Click here to view the embedded video.

By far…one of the biggest challenges to drawing cars is making sure your wheels and tires are spot on. If you have a perfectly executed body sketch in perspective and your wheels are off….It’s ruined! Most people who draw cars have a difficult time trying to understand the anatomy of the tire and wheel. So this post will introduce to you the fundamentals associated with the wheel and tire.

Bear in mind that what is being shown here is a proper discussion on wheels as you see them in real life. When sketching and drawing cars, this particular version is then interpreted to capture the essence. The sketch you see in the picture was created using ellipse templates. The templates allow you to be more precise and exact with the geometry of the tire and wheel. When using free hand, it is difficult to create so many ellipses that are offset perfectly each time (sketching quickly that is). I still struggle with it.(maybe I need more practice )

Such precision also takes away some of the dynamics and “fun” factor of the sketch as the whole idea of sketching is to stay loose. So the main intent of this article will be to focus only on the technical construction of a proper tire to wheel interface. Without understanding this concept, it will be difficult to render an image that is believable and makes sense to the human eye, even if you are removing some detail for the sake of style.

Now why even use a photo reference when your main drive is to imagine something new? Well…understanding and replicating reality now, will enable you to visualizing the fantastic for the future! Being creative means understanding the basics first. Once those are nailed down, you will acquire the confidence to explore new ways of artistic expression based on reality.

So let’s start to break down the anatomy of the wheel. Reference the section picture here. This section is comprised of the following:

1. Tire
2. Wheel
3. Center Cap

For simplicity, no spokes were added to this particular example. Let’s just focus on the core basics for now (remember the brain learns best using a layered approach article? If you don’t, reference the article and video here). We use sections here because it helps to understand how the components interface with one another. That doesn’t mean you need to create a section for every drawing or illustration. You should understand how they fit. It just depends how familiar you want to be with the subject matter. However, if you ARE ultimately serious about “designing” something, then it does help you to create a story that is believable to your audience. Doing this helps you draw things from memory.
Let’s start off with the side view. The side view is the easiest view to comprehend without having to worry about perspectives. When looking at the section, it is necessary to capture each surface transition with a geometric representation. This representation is just a circle (obviously). So for this example you will have 3-4 circles that represent the shape of the tire (depending on how thick the sidewall of your tire is).  The next circle will capture the top of the rim(4 or 5).    If you add a chamfered surface before the dome shape, that will be circle number 5 or 6.  Lastly you can finish off with the center cap at 6 or 7.

Now that is  A LOT of circles.  On top of that you have to translate those circles into ellipses when drawing the wheel and tire in perspective.  My first suggestion is to invest in some nice circle and ellipse templates.  The circle templates are cheap and are available in most art stores.  Get both small and large sizes.  Then look online for ellipse templates. They get pricey when you get the full set as you will need a full range from 10deg – 80deg ellipse guides.  I purchased the larger 4″ ellipses, then bought a small single template ellipse guide($8-$10 at Michaels). If you just want to experiment and get used to using the guides, then just buy the small ones for now.

Now if you want a digital example of how I use pictures to create wheels check out part 1 and part 2 of how to draw wheels video! For a breakdown of the wheel in perspective in freehand, see the video I released a few months ago below!

Freehand drawing of Wheels in Perspective

It’s coolness!

Now as a BONUS!  Below are the links to download your template files.  There are three different files in high rez (to download be sure to “right click and save link as”):

1.  The original sketch of the wheel  - Tires and Wheels Sketch

2.  A vector based Wheel and Tire Template with callouts – Tire and Wheel Template 1

3.  A vector based Wheel and Tire Template for overlays – Tire and Wheel Template 2

Enjoy and have fun practicing and see you here next time at www.drivenmavens.com!

Be sure to join us on our facebook fanpage where we have active discussions with a talented group of artists and designers! www.facebook.com/drivenmavens

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Hmmm…let’s see….do I use pencil, pen, markers, or prismacolors?  So many choices….where do I start?  Well….in design school, the item of choice to design and draw muscle cars, sports cars, or hotrods are prismacolor or Verithin Pencils.  Why?  Lets just go over the advantages over your conventional pencils and pens shall we?

Creating dynamic drawings with thought provoking compositions with rich value and contrast requires a special medium that can give you that light to dark range.  Prismacolor pencils, which are a wax based soft pencil, gives you that rich bold dynamic range of value from a single hue.  Though they are quite pricey ranging from $1 to $1.50 each, they are a terrific medium to work with.

In contrast, the regular HB pencil can only give limited value range.  This is why art classes require you to buy a different range of pencils from 4B, 3B, 2B——HB—-2h, 3H, and 4H. 4B being very soft and dark, and 4H being harder and lighter.

So what is a value range and why is it so important? Well a value range is how light or dark a given hue is.  So below, we have a gray scale which starts with white being “0″ and goes all the way to it’s extreme at “10.”  As you add a little bit of black to the white, you will end up getting a gray scale range.  Therefore adding 1/10th of black to white, will give you “1.”  Adding “2/10ths” of black to the white will give you the shade “2.”   Equal portions of black and white will give you “5.” I’m sure you get the point.

Here is a video that shows the value range of some gray scale markers  and prismacolor pencils.

Click here to view the embedded video.

So it is this specific range that prismacolor pencils shine because you can get a wonderful range of light to darks off of a single hue.   Let’s see what we can do with these pencils.  Check out the sketches below and see how the darker values help to draw attention to specific areas of the sketch.

This sketch shows dark values for the trees, tires, bottom of the grandprix car, as well as silhouetting around the profile of the car.  This helps to “pop” the image out.

The classic grand prix cars sketch here is heavily darkened at the front.  The stone wall is also slightly shaded with a darker value but then fades to a lighter value at the rear of the car.

As the grand prix car comes around the corner, the trees around the building helps to define the edge of the building.  The contrast of the shadow side of the car, also helps to define the profile of the car in contrast to the background of the building.

The sketch above darkens the grand prix cars while leaving portions of the background with lesser value .  So the cars are the main focal points here as you can see the contrast between the white of the page and the darker shades of the cars.  I did darken a little bit of the trees and the stone wall slightly.

So I hope this illustrates how important it is to choose the right kind of medium for the job and how prismacolors  pencils are surely more than up for the task.  At roughly a buck a piece, it can get really expensive.  Therefore the Verithin pencils can be a nice alternative…but its a harder pencil and won’t give you the full value range.

If you have any questions about the type of medium to use for drawings, drop me a line and I’ll be more than happy to help!

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Ever sit down at a drawing table trying to figure out what to draw?  A few things come to mind when I see a blank page.

1. Crickets chirping
2. Staring out into empty  space
3. Go back and watch TV

A blank page is a scary because as artists or designers, we are always trying to populate a page full of sweet drawings that we want to be proud of.  So all these thoughts start to go through your mind….what do I draw?  Will it look good?  Is it creative enough?  What if someone sees it and think it sucks?  What if I think it sucks? I suck….and so on.  It’s a mental challenge and added to the fact that your friends or fellow students are also competing for that top spot.

However, if you remove these thoughts from your head, and replace your core fundamental feelings and questions with “what is my purpose for drawing in the first place?” “What do I want to get out of it and why?”  “Do I want to be a real pro?  Or do I want to tackle art from a casual perspective?”

Either way it should lead you to focus on the main idea or principle that it takes some work to be good at anything.  Even mediocrity takes some level of practice.  Once you understand this, you realize that whatever you put down on that blank page….DOES NOT MATTER!  Why?  Because you will be drawing hundreds of pages!

So the best technique to tackle the blank page is to just put something down as soon as you can.  Just populate it with shapes, geometric forms, circles, and scribbles…whatever.  Don’t even think about it too much.  Just do it.  In fact if you look at the video where I teach you how to use thumbnail sketches, that can be your starting point because it gives you a reason to start.  Or perhaps you can go even simpler and start practicing circles and ellipses.

So once you are warmed up…it helps to remove the initial tension and fear factor.  So try it!  Right now!  Do it!  Pick an object…or photo reference(try our pics)…anything to get you started.   After you are finished, you are still going to think…… “I SUCK!” Don’t worry, it’s normal but you couldn’t be further from the truth…because it is one step closer to your ultimate goal.  So if you did what I just said, then congratulate yourself.   You took the brave step to act and do something you have never done before.

As you practice and start to recognize progress, you become charged up, and that is where the drive starts to kick in!  You become empowered to practice and learn.  As a result…you will start to build a mental vocabulary of forms after which a blank page will no longer intimidate you.

Check out the video below to get some ideas!  The video below shows a tutorial on how to create these positive and negative shapes using Photoshop.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Now the next batch were done using just a sheet of paper and a Sharpie Marker!

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Kicking off a quick video on how you can explore dynamic compositions with your digital paintings.  Check out the video below!

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NOTE:
This tutorial assumes that you have some background knowledge on perspectives and are looking for new techniques to expand your expertise and approach.

WHAT YOU NEED:

1.  WACOM TABLET or CINTIQ – Without the Wacom tablet, it would be difficult to get the variation in line weight and value.  So frankly, it’s a must.  Plust Photoshop will not allow you to adjust certain brush options unless you have an input signal of pressure sensitivity.

2.  A decent PC or Mac.  I work with a Dell XPS 630i clocked at 3 ghz with 4GB of RAM.  Plus I have a 28 inch LCD monitor by Hanns G.  It’s totally awesome!

3.  Open mind and a positive attitude

4.  Drive, Determination, Discipline, Draw! (haven’t you seen our motto?  I HAD to put this in there )

INTRO:

Drawing or creating  paintings of sports cars, muscle cars, and classic cars can be a  blast but frustrating as well.   Sometimes after all that effort, you may feel you ended up with something …..that….quite frankly….SUCKS! But hey don’t worry, it happens to all of us.

Often times, I would sit down, have all my materials ready and think I was going to create this beautiful illustration.  I had it all in my head…until I laid down the first few paint strokes and then …I knew it was RUINED!  Not sure about you but preparing for a nice piece of art work can cause some anxiety and putting that amount of pressure on yourself to create your next masterpiece, actually ends up hurting your process.  This always happens when you are starting out.

REMOVING THE ANXIETY:

So wouldn’t it be cool if you could find a way to help remove the intimidation and pressure of completing a final rendering or painting and having it look close to what you want?  I’m here to tell you there is a way!

When it comes down to it, it’s all about process.  Setting up your process and nailing it down is extremely important. It gets you into the routine of executing consistently all the time.  The more consistent you are with you process, the more comfortable you will be with drawing.  Above all, be patient with your results.  Don’t rush things.  If you need more time to complete the painting, take more time and get back to it later.  A fresh eyes look in the morning will do you some good.  If digital still scares you, just warm up with some post it notes exercises.  You can check out some videos here and read an article I wrote about it here.

To help you all out, I am going to  take you through my process of creating a digital painting.  I used to spend a lot of time just starting to paint after completing my line drawing.  I would always find myself reworking the painting, in fact major parts of it.  When working on such a large scale as I do(300dpi at 16X24) the file sizes are extremely large and it takes a long time to work through the entire scene.

So let’s go through the steps shall we?

PROCESS:

1.  Whatever view you decide to choose, make sure you have your perspective construction lines.  It will lay the foundation for your work.

2.  Assuming that you have some background knowledge on drawing cars, you will need to make sure that your line drawing you intend to paint over is perfect to some extent.  The perspective should definitely be believable.  If the line drawing isn’t good, then your painting will suffer due to the very fact that your foundation line drawing was incorrect.  If you want to overlay a picture, you can do that from the beginning.

3.  Shown above is PLATE 1.  I started out with a background color using the gradient tool.   I am biased to “warm” colors.

4.  PLATE 2.  Here I choose my brush.  I actually use just the ordinary photoshop brush.  Nothing more.  The idea however, is for me to modify the brush as to give me a gouache type look to the painting.  To do this, I then select “OTHER DYNAMICS” within the brush tip options.  Check the box for “OTHER DYNAMICS.”    When highlighting “other dynamics” and make sure the “Opacity Jitter” is set to “0″ and that the Control is set to “Pen Pressure.”  Then select “Dual Brush.”  My secondary brush happens to be “sampled tip.” Which does not help you much.  I’ll publish my brushes so all of you can download them at some point.

5.  The Sports Car will be red.  So I use a base “foundation” color and start blocking in this value throughout the car.  It doesn’t have to be perfect.  Just start blocking in the color quickly until you cover the entire car.

6.  Now that you have filled the sports car in its entirety of a red hue (Plate 4).  You can start to add a little more value to start defining the areas of contrast.  Start to add a little darker red to the bottom of the vehicle which we can call the shadow side.  Then start to fill in the windshield with a darker bluer hue.  The center of the windshied can have a darker value as it will be a reflection.  Add some blacks to the outboard vents.

7.  Start defining the details around the headlamps with a dark brownish red color. (Plate 5) Use this color for the center air intake.  Start adding a violet color to the top surface of the hood and around the shoulders of the headlamps.  This violet color represents the cooler sky tones.  I choose violet only because the blue sky mixed in with a red shiny surface, will yield somewhat of a combination of these two colors.  Light blue + Deep red = approx violet.

8.  So now that a portion of the reflections are done, I decided to add some highlights around the car (Plate 6).  This would be around the windshield area and shoulders of the car.  Already you see this car taking some form.

9.  Start adding and indicating more detail (Plate 7).  The inside of the windshield should show or indicate some translucency due to the face that the windshield is actually clear. Indicate some details of the interior.  Use a slightly less darker blue hue.   Start adding some more nomenclature or indicate names of sponsors etc.  Move on to adding a grayish purple road texture and start blocking in this value throughout.

10.  So in Plate 8, most of it’s complete. The road and direction of the car is well defined with respect to the road.  I have added some darker value grays to create some dynamic skid marks around the car.  Begin to layout some grassy areas quickly.

11.  The last Plate 9, adds the finishing touches with a little more touchups to highlights and adding the road boundary on the IB side of the vehicle.

12.  The speed painting is then used as the foundation for the final digital painting executed in much more detail.  (If you like this painting and would like to purchase a metallic print, go here!  Prints help support this site and bring more value to those who are learning + the metallic format is just plain too cool!)

Hope you enjoyed this.  As always…tell your friends or any family members that are interested in learning more about automotive art to join www.drivenmavens.com!  Peace.

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Starting with that blank page is pretty difficult.    Even if you start sketching, sometimes you tend to sketch the same shape over and over again.  So how do you get over this and break that trend?  How do you generate different ideas without investing a whole lot of time? Finally, How would you like to energize your creative thinking and start sketching some MAD lookin shapes without even having to think about it(well…I guess the thinking will come in afterwards).

Now you can…for FREE!!!(That probably woke you up a little bit)  Enter a sweet software called Alchemy!  This software is simply BAD!!  It allows one to create random shapes, textures, thin and thick lines, rhythmic patterns, and many more things with a swipe of your mouse or wacom pen.  Many  pros are engaging this unique software like Scott Robertson(used on some conceptual vehicles in his book “DRIVE”), animators, automotive designers, and even schools are using it to help spark the creative minds of youth!

Below are a few sketches and a quick video that show you what you can do with Alchemy.  Alchemy will truly help inspire you to find treasure in absolute randomness, changing the way you sketch and generate ideas. Make sure you download the software here and start sketching!  Be sure to post up what you can come up with on the Driven Mavens Fanpage.

http://al.chemy.org/

Click here to view the embedded video.

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Keeping an active sketchbook is a great way to keep your skills fresh and up to the mark!  It’s cheap, no digital media or software required, just a pencil or pen.  You can draw any kind of subject matter on a sketchbook.  It doesn’t have to be strictly automotive.  The more you draw, the easier it is for your mind to be able to relate to the complexities of shape and form.  Plus…it works as a terrific visual journal, capturing your progressi0n.  So what should you draw?

Well if you are focused on automotive, then try concentrating on the following:
1.  Basic shapes and forms.  This may include boxes in perspective, ellipses, and cylinders.
2.  You can draw several profile side views of cars to generate themes.
3.  Wheels

You can even switch it up and start drawing:
4.  Still life
5.  People
6.  Anatomy

Practically anything you see before you!  However, remember, the goal is for you to get better at your craft.  The more practice you put in, the better your results, GUARANTEED!!

Here is a short video clip that shows some of my earlier sketches and my approach to subject matter.

Click here to view the embedded video.

So what are you waiting for?  Go out there and buy yourself a sketchbook.  Keep that drive alive!

Arvind

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Drawing wheels and tires can be somewhat difficult without knowing the basics and fundamentals of form. Part 2 on “How to Draw Wheels and Tires” concludes with adding some warmer tones and textures to the final digital painting.

Click here to view the embedded video.

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Drawing wheels and tires can be somewhat difficult without knowing the basics and fundamentals of form.  However, in this tutorial, we will review how to use a reference photograph to create a wheel and tire from an old grand prix car.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Hope you liked this tutorial.  Stay tuned for Part 2 next week where I’ll finish off the digital painting with some textures and warmer colors!

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Sorry for the long delay in posting but juggling the duties of fatherhood, husbandhood, AND preparing to move, can sort of suck up all your time!  So anyway…without any further delay…I wanted to discuss the power of using reference photos when drawing cars….or anything for that matter.

Having a strong reference library to help inspire, motivate, and educate yourself is one of the KEY elements in developing your visual vocabulary. It not only helps to make you a stronger artist, but it helps you to start thinking of all the details that are typically missing from drawings.

I was thinking that it would be great to have some high quality images available for people to download so they could increase their visual vocabulary. Exactly what can you do with the reference photos? Well…check out the video below!

Click here to view the embedded video.

Click on the link below to go the photo reference library

http://www.drivenmavens.com/automotive-reference/

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