Trying to do at least one car sketch a day

It’s been a while since my last update, but I have been busy drawing cars the entire time. Well, maybe only 20 minutes a day because of my busy schedule, but hey – it’s better than nothing. I’m starting to accumulate a large pile of sketches in my archives…

The main thing I am focusing on right now is my line quality. I’m not worried about trying to add color and shading to any of my drawings for now, as one of the most important things I learned in design school was that without a great sketch, you can’t have a great rendering. Line quality can convey mood and emotion, and in the context of cars, it can emphasize speed as well. Fast and loose sketches with thick and thin lines in the appropriate places are a beautiful thing, especially on a low-slung sports car.

I remember a guy in my graduating class at college who was a total master at loose (but gorgeous) sketching techniques. Some saw his work as “sloppy”, but I and a handful of others (including the professors) thought it he was an extremely talented artist. These days, he’s a full time car designer for Honda.

I’m still using my Wacom tablet for most of my sketches – every now and then I’ll use a ball-point pen on paper, but I’m really starting to like using the tablet. It took a long time to get used to using the Wacom, but I finally feel like I’m getting the hang of it.