KITT vs. KARR 2011

This is a glimpse into the process that went into creating my new KITT and KARR artwork. Traditionally you would want to start by rendering KITT first and then convert that art into KARR but in this case, with the pose I was going for I had to do this the harder way.

Basically I started off with a screenshot of KARR which I used to create the original KARR vechicle lineart seen in The Knight Rider Companion. Having wanted to use a 3/4 shot of the car for future projects, I decided to use this very familar angle of KARR rather than the same blue background promotional shot we've seen of KITT used time and time again on everything from the Mio GPS to the Japanese Charawheels Hot Wheels packaging.

There's nothing wrong with this art mind you, I just wanted to make something new. So I had to decide first off how I was going to color the original lineart and if I wanted to go with something more realistic looking or cartoonish.

I decided to go more realistic which meant I had to work extra hard to make sure the shadows and highlights were softer and painstakingly color over the original lineart. When you're trying to depict something in reality, I have learned that very few things have solid black lines around them unlike say a cartoon or illustration. It's harder I find to render something to look real because once you deal with reality, you have to follow all the little details otherwise someone will notice something looks off and the believability of your work can be lost.

You just try your best and hope everything turns out right. If people like your work, then you did something right and to get there - sometimes you have to take more time than you like to adjust your mistakes to create a more solid piece. They say working on art is never finished, you just decide when to stop working on it. I find this a valid truth but I try to cover as many things as I can before releasing something I do as a finished work.

My approach to creating artwork is basically a process of stages and putting elements together like a jigsaw puzzle, but I only have an idea of the finished picture on the box which usually begins with a crude but informative sketch (thumbnail) or rough mock-up of what I'm trying to accomplish.

I cannot recommend enough for any aspiring artist out there to remember the three most important ingredients to making a work of art, report, or other creative medium - Research, Research, Research!

Then comes applying what you've researched to what you're trying to do. In this case, I needed to fully flesh out the foglights on KARR, highlights, glints/glows/bevels, scanner details, and other things before I could call the piece completed.

I think the hardest detail for me on this was the tire tread!

Equally as difficult is once I had KARR finished, I found that I could not just simply make some selections and darken the bottom half of KARR to make KITT because it didn't match or look convincing enough. I actually had to go back to square one and rebuild/airbrush the lower half of KARR all over again to convert the car into KITT and then of course also change the scanner color to red.

So having done all that, the result was having both KITT and KARR ready to use in another project which will be revealed later which requires have KITT and KARR side by side. This lent another challenge to make sure the scoop in the hood was on the correct side. What you might not immediately realize is when you flip any picture of the Knight 2000, you also switch the driver's side and airscoop the wrong direction. I can't tell you how many times I have had to remind myself not to flip shots!

Anyway, that's a glimpse into how this all came together and here are the final pieces. I don't like having just blank backgrounds in my final presentations, so I always try to put some sort of interesting backdrop in my stand alone pieces. The final step is my NRN design logo and then I post up my creation for the world to see and enjoy!

 

Well, hope you enjoyed this write up and keep an eye out because later down the line you're going to see where else these two cars are going to pop up in 2012.

-Nick