As I've mentioned, I've been working ona line of merch for the new @N2Grand shop. And @ThePollitt (N2G's owner) has asked me to give you a little insight into how it's made.

So, for those that are interested, here's the skinny:

#illustration #cars #DatSweetMerch

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First, Chris comes up with an idea (in this case – a ratty old muscle car with the strapline: "I am never going to financially recover from this").

I go and do some research and make a rough 0.1 ink outline sketch of the vehicle on bleed-proof marker paper.

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Next I flesh out the details with a 0.3 pen, brush pen and a 0.03 pen.

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This artwork is then scanned in at 600dpi and cleaned up, ready for colour.

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Now I block out the main colour areas in Photoshop (I use masks for each main colour area - this saves time later in the process and makes changes easier).

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Next comes the really fun bit - air-brushing in details like shine, shadow, any stickers/graphics, dinks and scratches and, in this case, rust. Lots and lots of rust...

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Now the main car artwork is complete, it's just a matter of adding a floor shadow and playing about with the composition of the type to fit the space on the shirt/mug/hoodie/whatever and – TA-DAH – finished artwork.

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Keep an eye on @ThePollitt 's Twitter feed (and mine), as you'll be able to get your mitts on lots of car-based goodies a lot sooner than you think...

#DatSweetMerch

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