How to draw a car step by step, Mustang Shelby GT500 with marker pens and pencil.

The Mustang Shelby was drawn onto paper using a 0.5, 3B mechanical pencil it took a long time to draw out the construction drawing for this car and when finished the drawing had damaged the paper through having to erase lines, correcting them for accuracy. This drawing was not the drawing used for the finished car because it was too badly damaged from doing the construction drawing so I traced over the original drawing to get my plan drawing onto less damaged paper.

Please see original enlarged picture with grid lines drawn in below and the finished plan drawing that I used for taking my tracing from.

The original plan drawing above was constructed using a grid reference method this is where you use a grid to reference where the lines of the subject cross the grid squares one by one. You will see in the example above that square one has two points of contact and can easily be measured through comparison with the original picture or subject matter. I will not go into any great detail about grid reference drawing here because you can find more information about it by visiting the page (How to draw cars easy step by step).

When you draw onto a piece of paper it dose not matter how careful you do your drawing but the act of drawing a pencil on paper damages or changes the surface of the paper in different measures, mostly by leaving groves.

This is because paper is soft and when the pencil is pressed onto it the paper the surface underneath is compressed leaving a grove that can perhaps not be seen when you erase the line or mark but if you draw over these marks again they change. When pencil marks have been draw then erased and you draw over the area again it is very difficult to get a nice even tone because the paper is damage. The pencil marks adhere to the paper differently and usually leave darker areas of tone making it difficult to blend evenly to create soft graduated tones. These groves often show up more prominently when you apply marker pens over the top and this distracts the eye so spoils the finished drawing.

I most often start with a fresh new piece of paper and trace my outline plan drawing onto it so as to avoid this from happening.

Marker pen sets are expensive and the ones I am using are the best deal I could find for basic sets at the time which where Touch Markers, 12 grey tones and 12 colors.  I also buy others when I find them to try out, I like the sharpies which are quite good and easily obtainable. I find that none of these pens are as blendable as I would like them to be with the white of the paper so I don’t plan on doing much blending with them from the start.

I also use ordinary cartridge paper because the special paper used for drawing with markers that reduces the bleeding effect is not easily attainable in the sizes I like to use and also expensive. I also use a piece of paper underneath my drawing because the ink bleeds right through the paper marking the surface underneath if there is nothing to catch it like another piece of paper, it also makes a softer drawing surface which I prefer to a hard surface.  

Typically I worked on the wheels first because like many others I find them to be the most time consuming and difficult, this dictates that I start in the darker areas first but using the lighter grey blue, grey green tones to build up my accuracy. I also work towards the line if it is an area that is going to be blocked out with a darker tone eventually and then ease my way towards the line because marker pens bleed into the paper leaving uneven edges, frayed. I use the finest tip of the marker possible and if you draw a slightly longer line than usual you can see the bleeding frayed edges appearing in the areas just previously drawn as you work your marker. This helps you to understand better and more quickly how far the ink is spreading through the paper making it easier to judge how far to work from the line edge.

I also work with the wheels first because if you get the wheels to look good the rest of the picture can be achieved more easily.

Don’t panic about drawing accurate drawings these can be achieved easily with a little practice using a grid reference method of construction drawing, it helps you to see better, to understand the dimensions and or proportions of the whole drawing, wheels as well.

Below you can see a drawing where the wheels have been nearly completed.

The front grill was difficult to draw and I must admit that I did not get it quite like the original grill on the car because of the way markers bleed but so much had already been draw well I continued the drawing even though it was not quite accurate.

The image below shows the grill half drawn.

The drawing below shows the grill almost completed and looks good even though it is not quite accurate.

I then block out the darker areas of color in this case the dark blue to emphasize the lines and contours of the car body, giving it shape, meaning and definition. It would be nice to be able to blend these marks into the white of the paper to better create the illusion of light reflecting off the car paint but the marker pens I am using do not blend easily into the white of the paper. You can get a wide range of colors and tones in maker pens that enable you to be able to blend into the white of the paper more easily but as I have said these pens are expensive with full sets costing hundreds of dollars that I am not prepared to pay.

@j2cool2

Size matters they are all blendable the problem is size, I draw A2 & A1 size, I was deprived of paper as a child, ha,ha, thank you for pointing that out I think I need to address it, size matters. All_bleeding_pens_blend_ but size matters, speed matters too, these are alcohol based pens so I need to keep the paper wet which is difficult over large areas hence the need for speed it reduces streaking, going in the opposite direction helps as well. To blend really well you need the same color in different shades from strong to lighter shades so they can be blended in layers, blending pens will help to blend further but even over large areas these dry up so size matters A3 & A4 is a better sized paper. A wide range of colors is the best advantage for blending but they are all expensive when buying 3 or 4 versions of the same color in lighter tones so I keep the cost down by blocking out my drawing.

I block out the darker and lighter areas so that I can use two colors to effectively create the shape, meaning and definition. The image below will give you a better idea of what I mean by this technique of blocking out areas of different colors or tones and shows how the cars shape is coming together with only one color being used.

Once this stage is completed I then fill in the lighter areas with a different lighter shade of the same color this creates the illusion of light reflecting off the paint of the car which can be better seen in the image below.

Finally the windshield, lights and small details are added to give the finishing touches to the drawing making it seem more realistic, giving it meaning.

Another Hubpage, How to draw cars easy, step by step will provide you with information about using grid reference methods plus other tips and tricks for free.

Finally I would just like to say that I hope you enjoy drawing the cars for your own garage as much as I do and all the very best to your success.