Chris Deutsch

Introduction and blah blah

So my girlfirend's parents have got this motorcylce club - nothing big - and they asked me if I could do an illustration for them to print on their shirts. So I said sure.

"Bergvolk Riders" is what they call themselves, which translates to "Mountain people... uhm, well... Riders".

Since they wanted someone on a bike, I started off by sketching some images from pictures I found on the web.

Turns out: Drawing motorcycles is a pain. I hate drawing motorcycles.

Then I started on designing a cartoon character. I was trying to go for a style similar to Sean Galloway. Not that I consider myself anywhere good enough to copy his style - this page focuses on me learning, and we're still at the beginning.

Eventually I settled on a halfway sideways view. Since I did not feel like creating my own bike from scratch, I semi-traced a photo that fitted the perspective. I don't remember which site exactly I ripped this one off, so if this is your photo, and you have copyright on the image, and you don't want it seen on my site... uhm, then something something.

One of the most un-fun things to draw on a bike is the motor. This part is probably a whole lotta fun, if you actually can draw a motor, but if you can't, well.. it's not.

This is the guy.

Just to make sure everything's working out, this is him mirrored.

I tried for a version with a female rider... but it seems she just didn't feel comfortable. So I stuck with the guy.

I'm doing the image in Illustrator 10, so I have to create the colored areas by hand - no luxury of using the paint bucket.

Then I put in the shadows and redo the motor to something more abstract.

Then I put in mountains and experiment a little with the text. The font, by the way, is Battlelines, a free font from Blambot.