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Tutorials / The Art / Reflective materials & Metal: Overview

Fantasy Art Tutorials in the FARP Section

By William Li, Gallery 6.

Overview

This piece for the F.A.R.P. is set up as a tutorial, although it can be used as a reference. It helps you learn a technique by giving you guidelines in a step by step manner (the How). As you progress in this tutorial, underlying principles of these guidelines are discussed in depth (the Why). I must say however, that understanding perspective is almost a prerequisite for this tutorial.

The most frequent referal to reflective surfaces is metal. Therefore I will focus on and speak of metal as the reflective material. Almost anything I discuss about metal is also true for other highly reflective materials. So if you're drawing some object that's reflective and is not made of metal, the information in this tutorial is still useful!
I hope you enjoy!

Now, about this tutorial...

— Reflection and transparency: metal and glass. Mainly found together in our current vehicles.

The essence of metal is its highly reflective quality. (Can we be more obvious?)
If polished you can see the surroundings reflected in it like a mirror. So drawing these reflections is the only way to draw metal. Doing this accurately is a painstaking and difficult process.

Fortunately there's a quick way to make fake reflections and still get good looking results. I'll discuss two methods in Chapter 1: a really fast one and a less faster one which requires a bit understanding of reflection. The method is demonstrated step by step with hand-drawn examples.

But sometimes this faking method will not do, because the reflection plays an important role in your drawing or you just get lame results. In that case you should understand more about reflections. Chapter 2 describes the nature of reflections and elaborates on Chapter 1. Underlying principles are discussed and 3D imagery is used as reference.
Before you read Chapter 2, read Chapter 1 first. Chapter 1 just might be all you need.

Transparency is more difficult to fake. Chapter 3 discusses this troublesome material-property. Because transparency often deals with reflection, it's also taken into account here.

If you have a good imagination of how light (rays) interacts with objects in our world, all this should be a breeze for you.

Here are the 3 chapters, each one with increasing depth. At all times I will tie the information to its usefulness in drawing. I will not go too deep into science :-)

1. Fast metal: the quick and dirty way.
2. Understanding and refining reflections: to reach the greater heights.
3. Transparency: deep thought required.

If you have any comments, suggestions or questions, don't hesitate to contact me. They're welcome!

FARP Article Guestbook

Date	Name	Comment
30 Dec 2004	Quantum P.	Loading... Nice article.
5 Jan 2005	Www.reflectives.net <info@ref...net>	Loading... Are you searching for the " RETRO REFLECTIVE MATERIALS ". We manufacture the best of the reflective materials....
5 Jan 2005	Ajit jain <info@ref...net>	Loading... Great comments on the tutorials of "Reflective". We would surely like to have the latest on these articles to put on under news coluumn at our RETRO REFLECTIVE MATERIAL web site . It would be our pleasure to have a link exchange with your GREAT SITE !!!!
28 Jul 2005	Wolf Lord	Loading... Wow! Great detail, lots of choices. Thanks for this site.
22 Jan 2008	Mike m.	Loading... this article is just what i’ve been looking for THANKS MUCH!! i would like the opinions of any who reads this on the work i have posted on my site http://www.grannysartworks.com/ THANKS AGAIN FOR THIS SITE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
12 Mar 2008	Mkoll	Loading... it’s just what i was looking for. thanks a lot
24 Jul 2008	Andrew Nelson	Loading... What an ACE site thanks!
15 Oct 2008	John Michaels	Loading... Excelent site! YOU helped to get an A on my final so that I could become an art teacher myself. Thank You Very Much!!!
8 Dec 2008	Mack	Loading... Excellent tutorial! A bit over my head at times, but gives me something to shoot for. I have the utmost admiration for your skills and even more appreciation for your willingness to share your knowledge with others. The world needs more people like you. Thank you!
28 Jun 2009	Gareth	Loading... This has given me the courage to go away and try. Thank you!
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