2023 IMSA 12 Hours of Sebring / FIA WEC 1000 Miles of Sebring
Porsche vs Peugeot Illustration / Poster
Porsche vs Peugeot Illustration / Poster
This illustration was done for Dust In The Pit Lane and was also featured on JapaneseRacingCars to mark the double-header weekend featuring the IMSA 2023 12 Hours Of Sebring and the FIA WEC 2023 1000 Miles Of Sebring, less commonly known as "Super Sebring".
The illustration not only had to serve multiple purposes on the social feeds of Dust In The Pit Lane, but it also had the unique challenge of having to represent two different events at the same time. Due to this I opted to create something that could be split into two halves and used as two different illustrations where appropriate, then be adaptable for further different versions if required.
In terms of visual style, I opted to evolve a minimalist style that had been used on a previous project towards a more synthwave/vaporwave aesthetic as Sebring is in Florida and I felt it made sense to utilise the retro Florida aesthetic/feel born out of mainstream media such as Miami Vice.
Each half of the illustration would feature one car from that half's respective event and each of those cars would also have highlights in the colours of that respective event. So, in this case I would use the Porsche 963 in red to symbolise IMSA's 12 Hours Of Sebring and the Peugeot 9X8 in blue to symbolise the FIAWEC's 1000 Miles of Sebring.
The approach was to make the "master version" adaptable to as many different uses as possible, and creating these two halves was the first step. The next step was creating variations where only one car would need to be present in order to represent it's respective event, this was done by simply removing one or the other (see below).
Doing this enabled the client to make use of the illustration in more ways for their social feeds, across grid posts, grid mosaics and stories, as well as being able to house information over those posts without obstructing too many of the illustration's elements.
In terms of the creation process, I searched extensively for source images of both cars to draw from which had perspectives that were matching each other as closely as possible as I did not have access to scale models or 3D models to work from. Then, after setting down a construction grid to layout the composition I started to draw each car in four phases.
I started with the solid body shape/outline first, then built the shadows and dark areas, then the highlights and finally the headlights. The highlights were given a glow effect by double-stacking layers set to screen with the top layer having a gaussian blur applied. The headlights were done in the similar way, but with the blurred screen layer duplicated and stacked multiple times, and so were the road markings.
The sun itself had it's glows built in a similar way, this was done after the sun itself was built via applying a three-colour gradient to a circle, then cutting sections out of the circle to create the classic vaporwave sun.
After this I then built the road and sky backdrops using two different gradient sections, I then transformed a road texture to create the road via using it as an overlay and stretching it to create motion, then used a royalty-free stock image as an overlay to create the starry sky.
All that was left to finish off the illustration now was using various fog brushed to create the effects of not only the night sky, but also the smooth misty horizon that created the sense of distance between the cars and the sun. The final touch (shape?) was adding the pyramidion pattern to the sun to prevent it looking too "bare".
I started with the solid body shape/outline first, then built the shadows and dark areas, then the highlights and finally the headlights. The highlights were given a glow effect by double-stacking layers set to screen with the top layer having a gaussian blur applied. The headlights were done in the similar way, but with the blurred screen layer duplicated and stacked multiple times, and so were the road markings.
The sun itself had it's glows built in a similar way, this was done after the sun itself was built via applying a three-colour gradient to a circle, then cutting sections out of the circle to create the classic vaporwave sun.
After this I then built the road and sky backdrops using two different gradient sections, I then transformed a road texture to create the road via using it as an overlay and stretching it to create motion, then used a royalty-free stock image as an overlay to create the starry sky.
All that was left to finish off the illustration now was using various fog brushed to create the effects of not only the night sky, but also the smooth misty horizon that created the sense of distance between the cars and the sun. The final touch (shape?) was adding the pyramidion pattern to the sun to prevent it looking too "bare".
