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[LOUD]

Hi, i think it is time to improve my art and to go in that way i decided to make a really good picture.
But i need your help

I started a new design vehicle and i want to do it well. So i am going to submit each step to get critiques on it in order to improve it and always work on a solid foundation.

For the 1st step, i only worked the design and i painted some rough values/lights and i would like to get feedbacks about it.
Thanks to help me to improve!

[-Ross]

Here are some things you should look at:

Arne - https://androidarts.com/spaceships/spaceship_design.htm - Has a really good article on spaceship design (and it applies to the design of pretty much anything).

David Levy - http://vyle-art.com/portfolio/ - He did some work on vehicles(and pretty much everything else) for Prometheus, Ender's Game, etc. At least it can give you an appreciation for how many different designs they go through to get something good.

Al Brady - https://www.artstation.com/boac - Has a bunch of awesome spaceship and other vehicle designs.

Workflow-wise, you might take a look at Ctrl-Paint. I couldn't find the exact video I was thinking of (he was painting a helicopter of some sort), but in this one: https://www.ctrlpaint.com/digital-painting-101/quick-demo he gives a pretty decent overview of his workflow. He does a little bit of photobashing, which is a terrible idea if you're trying to learn anything, but otherwise it's a pretty good video.
Regarding your actual image: I would take a step back and do a bunch of thumbnails. Don't worry about lighting, just use lines or black & white silhouettes. Try top and side views so you don't have to worry about perspective either. Think about the function of your vehicle. Think about the 'theme' of your design—what shapes you will use (it looks like you already have ideas in that department). Try to get some size contrast—make sure all your shapes aren't the same size—have some big open shapes, medium shapes, and little tiny shapes. I would do at least 10 quick thumbnails, but the more the merrier. Don't stop until you have something cool. Once you have that, then start sketching out the final image.

The perspective and form in your sketch look pretty solid, which is something that 99% of people utterly fail at. Keep that up!

[LOUD]

@Ross

Arne is my favorite creator 
It's been a long time i didn't look at Vyle Art but i know it from years.
I didn't knew Al-Brady.
I was also pretty interested in Feng-Zhu and Scott Robertson works.
And funny fact, I discovered Ctrl+Paint last week and i watched almost all free videos.


About your feedback :
Using differents sizes for the various parts is a very good advice! Even if i like to think that any shape correctly drawn should be good. I also wonder often how weirdly shaped vehicles justify their designs.

I am not used to make thumbnails and most of the time it makes me more and more hesitating to choose which design i should develop.

Currently, the vehicle have just a very trivial funtion : transport someone to a place from another :D

If i managed to get a solid form and perspective, that already great to me

Thanks for the feedback !

[LOUD]

I developed the design in 3 types :



Which seems to work the best and what should be improved if needed?

[LOUD]

So, from the feedbacks i got previously, i choosed a design and pushed it to the next step. It's not fully rendered (I have to work more on the glass cockpit and maybe i should make the surface looking like metal).
I am still looking for feedback, before going to the new step :smiley:

[-Ross]

"Transport someone to a place from another" is a good start, but you can give that idea much more detail. Is it a one-person transport, or can it take passengers? Is it a military, luxury, or common civilian vehicle? If this was a car, what would it be? Formula 1? A muddy Jeep? A Lamborghini? A big, fancy, black Lincoln? A cheap sedan? A family minivan?

• How does it land?
• How does it thrust? Can it take of vertically, or does it need a runway?
• How does it steer?
•      - If it's an aircraft I would expect flaps and maybe a tail rotor
•      - If it's a spacecraft I would expect thrusters
•      - If it's multipurpose, have both
• How do the crew (and passengers?) get in and out?

I'm not sure about that round thing in the middle. With its high contrast and circular shape it draws the eye much more than any other part of the design. I don't understand its function. The way you've drawn it makes it look like a cone-shaped hole in the ship. If you take it out the design is much more sleek and unified.

It's hard to tell the form of the front part of the ship's body. I guess it has a diamond-shaped cross-section (which is hard form to show), but right now it seems to be almost flat. If you make the cockpit transparent that would help show the form, but you may want to make the design wider.



The rear set of 'wings' are odd too. They seem much too bulky and the wrong angle to be wings, but the scale of the ship seems too small for them to be extra body sections.

That reminds me, you should have some way of showing the scale of this ship—seats in the cockpit, a row of airplane-size windows, etc.

Maybe looking at cutaway diagrams and photos of helicopters and the space shuttle can help you with adding the details:

Apparently helicopters have a ton of small antennas. Also air intakes, exhaust, running lights, etc.
https://i.pinimg.com/originals/48/d5/9f/48d59fbd838397c96d8df401572b5a48.jpg

The space shuttle has interesting nose thrusters, emergency hatches, and a ton of small hull plates.
https://i.imgur.com/l6vpnsj.jpg

http://wanderingspace.net/wp-content/uploads/2007/08/earth-shuttle-docked.jpg

[LOUD]

@Ross

Great feedback!
I will dig in these aspects .

I agree a lot with the circle whole that takes the attention. It also makes viewers seeing animals haha.

There are a lot of aspects i didn't think about yet because i want to make a solid design first.
The problem is probably that without these details in mind, the design have no sense .
The thing is that this vehicle have no purpose in my mind because i don't need it for any contet or story i can think right now. And making a story especially for that spaceship makes no sense to me because i have no intention behind it except improving my art skill by making a good representation of a vehicle.

[LOUD]

So, according to feedbacks i got about perspective i used a very sophisticated modeling process called "clay " to check what was wrong 

It's not exactly the same representation (wings near are upper in drawing and the nose goes lower) but it helped me to check if the front of the ship was correctly represented.



There are still some minor changes i can make but i think i can add color now .