Cars With Character

I was very reluctant at first to attempt doing car caricatures.

It seemed clear when drawing people that there was nearly always some distinguishing feature to help identify the subject. I was not as confident in my approach to cars.

It took me awhile to loosen up and allow the necessary distortions of form to happen. I kept wanting to measure this and that and resisted deliberate exaggerations. The differences in what you see and what you feel, in art, can be very subtle but, are extremely important. I found that drawing a fender, for example, could depend as much on the personality of the fender as it did on the precise geometric proportions.

I learned that things, as well as people, have character; personalities, that one 1957 Corvette can look unique to all other 1957 Corvettes simply by drawing that personality in.

Sounds crazy, huh?

If I asked you to draw me a Corvette, you immediately begin to picture the familiar lines in your mind; a psychic photograph of every Corvette you're ever seen. However, If I asked you to draw me a Corvette that is high-spirited, spunky, cocky, yet happy and inviting, you begin to see that car in relation to people you've know. You are required to anthropomorphize the Corvette into someone with the personality and temperament requested. The difference between a photograph of that car and the caricaturization of that car is dependent on how successful you've been at giving it a personality.

It seems that drawing caricatures of things departs very little from drawing caricatures of people.

Check out the spunky, cocky, happy 1957 Vette I drew. Fun, huh?