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Masters of the Cutaway Part 9: Kevin Hulsey's and Steven Howard's Process

By David Seliger - January 6, 2012

in Graphic Design | Cars

So you've made it through eight posts on the masters of cutaways. If you're like me, you've been wondering, "How the hell do I draw my own cross-sections??" That's where Kevin Hulsey comes in. Hulsey is a cross-section illustrator-extraordinaire and he has a fantastic series of tutorials on his website.

Although Hulsey uses a lot of "ghosting" in his illustrations, where a bottom Photoshop layer of technical components is seen through a top layer of a car's exterior, the tutorial we're featuring is about the construction of line art for a cruise ship.

First, Hulsey creates a master perspective grid that shows the "maximum amount of important features on the ship." Next, he creates an grid of the deck elevations. Using the blueprints as a guide, Hulsey redraws the floorplans onto each appropriate elevation.

Once all the decks are laid out, Hulsey gives the physical elements vertical dimensions. He groups elements of the same height to make the process quicker.

Still, there is a lot of drawing need in order to make this...

...into this.

Lastly, Hulsey adds in textures and colors to transform the illustration into something truly magical. That's the process in a nutshell, but you can read though the entire tutorial here.

Here's a significantly less digital, but no less exacting, process from illustrator Steven W. Howard.

Howard starts with a rough sketch before identifying sections of the spaceship he wants to expose.

Next, he adds in a 3-point perspective grid, then starts a pencil layer on top.

The grid lines and the sketches underneath allow Howard to cutaway sections of the spaceship while keeping them in perspective.

Masters of the Cutaway:
» Part 1: Hans Jenssen
» Part 2: Frank Soltesz and L. Ashell Wood
» Part 3: Yoshihiro Inomoto
» Part 4: Stephen Biesty
» Part 5: Graham Bleathman
» Part 6: Christopher & Matt Cushman
» Part 7: Richard Chasemore
» Part 8: The Das Brothers & Roger Stewart
» Part 9: Kevin Hulsey's and Steven Howard's Process

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Richard Watanabe

9 years ago

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Hi Dave -- Fantastic series! I've saved them all as webpages, but as another poster noted, the delight is in the details and with webpages, there's a limit to how far you can go in. I note you've put in a few links to a few individual drawings, but even they were limited. I expect it would be a nightmare to put together a slideshow from source material - getting the rights would probably take a decade and the cost would be prohibitive - but I would certainly pay for a book (digital OK) of this.
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Steven Wayne Howard

12 years ago

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Thanks for including me in this article. I love the "Masters of the Cutaway" series you created. All these illustrators are who have inspired me the most throughout my life and have driven me to desire to do cutaways as well.
-Steven Howard
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frode, oslo norway

12 years ago

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Fan-tas-tic!! Thank you very much.
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Larry

12 years ago

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Great post, thanks!
Fantastic work from all the artists, of which I still felt good about myself until you got to Hulsey...that bastard...I love him and hate him at the same time! (just kidding..sort-of...)

Great site, keep up the great work!
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Austin

12 years ago

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Amazing stuff!
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