BOOKS IN THIS SERIES
• Draw 50 Airplanes, Aircraft, and Spacecraft
• Draw 50 Aliens
• Draw 50 Animal ‘Toons
• Draw 50 Animals
• Draw 50 Athletes
• Draw 50 Baby Animals
• Draw 50 Beasties
• Draw 50 Birds
• Draw 50 Boats, Ships, Trucks, and Trains
• Draw 50 Buildings and Other Structures
• Draw 50 Cars, Trucks, and Motorcycles
• Draw 50 Cats
• Draw 50 Creepy Crawlies
• Draw 50 Dinosaurs and Other Prehistoric Animals
• Draw 50 Dogs
• Draw 50 Endangered Animals
• Draw 50 Famous Cartoons
• Draw 50 Flowers, Trees, and Other Plants
• Draw 50 Horses
• Draw 50 Magical Creatures
• Draw 50 Monsters
• Draw 50 People
• Draw 50 Princesses
• Draw 50 Sharks, Whales, and Other Sea Creatures
• Draw 50 Vehicles
• Draw the Draw 50 Way
Copyright © 1986 by Jocelyn S. Ames and Murray D. Zak
All rights reserved.
Published in the United States by Watson-Guptill Publications, an imprint of the Crown
Publishing Group, a division of Random House, Inc., New York, in 2012.
www.crownpublishing.com
WATSON-GUPTILL and the WG and Horse designs are registered trademarks of Random
House, Inc.
Originally published in hardcover in the United States by Doubleday, a division of Random
House, Inc., New York, in 1986.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Ames, Lee J.
Draw 50 cars, trucks, and motorcycles.
p. cm.
Summary: Provides step-by-step instructions on how to draw a variety of cars, trucks, and
motorcycles, including a Ford Thunderbird, cement trucks, and minibikes.
1. Motor vehicles in art—Juvenile literature. 2. Drawing— Technique—Juvenile literature. [1.
Motor vehicles in art. 2. Drawing—Technique] I. Title. II. Title: Draw fifty cars.
NC825.M64A44 1986 743′.896292 85-13157
eISBN: 978-0-7704-3287-4
v3.1
To Mark David and Hillary Leigh, my two grand
kids!
… and thanks to Warren Budd for all his help.
Contents
Cover
Title Page
Copyright
Dedication
To the Reader
To the Parent or Teacher
First Page
About the Author
Draw 50 Cars, Trucks, and Motorcycles
TO THE READER
This book will show you a way to draw cars, trucks, bikes and
motorcycles. You need not start with the first illustration. Choose
whichever you wish. When you have decided, follow the step-by-step
method shown. Very lightly and carefully, sketch out step number
one. However, this step, which is the easiest, should be done most
carefully. Step number two is added right to step number one, also
lightly and also very carefully. Step number three is sketched right on
top of numbers one and two. Continue this way to the last step.
It may seem strange to ask you to be extra careful when you are
drawing what seem to be the easiest first steps, but this is most
important because a careless mistake at the beginning may spoil the
whole picture at the end. As you sketch out each step, watch the
spaces between the lines, as well as the lines, and see that they are
the same. After each step, you may want to lighten your work by
pressing it with a kneaded eraser (available at art supply stores).
When you have finished, you may want to redo the final step in
India ink with a fine brush or pen. When the ink is dry, use the
kneaded eraser to clean off the pencil lines. The eraser will not affect
the India ink.
Here are some suggestions: In the first few steps, even when all
seems quite correct, you might do well to hold your work up to a
mirror. Sometimes the mirror shows that you’ve twisted the drawing
off to one side without being aware of it. At first you may find it
difficult to draw the boxes, triangles, or circles, or just to make the
pencil go where you wish. Don’t be discouraged. The more you
practice, the more control you will develop. Use a compass or a ruler if
you wish; professional artists do! The only equipment you’ll need will
be a medium or soft pencil, paper, the kneaded eraser and, if you
wish, a compass, ruler, pen, or brush.
The first steps in this book are shown darker than necessary so that
they can be clearly seen. (Keep your own work very light.)
Remember, there are many other ways and methods to make
drawings. This book shows just one method. Why don’t you seek out
other ways and methods to make drawings— from teachers, from
libraries and, most importantly … from inside yourself?
LEE J. AMES
SPECIAL NOTES:
On drawing wheels:
Since many of the wheels in this book are angled and not perfect
circles, I’ve used a “drawn from quartering” method to achieve the
appropriate roundness.
“Faking”:
When drawing complex motor or machinery detail, if you were to
include every nut, bolt, spring, cylinder etc., it would take forever and
distract you from being concerned with the whole picture. “Faking” is
one solution. “Faking” is drawing in the general look of something as
complex as an engine with strong strokes, dashes, dots, squiggles etc.
that just suggest the subject. See below:
TO THE PARENT OR TEACHER
“Leslie can draw a Rolls-Royce better than anybody else!” Such peer
acclaim and encouragement generate incentive. Contemporary
methods of art instruction (freedom of expression, experimentation,
self-evaluation of competence and growth) provide a vigorous, fresh-
air approach for which we must all be grateful.
New ideas need not, however, totally exclude the old. One such is
the “follow me, step-by-step” approach. In my young learning days
this method was so common, and frequently so exclusive, that the
student became nothing more than a panto-graphic extension of the
teacher. In those days it was excessively overworked.
This does not mean that the young hand is never to be guided.
Rather, specific guiding is fundamental. Step-by-step guiding that
produces satisfactory results is valuable even when the means of
accomplishment are not fully understood by the student.
The novice with a musical instrument is frequently taught to play
simple melodies as quickly as possible, well before he learns the most
elemental scratchings at the surface of music theory. The resultant
self-satisfaction, pride in accomplishment, can be a significant means
of providing motivation. And all from mimicking an instructor’s “Do-
as-I-do …”
Mimicry is prerequisite for developing creativity. We learn the use of
our tools by mimicry. Then we can use those tools for creativity. To
this end I would offer the budding artist the opportunity to memorize
or mimic (rote-like, if you wish) the making of “pictures.” “Pictures”
he has been anxious to be able to draw.
The use of this book should be available to anyone who wants to try
another way of flapping his wings. Perhaps he or she will then get off
the ground when a friend says, “Leslie can draw a Rolls-Royce better
than anybody else!”
LEE J. AMES
Formula 5000
Jaguar XK-E 2 + 2 4.2 litre
Gabelich’s “Blue Flame”—1970
1984 Chevrolet Corvette
Ferrari 512S Racer
1975 Triumph TR-7
1977 Maserati Bora
Dragster—1967 Ford
Hot Rod
USAC Midget
Hot Rod—Gary Reymund’s ‘23
1935 Bentley
1974 Volkswagen Beetle
1936 Cord Westchester
1936 Bugatti Surbaisse
1933 Rolls-Royce “Phantom II”
1957 Ford Thunderbird
1912 Brewster Town Car
1937 Pontiac Rumble-seat Coupé
1974 Glassic Model A replica
1964 Ford Mustang
1964 Corvette XP819
1981 Cadillac Limousine
1932 Chevrolet Phaeton
Modied 1951 Ford—low rider
Euclid Dump Truck
Refrigerator Trailer
Ford Bronco II
1974 Ford E-100 Custom Van
Nissan 4×4 Sport Truck
Mazda B2000 Sundowner
Micro Van—Subaru’s Domingo
Tandem Bicycle
Road Racing Superbike
Motocross (Panasonic) with Piranha wheels
Panasonic 10-speed Bicycle
Suzuki ALT 125 3×6
Lambretta Scooter T-V175
Mike-Bike MB-6L
1949 Piaggio Vespa
Mini Chopper
BMW R 100RS
Francis-Barnett 249-c.c. Scrambler
Yamaha Virago
Harley-Davidson XLH 883 Sportster
Husqvarna 430 CR
B. F. Meyers Manx 2 Dune Buggy
Penny Farthing—1870
1898 Winton Buggy
Suzuki Quadrunner 125
Lee J. Ames began his career at the Walt Disney Studios, working on
films that included Fantasia and Pinocchio. He taught at the School of
Visual Arts in Manhattan, and at Dowling College on Long Island, New
York. An avid worker, Ames directed his own advertising agency,
illustrated for several magazines, and illustrated approximately 150
books that range from picture books to postgraduate texts. He resided
in Dix Hills, Long Island, with his wife, Jocelyn, until his death in June
2011.
DRAW 50 CARS, TRUCKS, AND MOTORCYCLES
Experience All That the Draw 50 Series Has to Offer!
With this proven, step-by-step method, Lee J. Ames has taught millions how to draw
everything from amphibians to automobiles. Now it’s your turn! Pick up the pencil, get out
some paper, and learn how to draw everything under the sun with the Draw 50 series.
Also Available:
• Draw 50 Airplanes, Aircraft, and Spacecraft
• Draw 50 Animals
• Draw 50 Athletes
• Draw 50 Baby Animals
• Draw 50 Flowers, Trees, and Other Plants
• Draw 50 Sharks, Whales, and Other Sea Creatures
• Draw 50 Vehicles
