Drum Head Buick Drawing

In addition to making hot rod art, my other artistic hobby is playing drums. I collect vintage drum sets and along with that occasionally comes some interesting spare parts. For instance, I have some spare drum heads, some original vintage. How cool would it be to create some hot rod art on a vintage drum head!? My first attempt is this drum head Buick drawing.

The drum head is an original equipment 1969 Ludwig Weathermaster with fifty years of patina. The car I picked is a 1941 Buick kustom. I started with a rough pencil sketch to lay the car out. The only thing I wish I had done was make the drawing a little bigger to fill the space better. That said, I think it still turned out awesome!

I like this perspective: it’s a simplistic side view, but it adds some complexity by being rotated slightly toward the front and top to give it some dimensionality.

Next, I lined the drawing with a heavy-weight Micron 05 pen. This drum head is coated, which allows the ink to stick pretty well, but I had to be very careful not to smear it because it definitely does not absorb like paper does.

Micron 08 – my heaviest fixed-tip pen – added the atmospheric perspective to the drawing. Heavier line weights strategically added to bottom surfaces and contours closer than others helps lift the image and create a sense of depth.

Next, I used Sharpie to fill in the shaded portions of the drum head Buick drawing. This is my favorite part of the process. It’s the point at which you can really start to notice the depth and detail in the car. The chrome hub caps in particular begin to take on a sense of shininess.

Finally, I used Posca white to create the light reflections in the body and chrome. Even after the drawing was dry, it was able to smudge. To preserve it, I used an aerosol lacquer to seal it in against the drum head.

This drum head Buick drawing will be available for sale at shows this summer for $100. Keep an eye out for show dates. I’ll post them soon!