Hi, I'm Chrystian.

 

In this tutorial I will show you a way to project a ship concept and a space background quickly and fun.

To start we will use everyday objects that we have at home, and we can try different compositions with them.

 

For the tutorial we are going to use this image that I made with an adhesive tape and a couple of empty containers.

Freehand 3d

It is important to be clear about the concept of 3d elements in our mind and on the canvas.

 

A very valuable trick is to consider the axes of height, width and depth of each element that we draw

Building the ship

This is the most creative part of the process, considering the general form we already have we are adding simple elements.

At this stage we have the freedom to remove, put or modify the elements as we please,

 

It is really useful to have a fresh mental image of the spaceships we see in movies and on the Internet.

 

Always remember that in these exercises it is important to be guided by our own imagination and aesthetic criteria, to get our own creations.

 

Once we have the general map of how we would like our ship to look, we can hide the base layer and make the last adjustments.

Ship lineart

Let's start cleaning our drawing.

 

We lower the opacity of the stroke layer and create a new vector layer above it.

 

 

Let's draw the circular parts, using the [Figure] Ellipse tool.

We check the configuration of the tool, the size of the brush and while holding the shift key we draw the circle of an approximate size to the shape we want. When we finished drawing it, we press enter.

The next step is to transform it according to the required perspective and size, for this we press ctrl t (comand t in mac) we place the circle in its position and with the manipulators and the ctrl (comand) key pressed we can modify the angle and perspective.

We create a new vector layer and repeat the process for the following circles, or we can also copy and paste the existing layer and resize the copy to its new position, by pressing ctrl t (com t in mac).

By holding down the shift key during the transformation, the same proportion and perspective is maintained.

 

-We repeat the same operation for the missing circles.

Work with several layers of vectors.

The advantage of working each circle individually is that we can more easily modify each piece and also being vectors allows us to make corrections as if it were a single set. It is recommended to create a layer folder.

 

 We make a couple of adjustments.

 

First we block the layers that we don't want to be modified, the paper layer and the sketch layer (if we work with the visible photo layer we also need to protect it)

 

To these layers we activate the padlock.

We need a hard rubber and we activate the option to erase in all layers.

Now we can draw circles and spliced strokes and erase the excess with the rubber, with a single touch of the rubber it will erase the entire section until the next stroke.

In some cases it is advisable to delete large areas using the loop tool.

We use the marker brush, to add the straight joints, we can draw by hand or with the shift key pressed.

We can fine tune the vector line with the line correction tools.

And with these techniques we already have the knowledge to complete this part of the ship with its details

The following will be a piece of cake, with the techniques learned. We only trace our drawing with the marker brush in a new vector layer.

Remember that you can draw the continuous lines and subsequently erase the excess, also debug the line with the vector line corrector.

 

And so we complete the lineart of our ship.

To modify the color of the line we add a new layer above the lineart folder and link it to this folder, in it we can paint the color we want and it will change the color of the stroke, this will be important later.

Light and color

 

-Select the lineart folder as a reference.

 

-We create a new raster layer, under the lineart folder.

 

-With the paint bucket tool we select a dark gray color and fill in the areas that we like that color.

 

-We deactivate the paper layer and fill in the missing areas of a lighter gray shade, we can also add smaller areas darker than the initial color.

For the paint can to work properly it is necessary that the lines close the shapes well.

 

We can use the lasso tool to complete the remaining small gaps.

 

Select with the eyedropper [i] the gray tone we want, close the missing area with the loop and then press [alt and back] on the keyboard, this is a very practical and agile filling that I recommend for all your work.

Having the values of light and shadow as we like, it will be really easy to add color.

 

We add a gradient map correction layer.

 

 

The gradient map menu has a bar that goes from black to white, with two small arrows down, we can touch those arrows add and remove, change the color or move them to bring the tones closer together.

 

You can play with these options until you get the colors you want on the ship, at this moment the important thing is that each gray area has a different color.

This is the result.

Note: The correction layer must have the [enable lower layer] option enabled

Optionally we can add a correction layer of [hue, brightness saturation] with which we can create a color variant.

With the tone handler we can change the color.

This is the result.

We continue with the shading.

-We create a new raster layer above the current layers.

-With the magic wand we select outside our drawing.

-We go to the selection menu and select invert or with the shortcut [shift] + [ctrl] + [i]

-We click on the creation of a layer mask and so we have a layer ready to work the shading.

-With a soft brush we can paint the shadows, for this example I chose a color between purple and gray.

 

-Nextly we change the blending mode of the layer to multiply.

 

This is the result.

We create another new layer.

 

Note: We can copy the same layer mask by holding down alt and dragging the layer mask to the desired layer.

 

This time we are going to paint the light zone, as our ship will be navigating in the space between nebulas I selected a dark violet tone.

 

We give the layer a blend mode add shine.

This is the result:

We add a new layer.

 

We repeat the steps of the previous one, painting with the same color in the same area in blending mode adding brightness, the only difference is that this layer does not wear the layer mask. This will make your light reflect outward.

 

Stars background.

It is the turn to space, for this we will occupy two very practical brushes that can be found in materials.

 

-We create a new layer below everything on top of the paper

-Select a very dark blue color and press [alt + backspace], this will completely paint the layer of the chosen color.

-We create a new layer.

-With three colors and using the galaxy penguin, we make random cloud spots.

 

-We create a new layer.

-With the Galaxy Stars brush and an almost white color we add the stars

 

 

 

 

Let's make the stars shine brighter.

 

-Copy the star layer

-We go to the filter menu, Gaussian filter, we select a very low value

-We change the blending mode of the layer to add brightness

By last.

 

-We will add a layer between the two layers of stars and link it with the first.

-With a soft brush and using the colors of the nebulae we will gently paint the areas where the stars touch black, this will make the whole set of stars better integrated.

We can return to the color layer of the lineart and paint with a soft brush and colors that best integrate the lineart to our composition.

And ready.

 

 

Thank you very much for following this tutorial.

 

I hope you find the advice that you have been able to provide very useful and that you can make many spaceships with your style.

 

Greetings and until next time. Happy 2020 year.