Posts Tagged: muscle car

1970 Chevy Nova drawing

I feel like a total broken record when it comes to drawing cars. It was almost two years ago when I proclaimed that I was getting serious about drawing cars and it was something that I was going to spend a lot more time doing. Well, a lot has happened since then and I haven’t been drawing any more than I hoped I would. That’s life, I suppose, but at least I still have the drive within me to keep this up and to never let go of this passion. Drawing cars has been part of my life since I was 10 years old, and I hope that it never goes away. So what if I take some time off? As long as I keep coming back to it I’m happy.

Anyway, I’ve been feeling the desire to draw again recently but the drive to actually sit down and create my own designs isn’t there right now. Drawing cars is one thing. Coming up with fresh new designs is another, and with everything else I’ve got going on in my life right now there’s no “designer” feeling left inside of me.

So that means just having fun and drawing existing cars! The Fox Body Mustang GT I drew several years ago was really fun, and the special thing about that sketch was how fast and loose it was. I didn’t have to think much about it while I was drawing it, and that’s the kind of automotive art I feel like doing right now.

First up? This 1970 Nova, inspired by the one our neighbors had when I was a kid. That thing scared the hell out of me (loud cars were frightening!), but nearly 40 years later my memories of that thing are of the fond variety.

This digital sketch took approximately 30 minutes to complete, and I did it all in SketchBook Pro and Photoshop.

1972 Chevelle Drawing

I’m not normally a fan of American muscle cars, but several days ago I had a pretty strong urge to do a quick sketch of an old-school 1972 Chevelle. I’ve always had an attraction to the ’72’s, as my neighbor’s brother had a red (and loud) one when I was growing up in Michigan in the 80’s. It left an impression on me.

Like the 1988 Mustang GT I just drew, this was supposed to be a quick and loose sketch just like that one. However, I found myself falling into the same trap I usually fall into, and that’s slowly overworking the drawing until it’s lost any sense of artistic spontaneity and character. I love the look of quick and loose sketches, especially those with beautiful line quality and a clear focal point. Unfortunately, this Chevelle drawing doesn’t have much of either of those two qualities. I literally had to tell myself to STOP working on it and call it done, otherwise I would have tightened it up too much and turned it into what I call a “sloppy rendering”. You know what I’m talking about…a rendering that looks as if it’s supposed to have been a super-detailed and crisp representation of the real car, but it looks like crap because the details and line work are overly sloppy.

With that said, I have mixed feelings about this Chevelle drawing. On one hand, I like the perspective and I feel like I did a decent job of capturing the correct proportions of the iconic Chevelle shape. On the other hand, the sketch and rendering style is rather weak. To me, it looks too tight to be considered a sketch, but too loose to be considered a rendering.

I suppose these are the things I’m going to have to deal with as I learn how to draw cars again. And even though I’m not entirely happy with it, I had fun drawing an old-school muscle car.