How an Apple concept artist created this cinematic biker girl art in Photoshop

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Biker Girl is the key image for my personal IP, Neon Drift. Inspired by my favourite anime and films, I wanted to create a keyframe illustration that successfully summed up the mood and feel of the world.

Neon Drift is about a group of motorcycle couriers that transport illicit goods in New Eden, a rundown city with a bleak future. In doing this, what I wanted to do was capture one of the couriers in a moment of rest, contemplating the best route to take to her destination: one that would have the best chance of avoiding police and rival gangs in the process.

Storytelling was paramount for this scene, and I decided that a side profile showcasing the world and bike design would best show the ‘moment of rest’ feeling that I was attempting to convey here. The red metal of her helmet and bike are meant to provide contrast with the greener-tinted, grungier world that is behind her.

With every piece I make, I aim to evoke further imagery and stories within my viewer. Biker Girl is the ‘hook’ image for this world that will look to hopefully get the viewer captivated, engaged and curious to want to see more. Below, I aim to show the process and design thinking for this image – a blend of photobashing, digital painting and 3DCoat – as well as my future ambitions for the world that is contained within this painting.

For more inspiration, see our roundup for Photoshop tutorials.

Plan the bike and set the scene

The world design was inspired by Tokyo and Hong Kong, with an added layer of the high-tech architectural movement on top for a blend of sci-fi with a lived-in feel; a future gone wrong.

I started off by designing the bike first, which is an obvious tribute to Kaneda’s bike in Akira. I warped and stretched various parts of a Ducati monster to arrive at the final design. I then start photobashing the rest of the scene. I used various pictures of Tokyo and Hong Kong to create a grungy and lived-in world.

Concentrate on the background elements

Since all the elements came from photos with different lighting scenarios, I darken the scene with multiply and overlay modes, then paint back in the overcast lighting with layer masks.

Enhance the environment

I then introduced neon lights and reflections in the environment by adding nighttime city photos with colour dodge modes. The final step is painting and blending all these elements together, finalising details such as mud splatters on the wheels and ensuring edges are clean and sharp by refining layer masks.

Rule of thirds

The composition of the image uses a standard rule of thirds approach, but to further drive the focal point home, I framed the character’s head within a circular architectural motif that also echoes her bike’s wheels.

This creates a balance and ‘tipping of the scales’ effect that helps avoid a feeling of symmetry in the image.

Matching themes

To add reflective effects, I took parts of a wet city street photo and warped it to the curves and shape of the bike. I then colour-balanced it to accurately match the tone and mood of the rest of the image.

Minor details

Electric sparks and hanging wires add a sense of movement and dynamism to the scene. They also lead the eye to micro compositions around the painting.

Adding realism

The bike was looking too ‘clean’, so I added different textures of mud splatters to create a dirty, grungy feeling. She has been riding through this rainy rundown city, so the effects of that would be seen.

Creating every angle

This image is part of a series that I’m making into a graphic novel, so I made rough sculpts of all the other bikes to have different angles of them all racing each other.

Photoshop brushes

I used several custom Photoshop brushes, which you can download with the resources from ImagineFX Issue 266.

Cloud brush: Lightly glaze behind objects to create atmospheric effects and separate planes.

Hard elliptical: For painting grungy textures. Good for rocks or concrete architecture.

Reflections brush: For painting water reflections. This has a scatter mode and can also be used as a layer mask to clip your reflection layer to it.

This article originally appeared in ImagineFX. Subscribe to ImagineFX to never miss an issue. Print and digital subscriptions are available.