How to Create a Cartoon Car

Whether you are trying to create an anthropomorphic vehicle like the characters of "Cars" or you are trying to recreate Fred Flintstone's and Hong Kong Phooey's awesome wheels, drawing cartoon cars is great fun. Using the medium of cartooning allows an artist to take liberties with design, colors, accessories and technological capabilities, resulting in inventions like Chitty Chitty Bang Bang or George Jetson's commuter spaceship.

Things You'll Need

• Drawing pencils (B and 2B)
• Eraser
• Heavy white drawing paper (recommended 50# or heavier)
• Reference photographs or illustrations

Instructions

1. Get inspired by looking at real cars as well as cartoon images of cars. Reference photographs, illustrations and car advertisements for a primer in the basic shapes that make up a car. For example, if you are drawing a cartoon '63 Chevy Impala, it may be broken down into a series of oblong rectangular boxes.

2. Practice sketching these basic shapes. Using your No. 2 drawing pencil, lay out the basic shape of the car using the rectangular shapes you have practiced. This step will demand erasing and redrawing to capture the correct angles and perspective. Study the way the major shapes connect with one another, so that you keep proportions relatively accurate. Of course, creating cartoon cars does not require complete accuracy.

3. Check your reference photograph or illustration to see what are the car's most prominent features. For example, with a Volkswagen Beetle, it would be the overall roundish "bug" shape. With the '63 Impala, it would be the dramatic arrow-like shape of the whole car.

4. Sketch the prominent features with your No. 2 pencil, but be sure to exaggerate them. Some features may become anthropomorphic, or animal-like, while others might veer toward the high-tech or pure fantasy. Develop the sketch by emphasizing the overall shape, erasing and redrawing until the disparate parts come together. If you start laughing out loud, you are on the right track.

5. Add details such as lights, tires, windows, handles and interior elements, exaggerating lines, ballooning shapes or shading in textures. You may want to add humorous details, such as animal fur, eyes, a face or various inanimate objects. Erase segments to add white space to the shading. You can opt to finish the drawing with the #4 pencil, which creates a dark rich line with a lot of character. If you like, finish in color in the medium of your choice, or with marker or India ink.

Tips & Warnings

• Try tracing the main shapes of your car right onto a magazine photograph or computer printout with a Sharpie marker. Use a light table to transfer your outline to your drawing paper.

• Remember that car images from cartoons are under copyright.