Automobiles: A Car is a Story
Feel the horsepower. Smell the burning rubber. What the artist pumps into his drawing is the fuel that drives effective visual journalism.
I'm beginning a series of posts on Substack about the popular themes that inspire reportage artists. A drawing is more than just a drawing, since it embeds a story. Artists make choices on what to draw, from a particular angle, with an intention to share something. This subjectivity informs the narrative. Adding text and other informative content to an image can also provide a greater depth of understanding to the narrative. Here is the first in a series of artists and their iconic themes, I call the idée fixe.
Automobiles:
America is obsessed with automobiles and car culture. Here are a couple of outstanding artists and their car drawings, with some descriptive text. It’s their personal passion for cars that informs their work.
Mark Simmons
San Francisco illustrator and comic book artist Mark Simmons draws hot rods, classics and custom cars at the Sunset Sketchers meetups out at the city’s Ocean Beach. He teaches comic art, so he knows the importance of educating viewers in his drawings. Simmons does graphic recording and nature journaling for organizations, like the San Francisco Zoo. Don’t call them infographics since they’re so artful and fun.
He started drawing trucks.
“I actually got the vehicle-drawing bug about 15 years ago, when the school across the street started hosting annual ‘touch-a-truck day’ events. You can't pass up that subject matter if they're going to drop it literally on your doorstep! My favorite vehicle type is probably construction machines, especially backhoe loaders, because you get the extreme perspective, plus a lot of functional contraptions and moving parts. Definitely a challenging drawing subject for an idle afternoon.”
Then Simmons moved on to drawing vintage automobiles. He shares how shapes and lighting are important.
“In drawing vintage cars, the main thing I'm trying to focus on is retaining the character of the car by showing its distinctive curves and slanted lines onto the boxy geometry. The graceful contours of these cars present an intriguing contrast to the angular trucks that initially captivated me. Lighting effects, particularly the reflections on the shinier ones, make the car more alluring.”
Simmons also engages the future.
“On a 2019 visit to the Petersen Automotive Museum in Los Angeles, their exhibit of famous sci-fi cars was ‘like a gateway drug’. It got me thinking about the futuristic art of Syd Mead, with his flowing lines to give a feeling of speed and a sense of excitement.”
Attention to shape, line, detail, and accuracy are important in a car drawing, especially if you want to endure the scrutiny of dedicated car enthusiasts. Simmons knows context and narrative are equally significant in this realm. Step into a car show, and you’ll find an abundance of anecdotes waiting to be shared.
Find more of Mark Simmons’ cars on his website and Instagram.
Drawings © Mark Simmons, all rights reserved
Paul Heaston
Illustrator Paul Heaston is always drawing. You can tell by looking at his Instagram, with its one million followers. He drives in his Subaru around Denver, Colorado finding cars and trucks that fascinate him enough to draw. He’ll also sketch motorcycles, trains and assorted machinery. You could say it's his forte. He applies his 'intuitive perspective' that puts the viewer into the scene. This point of view allows you to participate in his passion.
“A ‘66 Ford F250 with the Avion Camper (above) is parked just off Tennyson Street in Denver in a historic shopping district. I’ve seen it a few times, but there was no good way to sketch it (from my car) while parked on the street. I finally decided to pull out my camp chair and sketch it from the sidewalk. It was the perfect time of day; the strong afternoon sunlight washed out the white truck body and emphasized the metallic gleam of the camper.”
“An old Chevy pickup is parked in front of the Commerce City Historical Society building in Commerce City, Colorado. This small community, just north of Denver is mostly filled with industrial buildings and a handful of little neighborhoods. I discovered the truck while driving by and pulled into a parking spot across the way to sketch.”
“The Chevy Bel Air was a commission from the owner who had seen my work online. He asked me to come and sketch it while it was parked outside his office. He periodically came out to watch the progress and I gave it to him as soon as I finished.”
Heaston is a curious sleuth. He finds moments every day to search and draw. He finds a car that interests him. He takes out his sketchbook, then proceeds to make ink marks with his fountain pen of what he sees, then applies gray washes to add volume to the form. He gets the proportions of the automobile correct. He always has something to say about the car, like the make, model and the location where he finds it. Watch his process in this video of him sketching a VW Beetle.
Purchase Paul Heaston's book, sketches of cars and trucks at Blurb. He makes prints, available here, from his on-location drawings, that he calls his Roadside Artifacts.
Drawings © Paul Heaston, all rights reserved
Bill Russell…me
I’m not a car fanatic, but there’s something about old Fords that’s personal to me. I come from a town (Oakville, Ontario) that once had the largest Ford assembly plant in North America. I worked a summer on the assembly line. Every couple of years, when I was growing up, my father, an undertaker, would treat himself to a brand new Ford Galaxy 500, and it would always be sleek black. He used them to take grieving families in funeral processions to the cemetery. I guess it was a business deduction.
Here are a few of my favorite Fords, drawn at various car shows.
Drawings © Bill Russell, all rights reserved
Car owners are prideful and sometimes obsessive, especially if they’ve customized one, or just brought it back to life. They may spend a lot of money on them (just visit Concours d’Elegance in Pebble Beach, California). Cars symbolize who we are and what we covet. It’s worth telling the full story when you draw one.
In the coming weeks, l’ll bring you more drawings and stories from artists and their idée fixe, like music, food, trees and more.
Fabulous theme and cool images, all. Nice to see Bill Russell work in this theme as well!
Mark's sketches are amazing and so beautifully observed. He's one of our local SF urban sketchers. Hey Bill, are you covering tree obsessions? That's my idee fixe... I really enjoy reading your sketch stories, they're always so eclectic.