Hot Rod Color Study

I saw a picture of this old chopped and dropped hot rod last week on the H.A.M.B. and thought it would be fun to do a hot rod color study.

Here’s the process:

First, I sketched out the car in pencil using a circle template, ruler, and french curves.

Next, I retraced over the lines with a variety of Micron pen weights, and scanned it in.

I printed three copies of this scan and saved the original for later. The first render was using just pens and Sharpie for shading. This one is not only my favorite of this study, but may be my favorite drawing I’ve made so far.

In the second and third copies, I wanted to use some markers so I picked two color schemes I liked – white with red scallops and wheels, and blue with white scallops and black wheels.

I like how the blue one turned out – the darker contrast allowed me to use Posca white more effectively for the reflections in both the body and the wheels.

The red one turned out cool and really pops off the page with the red outline around the car. I made the filter elements inside the velocity stacks red on this one as well.

I like all three designs very much and they’re all very different, but the black and white pen rendering is my favorite. Still another style yet is the one I used to make the ’32 Ford coupe race car a few weeks ago. Which do you like the most from this hot rod color study?