to paint his insanely cool cars.
It was outside my comfort zone but I think I can say that I learnt a lot in doing these illustrations.

A big shout out goes to uber talented @darrenclaxton for providing his music for the video, please check out his sound cloud page and his steemit blog

And that's me for now, thanks for viewing.
Nick aka @niko3d

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