Audi A2 Concept exterior sketches by Audi Design team

The Audi A2 Concept sketches (Concept ready for Frankfurt) show good design and very good skills in sketching a car from basic proportions to details.
The light sections on the hood (center line) and on doors (side sections) help to understand the 3D development of this Concept, the body is fairly simple with cut by strong graphic fascias on the side to hide door handles and give a sense of continuity and fluidity to its design, the down part is a protective zone which graphicly makes the overall car very stable and well seated on the ground.

These elements are key factors to obtain a good proportioned car body and adding the light sections on body makes the sketch very believable. All details like front grille, logo and lights graphics plus the alluminum alloy wheel design give that artistic touch to the illustration and credibility at the same time. Last but not the least is the choice of bakground dividing the page in two parts with a black upper area and a medium dark lower area...this type of background is very appropiate for white color sketches enhancing the car and its dynamic design. In other words a real positive support to the car illustration.

I hope that all of you can try to copy this style to exercise your skills and learn a new way to render and represent your projects.

For all sketches interior and exterior click: Audi A2 Concept sketches

Bugatti illustration by Marco Reggiani

This is a Bugatti EXK5 rendering by IAAD Turin design school student Marco Reggiani. I publish his rendering because it is really well done I guess for the Illustration Techniques class.
In the Bugatti rendering we have all good ingredients to make a good professional illustration:

-Composition on page
-dramatic perspective with tilted vision angle
-strong contrasts
-warm & cool colors
-good detailing (ground and body reflextions)
-super simple background

Check out Marco Reggiani's sketches & works clicking: Reggiani renderings

Citroen 2cv rendering by Antoine Chassagne

 Today we keep on talking about good illustration and rendering scenarios to give a real dramatic effect to our works or drawings using simple rules just like I explained few days ago on my post "Car Rendering by Mike Kim"
Antoine Chassagne, a 2CV Citroen lover, made this beautiful rendering about an old garage environment with a 2cv Citroen on wich he concentrated his focal point. It is about a nostalgic story and this is touching our hearts, the color choice is about "sepia tones" perfect for a nostalgic environment (like old photos techniques).
The background is really supporting the subject and the right windows have the same effect of Kim's tunnel in the F1 race tunnel rendering. The windows are reinforcing the forced perspective to give energy to the all illustration.
No tilted plane, in this case no need for it, however great detailing to make us believe we are in that garage!

Visit please Antoine Chassagne website clicking: Antoine Chassage portfolio.

Car rendering by Mike Kim

 This car rendering is made by Mike Kim, I decided to publish it here because it has all ingredients to make an excellent car design illustration so for us it is a good example to study to learn and remember few rules to make a good illustration or rendering for our final presentation.

So the strong points here are:

- Composition on paper is very dynamic, the perspective is slightly tilted just few degrees is ok. The tunnel is a great environment to express speed and the exit placed on a forced left vanishing point is just right to accellerate the eyes viewer.
-High contrast and good balance of cold and warm lights and colors.
-Car is placed very well like is passing in front of a camera infact its linework is a bit distorted (lens of a camera almost a fish eye perspective), this element helps the dynamic effect of the composition.
-Great deatailing on the car that is the real subject so good detailing with strong focal point ( around Malboro type graphic) this is the first reading subject.
-The  small far car on the right gives sense of speed but also reinforces the story of the composition. This is a race and that car is there to give us the perception of racing and passing. This is the second redaing subject.

I suggest you to go check Mike Kim's art works and car design sketches clicking Mike Kim

Tape car drawing in side view

 

Tape drawings in Car Design were very popular in american design schools like Art Center College in Pasadena and some european design schools (this tape drawing is made by Sylv Lai from Pforzheim). Unfortunately during last years to make tape drawings is becoming rare in design studios as well design schools, this is bad because to make a good side scale 1:1 tape car drawing is the best way to judge proportions before going to modeling, drawing with black tapes of different sizes requires real skills. Sylv's illustration shows how well we can get 3D effect and size impression working with tapes and paper.

I hope that each one of you will try to make severals even if in a smaller scale like 1:4 because you will learn a lot from doing it.

Here a great video for you!

Legacy Lightcycle sketching by Daniel Simon

In this video concept designer Daniel Simon explanes how he designed the Legacy Lightcycle, an interesting video tutorial with cool sketching action.

Check out Daniel Simon's professional portfolio clicking: Simon's designs

Car sketch wall at Cardesign.ru

 Hi friends,

few days ago I wrote about car design sketches research showing you Simko website. Today I would like to show you (for those that do not know yet) that Cardesign.ru website has also a great collection of excellent car sketches a real "sketch wall" to see. Clicking on each sketch you will see also the designer portfolio, here an illustration done by Vasiliy Kanevskiy for a sponsored project by KISKA Design.

So go to the website clicking "Car sektch wall" and check it all out you will love it!

Professional car sketching SIMKOM a website to see

 This great table of car sketches has been done by car designer Matt Dillon from UK, this sketches as many many others of extremely good quality can be found on SIMKOM a website directed by Prosche cardesigner Marek Simko from Germany.
I invite all of you to go and check this website because you will find greatest selection of car sketches and renderings from professional talented car designers from most known design studios around the world.

Click on SIMKOM and look for references to improve your skills!

Car sketch Copic markers tutorial by Michele Leonello

 Michele Leonello is a professional car designer (ex Alfa Romeo) and a teacher moreover he is a good friend of mine and so I asked him to make a post on car sketching together.
I asked him to prepare a car sketch tutorial using Copic Markers in 8 steps for you followers of this blog and for all passionate of car design sketching.

The image here published is Michele's final result of his demo to discover all the sequence with my explanation step by step just click: Michele Leonello's car sketching tutorial.

Image courtesy of Michele Leonello

VW research sketches by Akos Szaz

 

How many times we talked about quick quality sketches? Many times, we said also that quick sketching is very usefull for training, for your sketchbook, for your portfolio.

Sketching cars is a matter of talent, passion and skills.

Here a good example by Akos Szaz who I had the pleasure to meet some time ago and see his great works and portfolio.

In this VW research sketch we admire drawing skills, linework and line quality, look at the overall composition, the choice of black and white color is good because of a crowded composition, very good focal point on the upper right corner (a bit of grey markers of different tones to give depth), very smart to draw the side body sections to explane better the volumes of each sketch, and  last but not the least the different designs of front end on each sketch (good variety).

See more at: Akos Szaz blog

Car drawings by Brook Banham

 Here some automotive design sketches by Brook Banham, I like the style. To check more click Brook Banham

Kia Rio interior sketch

 

Kia diffuses new sketches of next Rio model to be presented in Geneva Auto Show 2011, here the interior sketch.

Interior car drawings are not easy to do Kia designer here did a great job in using the right perspective and view, a very light rendering technique, some sections to give depth and reality, enough details to make the interior proportions and design credible.

For the rest of Kia Rio sketches click: Kia Rio Geneva 2011

Digital Art by Vadim Gousmanov

 

Dear friends often I wrote about the importance of Figure Drawing in Car Design sketching, this beautiful example by Vadim Gousmanov shows how great, emotional and  professional can be this type of drawing subjects. In the image there is a very good sense of proportions, compositions, warm and cool color control, focal point, drawing technique and digital media knowledge.

The digital media has been used very wisely without overworking the painting mastering it.

Vadim Gousmanov is also a brilliant car designer, to see some of his car sketches and illustrations click: Vadim Gousmanov Digital Art and Car Design

BMW Isetta rendering by Fogarasi

 

Fogarasi is a car design student in Budapest and is the author of this beautiful BMW Isetta rendering, it looks like a quick sketch painting with nice brush strokes, full of energy and talent. 

Check out his blog clicking : Fogarasi blog

GM new small car sketches

 This is one of some great sketches of next small GM car soon to arrive on the market, here we are interested in its rendering and illustration quality.
A red sketch is not easy to do and the GM designer has been really good in doing it. We can see the use and mix of different colors to get a real red car body effect: we have red, orange, black, pink, some violet.
Great use of highlights and details, great focal point on front left car corner and a good use of warm and cool colors (warm on the right watching the illustration and cool on opposite side).

The background helps a lot the sketch to stand out, the black parto on our right is punching the sketch making a good contrast with the top of the car and its side windows, perfect linedrawing too.

For more GM small car sketches just click: GM sketches

Drawing of a portrait using charcoal

Today I decided to publish this portrait charcoal drawing to remind 3 important factors: proportions - chiaro scuro with gray scale - ability to draw free hand and blending color to design volumes.
All this is the base of sketching correctly any type of car or anything.

Enjoy and try it!

Prismacolor car sketch video tutorial

Drawing Cars: Value Sketching 1 from Arvind Ramkrishna on Vimeo.

Great video tutorial by Drivenmavens, how to use Prismacolor black pencils to draw an outline of a car and then create a focal point with linework and shading.
Watch this video and try to do the same.

Sketching well is a matter of training.

 Spencer Nugent published this demo on his blog IDSketching.com 
His point was to demonstrate how, by exercising hard, we can improve our sketching technique as well as our skills. Back in school my teachers used to say " to draw well you must exercise over and over untill you get sick of it"...they were right!
With this drawing Spencer Nugent shows us exactly the same thing, the blu line drawing is one of his first car drawings ever made and the black line one is a recent one done on an Ipad.
This is a fact, Spencer Nugent is a well known designer and internet professional reference in our field with the website IDSketching.
I think that one of his strong points in drawing is the good sense of perspective and his skill in managing the linework quality.
So what are you waiting for? Go back to your drawings :)

For a video tutorial click: car sketching video demo

Mercedes Benz SLS AMG concept sketches

 The Mercedes Benz SLS AMG concept sketches. A clear new design language and brand image, the sketches are preatty good  with nice details and body sections.
Seen on Luxuo.com

Car sketch tutorial video by Spencer Nugent

IDSKETCHING.COM: Pinewood Derby/Toy Car Sketch from Industrial Design Sketching on Vimeo.

Many times we talk about simple pencil sketches to learn how to control proportions and perspective, how to apply simple shadows and a fairly good linework.
In this video tutorial (digital sketch) done by Spencer Nugent and published on IDSketching.com we can see how to start drawing a car with simple steps.
Have fun and try to COPY, OK?

Please I invite you to visit the website IDsketching