Speed and motion: illustrating a car in Affinity Designer with Chris Rathbone

Top sports illustrator, Chris Rathbone, uses his Lockdown 2020 session to show you how to create an illustration of a car that focuses on motion, speed and energy.
Chris will be available on Live Chat on KZbin for this session’s premiere on Tuesday, 5 May 2020 at 4pm BST.
Chris has created illustrations for a host of clients and agencies within the sports industry, including Formula 1, NBA, Formula E, the Grand National, Tour de France, the Goodwood Festival of Speed, Ferrari, RedBull and Puma. He has also created illustrations for leading magazines such as CAR Magazine, Top Gear and Match of the Day.
You can follow Chris on Twitter at / r4thbone and on Instagram at / r4thbone .
Music: Hesitate - To Wonder Remix (Instrumental) by The Spacies.
**Lockdown 2020: Affinity creative sessions **
Stay tuned to the official Affinity KZbin channel as every day in May at 4pm BST we will be premiering inspirational creative sessions for Lockdown 2020. The sessions will be led by top creatives who use Affinity or one of our in-house product experts and give you the chance to follow along as incredible artists, illustrators, designers and photographers work on a project using the apps.
We will be announcing each daily session on our social channels, so make sure you're following us on Instagram ( / affinitybyserif , Twitter ( / affinitybyserif ) and Facebook ( / affinitybyserif ) to learn about each daily session.
You can find out more about the Affinity suite, including getting access to free trials, over on affinity.serif....

[@matthewchunk3689]

I love when designers describe their process, not just speed-up a screen recording and play some music.

[@timbeaton5045]

Yes. It makes al the difference. For non-artists such as myself, seeing how a designer goes about *thinking* how to create an effect, is much more informative than just seeing them do it. I learnt a lot. Not just Affinity techniques, but how to use them to actually create an effect. Great work! Thanks to Chris, and all at Affinity who are doing this excellent series of videos.

[@ThisDesignLife]

Me too

[@PochoNieves]

I can draw, sculpt and paint... so I need to say that if you watching this video thinking this was easy you need to understand this artist had probably being drawing since childhood. I can draw without reference anatomy, but cars I'll need references and maybe I would approximate something like this Yoda. That been said I haven't mastered AD to do this yet. This is no joke illustration. A bunch of artists do their lil cartoons and whatever but that's a joke. Doing illustration that looks so close to reference is another level. Chris is Affinity Designer Yoda Level!

[@moreorlesslikeso]

Although it's a very good demonstration of what you can do with Affinity Designer, this video makes it very clear, too, that there is quite bit more to it if you want to come up with comparable results. The underlying experience in drawing and imagining 3D/spatial relations of the individual parts shouldn't be underestimated. What Chris "just" does at several stages of this demonstration is only possible because of his solid understanding of representing 3D objects on the document's 2-dimensional canvas. He'd certainly could do it as well by using just a pencil or felt markers. That said it's actually very helpful to see him do certain things (and hear him explain WHY) and how structured and organised his approach is. Thanks for the inspiration!

[@TeachingYouExcel]

I have spent hours following this tutorial and just about managed to draw the horizon line :-)

[@kriszteblade]

Same here. This guy surely is not in danger of me stealing his client :)

[@ominous-omnipresent-they]

Hey, at least you know Excel. Have you played around with MS Access?

[@farrielallaputa574]

This is one of those tutorials by a gifted artist that is so good you know you'll never replicate it. Instead you just watch it to be awed, not really to learn.

[@TheRedParallel]

You shouldn’t think like that. I’m sure he didn’t just wake up one day and just be able to draw this. Practice with persistence can do wonders. Don’t give up!

[@TheCreativeHagja]

All I have to say is WOW! This is truly amazing, and I love the fact that you took the time out to really explain your designing process for creating this piece!

[@adnansheikh9208]

i knew some of the tools in Affinity Designer, and then took up this tutorial as my first project. Chris explained so smoothly and I'm very impressed with my first project. It looks so cool. He just increased my interest in Illustration. I'm just loving it.

[@mcginty90]

Great detailed tutorial. We need more of this for the Affinity products.

[@Locker666332]

Thanks Affinity for these tutorial series! Global swatches are great and very useful, but being able to select by fill color or stroke, save selected paths to a selection set are also valuable for manipulating a document, especially when importing client files or old artwork created in other software.

[@JoeCarterDesigns]

Thank for taking the time to do this @Chris Rathbone Illustration! & @Affinity!

[@nasim6778]

It was great, I had never seen a free illustration video tutorial with full details like this tutorial video, thank you again.

[@Ron-gm3zj]

Wait... did he just put that together without any reference? Amazing. Honestly.

[@zorglub76]

Feature request: make a vanishing point grid in Affinity products

[@AgadirWeb]

The some things I'm thinking about 😁 with the possibility to generate x liners

[@johnhaynes9910]

Many thanks, an excellent demonstration of your process, highly useful no, brilliant :)

[@kiwikevnz]

Awesome work I learnt a lot, thanks, Chris. Cheers Kev

[@unklejon4690]

I am liking the way Affinity are encouraging people to use the product by showing examples like this. I always felt Adobe put stuff out and left you to find features and rely on 3rd parties to push content. I had Affinity Designer on my desktop since the early days and shied away from it. Then I got my iPad and tried it on here with all these great videos tutorials and wham. Ok I admit I am way behind the curve compared to Chris et al.. but it’s making me want to spend lockdown learning - thanks to Chris and thanks to all the Affinity teams

[@sinfull9987]

Wow.. just wow. I was impressed with the initial block box sketch but how you turned that into actual looking cars was just amazing. Loved the completed piece and I’m not really a car person.

[@thwaitey]

Wow. That was very interesting, it all looked so simple and then suddenly it looked incredible. Definitely picked up some tips here. Thank you.

[@mmeping]

Exactly what I've been looking for.

[@RathboneIllustration]

Thank you. I have been working on lots of time lapse and tutorial videos which will be dropping over the coming weeks, so if you subscribe to my You Tube and keep an eye out, you’ll see lots more content coming soon!

[@plumbgray]

Top drawer mate ! Really enjoyed that tutorial Thanks

[@Mystic_Dragon_Art]

Great illustration and workflow overview Chris, thanks so much! And to Serif, please keep making more of these even after the May event is over. They're fantastic!

[@101stevemc]

Nice video, great explanation of the process, and good pace. Thank you.

[@jonherman8121]

Thanks to Chris and Affinity for a great tutorial. I've been spinning my wheels trying to learn Affinity while doing an illustration of a 1925 Hudson. This video helped enormously!

[@garybarirnger2146]

Amazing work. Great video. Very very impressed.

[@garydavies007]

Awesome work and tutorial. Thanks for the clear commentary/guidance as well.

[@sokbok]

thanks for a great tutorial. that shadow work is inspiring.

[@anthnshaz10]

I really enjoyed the video and even though I wouldn't stand a chance of reproducing, it was great that it was in real-time with the explanation of each process and tool/function. Thanks - your time and talent is very much appreciated.

[@markoehlschlager3862]

Great tutorial. One thought occurred to me: when it came time to block in the color, shadows and highlights, having the equivalent of Adobe Illustrator's Blob Brush would be more intuitive to work with and more efficient. The Pen Tool makes sense for line work, but a Blob Brush that "paints" freehand shapes would be better for painting areas of flat color.

[@RathboneIllustration]

Mark Oehlschlager definitely. I’m hoping the blob brush is added at some point. Pretty please @Affinity 😬

[@Affinitybyserif]

@@RathboneIllustration thanks for the feedback, it's something we'll take on board.

[@JoeCarterDesigns]

Set a reminder! Excited for this.

[@LeifEliasson]

Absolutely amazing and illustrative Thanks 🙏🏻

[@timgriffiths1231]

Absolutely fantastic. Thank you so much, Chris, for such an in-depth look into the process for generating your work. Cheers

[@SuperAndybutler]

Fantastic video tutorial that's really well explained and very easy to follow. Gonna try this myself using what I have learned. Well done!

[@robertreuvekamp]

Really great illustration and video well structured to understand your workflow. Thanks a lot.

[@iangordon8688]

Excellent tutorial showing your skills and Affinity Designer

[@Goldmangun]

Hugely impressive, thank you!

[@EddieStout]

Excellent tutorial. Thanks Chris.

[@tjorgensen2007]

This is fantastic!!! thank you for sharing this.

[@HerrDeacon]

Wow, I learned so much watching this video, can't wait to put it to practice. Thanks Chris for putting this together!

[@plumdog]

that's some legit skills there, great design and well demonstrated techniques thank you

[@DavidCox-dcoxdesigns]

They was awesome!

[@keithboughey9787]

Cracking video Chris! Thank you for creating mate.

[@timregan-morris5051]

Yeah buddy... Rathbone’s the man

[@Paul_anderson_creative]

Top work, ace tutorial! Thanks...

[@em492]

Fantastic process! Thank you!

[@johntapley2549]

A great video Chris. Nice to see the workflow for your images. I did wonder what software package you used and now I know.

[@telstarfamily1417]

This is great!! I've learned loads today, its great to see your process, organised processed are something I struggle with. the global colour tool will be my new toy!!

[@anasrafaat8182]

great tutorial, hope you guys keep making tutorials like this ❤🥰

[@David66Stang]

"Global Color" is like a live color! Cool!

[@TamasVarga-VatartPhoto]

Wow. Impressive! Thanks for sharing

[@PhillHorrocks]

Superb! 👍

[@Panasonicyouth123]

Terrific work. Cheers!

[@casillasmono]

Nice Illustration, well done!

[@hotjazzbaby]

Really great. Thanks a lot

[@hanserian4099]

I have been experimenting with Designer as a conceptualization tool for my industrial design work. You have already filled in gaps that I've had in my use case for Designer. Fantastic tutorial! Thank you!

[@Affinitybyserif]

That's fantastic, thanks for the feedback Hans :)

[@yannl.3530]

Really interesting process, thanks a lot learned a lot

[@kevinsimmonds7082]

Very Cleaver stuff!

[@Welcome_to_real_life_]

This is very well explained and drawn!

[@RathboneIllustration]

Thank you :)

[@Muhammed.Yaseen]

LOVING THIS SERIES!!!!!

[@NiekTravels]

Great video!!

[@alfainsuhuda8229]

i'm ready

[@marzao.404]

Thanks dude!

[@zoelizexin]

This is always someone else's shadow and highlight, never be mine 😂

[@MACH_SDQ]

Goooooood

[@JulesO]

This was rad as hell! Does Chris have chops or what???

[@SirSalter]

Let’s go ahead and go ahead

[@exmachina6364]

Great work Bro. I will try IT 👌

[@jonathani]

You make it look so easy! From start to finish, how long would an image like that take you...clearly not 37 min ;)

[@supergather]

Wonderful explanation. I just want to comment that, as I see it, it's like there are more than one vanishing point. I would say three. The first one is the point at the far horizon line that you drew at the beginning. The second and third are at both sides of the screen. That confused me at the start of the video. I believe, as other people comment here, that based on your great experience, you probably assume the remaining, not explicit shown, two other vanishing points. That's okay, but for me, as a not very experienced apprentice artist, resulted a little confusing when I tried to reproduce your design on my computer. I think so, due to the deformation that the cars show if you look from the area between them and look at the sides. They tend to be thinner to the sides. Am I wrong? Anyway, it's a very detailed and clear example, I've learned a lot. Thank you!

[@herlambangmr755]

Wow....

[@mariuszb6943]

wow

[@randydigby6983]

Great video, Chris. Would you mind sharing the full model number of the tablet shown in this video? Thanks.

[@anthonydry5265]

Excellent video! Did you use reference for the cars? Even for some of my favourite motors I couldn't recall all the right shapes and details off the cuff. Or do you have a catalogue of car looks stored in your head? Either way its impressive and nicely done.

[@walkingtalkies3566]

Request Affinity feature in the next update - Single point , Two point and Three point grid for perspectives

[@PooBrownTHENERD]

BRO, you drew these from memory though?!!

[@Crissutil]

I dont understand who would put a "I don't like it" to this video..

[@richardhead8264]

Cris Sutil _There are miserable, jealous, butt-hurt individuals out there, unfortunately._ 🙄

[@unklejon4690]

Their are those who are made to feel inferior by such talent

[@ferrilucacom]

A curiosity the "vanishing point" was invented by Leon Battista Alberti a Genoese architect. In Italian it is pronounced "Punto di fuga".

[@simonbanks6641]

skills :)

[@azurecoast45]

I don't understand how he made the wheels sit on top of the shadow at 20:30??

[@mmeping]

subtract command

[@azurecoast45]

Aga_ Krk Thanks Aga I’ll check it out

[@TheSaumon15]

You are a great arstist thanks

[@surfincowboygaming]

May I ask what size the art board is?

[@RathboneIllustration]

Farmer Jon I believe it was a 1/4 page illustration if my memory is correct 👍

[@MrSzwarz]

There is a technical mistake in this "single point perspective". Actually it is "two point perspective", back end of the car should have another vanishing point on the horizon.

[@hanserian4099]

@Affinity can a Desiner file be exported to a DXF?

[@Affinitybyserif]

Not at present, we hope to implement it in the future.

[@hanserian4099]

@@Affinitybyserif Excellent, I look forward to it. The more I use Designer the more use cases I find for it. Even though I am in a highly technical drawing environment Designer is an excellent tool to communicate designs to non-technical people.

[@m.bauer2024]

You could make it more realistic easily just if you put BMW in front of the VW

[@spaceboy537]

The music, is that Alvin & The Chipmunks?