There is no one single "this is how you do it" answer. But, this is how I'd approach it.

1. Printing one color or multiple colors?
2. Are you stronger in Photoshop or Illustrator. Your sign software probably won't be of much help here.
3a. You are working with a JPG, what real world size/resolution is the part of the image you want to print?
3b. What size do you want to print it?
Note: This looks like a professional design. Tread carefully or you could be asking for trouble.

Scenario 1 - One color and detail is not important: You can recreate what you want by "tracing" over the image in Illustrator. You only draw the detail that is absolutely necessary. You would end up with a vectored, monochromatic image without any tonal values. That eliminates the problems of size and resolution.

Scenario 2 - One color and some detail: Again, recreate in Illustrator but creating gradients and blends to imitate the tonal values. This would come closer in detail.

Scenario 3 - All out full color in Illustrator: This looks like a "drawing" not from a photo. So it could be reproduced pretty much exactly. This is advanced art, time consuming and expensive.

Scenario 4 - One color in Photoshop: First crop out everything you don't want. Then clean-up the image by painting out any remaining background. Your likely going to need to blow it up. Ideally you want to make the image to size at 300 dpi. Start by simply changing the resolution to 300 dpi. Photoshop will adjust the real world image size down accordingly. It will likely only be a couple of inches. You need to increase the size at 300 dpi. So resample and increase size by 25% to 50% increments until you reach your desired size in order to reduce pixelation to a minimum. You'll need to sharpen the image too. Then convert it to a grayscale image.

Scenario 5 - Multiple colors with Photoshop: As above, except no grayscale. Then you have the choice of simulated process (capturing each color in separate channels), indexing, or even four color process.

 

Thanks Mike for the reply, I will see what I can do.

Note: This looks like a professional design. Tread carefully or you could be asking for trouble.

What did you mean by this, copyright? or alot of work?

Im not looking to copy his design, I want to do my own , just wanted to know how to get a picture to look like a painted drawing.

thanks JB

 

Im not looking to copy his design

My bad...I understood you were working with this image. As far as creating art in this style, yes very advanced. There is NO way to describe the technique here, but to say that you need to master Illustrator AND Photoshop. The trick is in blending and transparencies. Here something I did a few years back. Similar technique anyway. This is actually a vector drawing. I illustrate in Xara, but this can be done in Illustrator, CorelDRAW or Photoshop too.

 

he means a lot of work. i think what he meant by tread lightly is you don't want to get yourself into an agreement with a client if you haven't done this before, which by reading your explanation in your post that you do some tshirts. what about design and illustration?

you could fudge a pic into looking something like a drawing but it won't look like what an illustrator did with the design you posted a pic of above. a lot of people that do those type of illustrations have years and years worth of experience doing tech drawings....hence the realistic look. you could play around with some filters in photoshop, mess with posterization etc. and there are some plugins that are available that turn photos into line art, but it won't look like a polished professional illustration.

you don't want to accept a job and then find out you're way over your head and end up looking bad or outsourcing it for some price that you won't be compensated for. the person who did that drawing probably charged in the $300-$500 price range. and if he didn't he didn't charge enough.

here's some plugins:

http://steveyatesgraphics.com/store...com/store/?page_id=110#ecwid:category=407209&mode=category&offset=0&sort=normal

 

Steve Yates has a couple of plug-in applications that may be of interest to you. One is Toon Up:
Steve Yates Graphics - Online Store
and is for PS CS and up. The other is Blackline Extreme for CorelDraw X3 and up:
Steve Yates Graphics - Online Store

Here's a quick look at animated Before/After samples done with Blackline Extreme:

Unfortunately I do not see a trial for either in the download section. I believe he has YouTube vids of both programs in action. I have not used either of these two plug-ins but have used others and am extremely happy. They made life a lot easier. I'm not connected to him, btw, other than being a happy customer.

 

I am not a printer, yet...I just do some designing. I work almost exclusively in Corel X3 so far. Never really messed with Photoshop/Illustrator.

This is one that was done as a mix of vector image and raster background.

As was stated, it requires alot of shading in transparencies. It has been printed twice, once as DTG and once screened. I believe it was 5 colors on the screens but do not remember for sure. I provided the design and lined up a shop that could do it. The customer worked the rest of the deal. It was from a photo that was tweaked to increase contrasts then colors manipulated. vectorized...redrawn...etc..what ever was needed.

Sorry image is small...it was one I had onmy phone.

REMEMBER...you can still potentially have issues on copyright if you use/copy/manipulate a professional photo without approval. Most track photographer will work with you if you ask. Save the headache and get permission.

Very generic info but let me know if I can help in anyway.

 

REMEMBER...you can still potentially have issues on copyright if you use/copy/manipulate a professional photo without approval. Most track photographer will work with you if you ask. Save the headache and get permission..

Thanks for the help guys, but I think theres been some misunderstanding.

I do graphics for race cars and one of the racers I do graphics for wants me to take a picture of HIS car and make it into a design similar to the one I posted for a TShirt.

Im in no way trying to copy or print someone elses work.

Sorry for the confusion

JB

 

No confusion on my part. From reading replies I do not think others were confused either. You were shown examples and told breifly how each was done or optional ideas.

I stated that that copying a professional photo to create your vector from could present copyright issues.

You need whatever jpg you going to work from. Manipulate it as needed, trace/redraw as needed and make friends with your transparency tool.

Good luck.

 

Ahh I see now what your saying, I work for that particular race team also and I take most of the pictures so no copyright worries for me.

Ive been playing around today with illustrator and live trace, this very well may be over my head lol, I really like the design I posted but not sure I possess the skill set to pull it off.

thanks for all the replies

JB

 

FYI..Most of the Sponsors will have a pdf or eps of their logos that you can get by emailing with their terms of use if you are wanting to do it "by the book".

No need to redraw everything if you do not have to.

Good Luck and have fun!

 

Vehicle Illustration - CorelDRAW Graphics Suite
This pdf may help, CorelDraw
It is about drawing a bus from a photo, but can be applied to your project.

 

OK first I'm glad this post was posted, I have been drawing cars like a well drawing cartoonish even. i never thought of adding gradients now I have to. Also I have Steve Yates Picture to drawing program and havent installed it yet been too busy. I will get back to you on how it works.

 

Good info on this thread! Bookmarked

 

Ok still trying to figure this out guys, Is there anyone that would be willing to let me call them and get me started on the full color tracing process?

I would be willing to pay for your time, and Ill do the calling.

I bought blackline extreme from Steve Yates, I havent completely got it all figured out yet, but I would really like to know how to do this the long, hard ,complicted, time consuming ......but right way.

If anyone is interested in giving me a tutorial pm me.

Thanks JB

 

Ok watched a few videos, read a few tutorials, and I decided to just dive in and try to learn this.....here is a pic of what I have so far as far as line work, and here is a picture of the car im trying to replicate, I tried to export the file of the line work to Jpeg so I could upload that but everytime I did that Corel crashed so......maybe I need to do something to the layers?/???

Never really dealt with layers before so any help will be greatly appreciated.


WHere do I go from here?


JB

 

Let me ask this..have you given thought to how you are having this printed? Screen, DTG..if screen how many colors.

But...if I were doing it I would start with importing the pic and putting it into a lockable layer as it appears you have done.

I usually work on one layer and as I get things accomplished I am pleased with I move them so a layer I am not working on to protect them.

Anyway..start to add line weights...
Posterize your image into colors you want to work in. Remember though if you are drawing the car you do not need to "posterize" to 4 colors because you can increase the colors you need by overlaying transparencies if your screen printer can rip half tones.

BTW..I like to work with the pantone pallette because then I can do simple seps to see how things are reading in their clarity, line weights, etc.

Remember that layers are your friend...you can manage your line work, highlights etc very easily by using them.

Hope this helps some.

 

Im not so much worried about having it screened right now as I am just wanting to learn how to do it. I like being able to do my own work.
I have a guy here locally that can do the artwork and screen the shirts for a pretty fair price but I just want to be able to do it myself, guess a DIY kinda person..lol

Ill keep working on it and eventually I figure it all out...Thanks for your tips.

JB

 

OK I have progressed a little, Not very "graphic" but this is the first time ive done any tracing......still learning as I go...


Seem to have an issue exporting my art as JPEG in corel X5. When I click on export it goes to an export screen and just sits there, when I try to close that screen Corel crashes.....I read that the when exporting it automatically flattens layers or am I doing something wrong?

thanks in advance


JB

 

Not really familiar with X5..I am using X3...could you be rushing it and not letting it have time to process? How big is this file you are working with?

Looking better but definitely work on detail so you keep dimension..not so flat

 

JB:

so you decided to go with coreldraw x5 instead of illustrator? just wondering....no big deal except there are a lot of threads on here (use search function) about x5 crashing.

corel draw has a posterize function? i thought that was only in bitmap/raster programs like photoshop?

why do you need to export as a jpeg? you are using a vector program to produce a bitmap image? of course it will flatten the layer when doing so as it turns the image into an uneditable file (in vector) only for viewing.

there are two types of tracing. one is using your pen tool to trace around the edges of each color of an image that was imported or placed on the artboard of the file and locked on it's own layer. the layer is locked because if you were to try and do anything on top of the image you'll find yourself fighting the computer to discern between what you are trying to do and the computer keep selecting that imported/placed image. you look at your image and decide what areas are different in color etc. and use the pen tool (the most important tool YOU MUST LEARN in a vector program) to trace around it. each section that you have traced should have it's own layer. BECAUSE once you complete that one section you want to lock that down as well as to not interfere with the next section that you will do. you can combine sections later.

the other type of tracing is done automatically by the computer. in illy it's called livetrace (don't know about corel). it really only (IMO) works well on b+w images and even then it's not perfect, which means you'd have to go in and do a lot of editing afterwards and it adds a ton of extra nodes to the vector which slows performance and adds to file size.

OH there is another type which i still do occasionaly. it's called tracing by hand. get a light box. trace over the printed object using pen and paper, scan into photoshop, clean it up and either paint in photoshop or place into illy and either livetrace it (depending on complexity and whether or not i care if it comes out perfect.....for simple tshirt designs) or trace it once again using the pen tool.

what you've done so far is just the start. i see about twenty moresections that need to be traced, from the gradeints in the hood, the rolls bars, highlights in the wheels and tires plus all the decals on the door.............like i had said in an earlier post, it's not easy. also why is it all black?

most of these guys that do that sort of thing have been doing it for years. if that's what you want to do, great (and what you've done so far is really good for a beginner just starting) but you've got to practice using all the tools and functions of the software you choose to use daily. it's like playing a music instrument. some people can say they play the guitar and they know the three chords of 'smoke on the water' and some people say they can play the guitar and they can play a jeff beck tune note for note with whammy bar riffs. it's all because of practice, practice, practice.

 

JB:

so you decided to go with coreldraw x5 instead of illustrator? just wondering....no big deal except there are a lot of threads on here (use search function) about x5 crashing.

I have Illustrator also, I just found corel slightly more friendly at the time, but I figured out a few settings in Illustrator today so Im going to start playing around with it today some.


corel draw has a posterize function? i thought that was only in bitmap/raster programs like photoshop?

why do you need to export as a jpeg? you are using a vector program to produce a bitmap image? of course it will flatten the layer when doing so as it turns the image into an uneditable file (in vector) only for viewing.


I was only trying to export as JPEG to post here so I could show my progress and get feedback from the pros.


there are two types of tracing. one is using your pen tool to trace around the edges of each color of an image that was imported or placed on the artboard of the file and locked on it's own layer. the layer is locked because if you were to try and do anything on top of the image you'll find yourself fighting the computer to discern between what you are trying to do and the computer keep selecting that imported/placed image. you look at your image and decide what areas are different in color etc. and use the pen tool (the most important tool YOU MUST LEARN in a vector program) to trace around it. each section that you have traced should have it's own layer. BECAUSE once you complete that one section you want to lock that down as well as to not interfere with the next section that you will do. you can combine sections later.


Im using the pen tool mainly, the live trace is just about useless on this photo.

the other type of tracing is done automatically by the computer. in illy it's called livetrace (don't know about corel). it really only (IMO) works well on b+w images and even then it's not perfect, which means you'd have to go in and do a lot of editing afterwards and it adds a ton of extra nodes to the vector which slows performance and adds to file size.

OH there is another type which i still do occasionaly. it's called tracing by hand. get a light box. trace over the printed object using pen and paper, scan into photoshop, clean it up and either paint in photoshop or place into illy and either livetrace it (depending on complexity and whether or not i care if it comes out perfect.....for simple tshirt designs) or trace it once again using the pen tool.

what you've done so far is just the start. i see about twenty moresections that need to be traced, from the gradeints in the hood, the rolls bars, highlights in the wheels and tires plus all the decals on the door.............like i had said in an earlier post, it's not easy. also why is it all black?

The actual car is all black with the exception of the wrap on it which I did also, My vector is all black because im still learning and havent figured out all the shading and gradients yet...but im trying and learning...


most of these guys that do that sort of thing have been doing it for years. if that's what you want to do, great (and what you've done so far is really good for a beginner just starting) but you've got to practice using all the tools and functions of the software you choose to use daily. it's like playing a music instrument. some people can say they play the guitar and they know the three chords of 'smoke on the water' and some people say they can play the guitar and they can play a jeff beck tune note for note with whammy bar riffs. it's all because of practice, practice, practice.

Im pretty determined to learn it, I use FlexiSign Pro daily and I see a real advantage in me being able to do all my art in house for my graphics business and future full colored screened shirts with more than just sponsors logos, names and numbers.

Thanks for the feedback, Ill keep plugging along and maybe someday ill be answering questions for a beginner,

JB

 

no i got you the first time just asking if you have problems with your programs crashing.

back in the day like at version 8 of illy on an old powermac i used to have to remember to save my file like every other minute being afraid that the system would crash. nothing like doing some intricate work that takes you a half hour just to have your sh*t freeze up and you forgot to save. probably why i have no hair now.

 

Well I'm making progress or at least I think lol, here's where I am so far. I have learned a lot, but s gotta ways to go. I'm using illustrator exclusively for now and the next step will be trying to figure out how to put the remaining graphics and logos on the car in the right perspective from the files I have from when I designed the wrap.

Let me know what think and any ideas

Also Id like to give a special thanks to Scale Angel Desi for all his help and support through all the emails, a true class act....THANKS!!!

JB

 

what kind of background are you going to print on? are you keeping the track?

just from a quick look the wheels need more detail and there would need to be smoke or dirt or whatever being flung up from the speed on the track. good job so far.

 

You might give the nose a bit of perspective looks a little like it is just hung out there..just my 2 cents..

 

Worked a little more this afternoon, and figured out the perspective tool to add the sponsors and the number.

I however cannot figure out how to get the tool to lay down on the hood so that I can get the hood and roof graphics on the car, anyone have any experience using the perspective tool on a car?

thanks for any help.

Also on the wheels, we normally run chrome covers over all the wheels, we just didnt have them on in the picture, the cars look better with them on and I figured the illustration would too, plus it was much easier to create this way.

JB