Studebaker Cruiser Side Drawing

I was very fortunate to meet a cool cat at the Michigan Antique Festival who wanted to commission some drawings for his son’s birthday. His first classic car is this 1966 Studebaker Cruiser, which I had never heard of before this project. This Studebaker Cruiser side drawing is the first of three in a series.

I started the drawing with a basic rough sketch in pencil on gray paper. I think the gray paper is very classy and make the drawing look similar to a vintage blueprint.

Next, I lined the drawing with Micron 02. At first glance, the Cruiser is a very boxy standard four-door sedan, but when you study the body, there are a lot of really cool contours in the fenders.

Next, I used thicker line weight Micron pens to add some atmosphere to the drawing, making it more three-dimensional.

At this point, the line drawing was complete and it was time to move on to marker rendering. I started with the grays in the wheels, shadow, chrome work, and interior. I also added a splash of light blue in the chrome hubcaps to represent sky reflection.

Next, I rendered the body with a series of blues starting with light and working toward dark.

I left the body intentionally a little lighter than the actual car in order to capture some of the body lines that would otherwise be lost in the dark blue body.

Finally, I used Posca white to represent light reflections throughout the body and brightwork.

Lastly, I cropped the drawing and framed it in 11×14.

I started with this Studebaker Cruiser side drawing because I love the side profile drawings- they’re classic and stately. What a great way to memorialize this beautiful Studebaker!