Take a look at the finished painting in this series on how to draw a bike
We’re nearly there for this series on how to draw a bike! Now, let’s just add a few final touches to your motorcycle design concept painting and go back over what you’ve learned in this series.
Here are the main things to remember from this lesson on how to draw a bike:
Work Fast to Create as Many Concepts as you can
If you were working in a concept design studio, you’d be aiming to produce five or six sketches like this each day. This is because not all your ideas will be approved and only a few will make it through to the next stage.
Working quickly means you won’t feel too disheartened when someone rejects your idea – that’s just the nature of the business and it’s something you’ll soon get used to. And, if you haven’t spent too much time on it, it’s not such a big deal!
Adding the Final Touches to Your Painting
Keep zooming in and out of your painting, making changes here and there and adding elements.
Here, you can see how James puts in a light and adds several other details to the wheels and bodywork.
Just keep going until you’re totally happy with how each element in your painting looks.
Cleaning up the Background
Clean up your background by drawing more shapes with the Lasso Tool and filling them in using colors selected with the Eyedropper Tool.
This will enable you to make the background look a little more polished without being overworked.
After all, it’s the motorcycle people will be looking at – not the background!
After this, just take a look around your painting once more and clean up some of the lines if necessary in this how to draw a bike tutorial.
Adjusting the Color Balance
Next, hit Ctrl + B to bring up your Color Balance window, and then adjust the sliders to your preference.
Notice how adjusting the color balance can change the feel of your painting completely.
You can choose warm or cold colors at this stage – it’s entirely up to you!
Giving Your Painting a Glow
Adding a glow to your painting is a nice finishing touch. To do this, create a duplicate layer of your painting and change the mode of this new layer to Linear Dodge.
Then, apply some Gaussian Blur and create a mask. Finally, use your Gradient Tool so the glow is only applied to certain areas of your painting, such as the petrol tank.
How to Draw a Bike: Finish Line!
Take one last look at your painting and make any final adjustments – you can even add a number to your motorcycle if you wish by creating a new layer and using the Text Tool.
Once you’re happy with everything, you’re done and ready to move on to the next one! Take a break – you deserve it – and we’ll see you next time on Pencil Kings for more awesome instruction from world-class digital artists!
Let us know what you thought of this series on how to draw a bike by leaving a comment in the box below.
Return to the Motorcycle Concept Sketching Lessons Page