Behind The Scenes: Bike Shop Illustration (Patreon)

This week I wanted to continue the stylized shop series, which began as isometric pizza place render. It's very similar to my other low poly works, but it uses bevels and smooth shading to deliver more playful style. At the same time, it uses really vibrant colors to support that look and feel.

So the only question was, what little shop deserves to be the next. Few years ago, while exploring London with friends, we found this little bike shop and cafe called "Look mum, no hands!". We had to go inside, because the name itself was hilarious :) 

I really loved the concept of joining the bike shop with cafe and the place felt like a place to go for the biking community. Not that I know anything about bikes, but I often stop to admire things, that I don't even have to like in the first place. Many times, that's where the inspiration strikes, when you're out of your lane and explore :)

Visit the full Pinboard here

I've included few images of that cafe in my Pinterest board and started exploring more. It' didn't surprise me, that by now, the cafe and bike shop concept is pretty common thing. I've saved some of those, focusing on details that caught my attention.

Like the hanging bike with the glowing wheels. I instantly knew I want to have that in the scene. Apart from that I saved some references, that would help me to define the space and layout itself, like the image with stairs. I liked that and it offered a little bit different approach, than putting shop windows and doors on the wall.

After that, you just need some reference to at least know, how bikes look nowadays and what to expect on the counter and shelves of the shop :) Not that it's critical, to really nail all the details, but you need at least an illusion of real mercahnise.

Sometimes, after gathering all the reference I feel like I'm ready to go and I don't need sketching. I sometimes even find myself thinking about skipping this step.

I tried it once and hour later I was back on the blank piece of paper with deleted blend file. No matter how much of these I make, they are always specific and have specific requirements for layout. Where do I put the stairs, counter and bikes in a way that makes sense and the layout can still breathe?

I ended up ditching one of the bikes (not the glowing one!) to make it more readable in 3D. At the same time, what started as tribute to pretty hipster place, ended as a colorful illustration, that has a bit more sporty vibe. That's because I needed to make this work as a part of the vibrant and playful series.

You can watch the process video on Youtube