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Have you ever dreamed of working with automotive design? From designing your dream car to designing your very own BMW car? It couldn't be easier! Using the example of the new BMW 2 Series Gran Coupé, our video tutorial shows you step by step how to create an impressive drawing of your BMW dream car. All you need is pen and paper, and with tips from two BMW exterior designers, even a novice can create a near-perfect car sketch in no time!
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Video: BMW designer Anders Thøgersen explains drawing techniques you can use to design the BMW 2 Series Gran Coupé
How to draw a car: 5 tips from Anders Thøgersen
look at cars
Before attempting your first automatic sketch, you need to collect as many impressions as possible. Look at the cars on the street. How are they provided? How do the lines change depending on how the light hits the vehicle? What are the most striking elements? From which perspective does the vehicle appear more dynamic?
leisurely
My advice to beginners is not to start with the expectation that the first sketch of the car will be a success. Be brave: There are no mistakes, only new ideas. Think about the shape and silhouette of your dream BMW. A coupe? A limousine? What should the sketch express? Dynamics? Ambitious? Size? Where will the character line be? What will the famous kidney grille look like? How are the different lines related to each other? Throw out some intuitive sketches on a piece of paper. Try to get a sense of a connected line. Automotive styling takes time, a balanced silhouette develops. I like to compare it to the work of a chef: when developing a recipe, a chef tests many ingredients, has to cut a lot of vegetables and discards some ingredients or combinations in order to achieve the perfect result. Court. . It can even mean starting from scratch several times.
Before you make the first pen strokes, think about the shape and perspective of the car. But leave plenty of room for improvisation—the perfect idea will emerge over time.
Anders Thøgersen
Exterior Designer, BMW
shading
A basic trick of the craft that I learned during my studies is this: there is always a light source and above all it is the sun. Defines the shading in your project. Where the rays of this light source strike directly, there should be several bright areas, with correspondingly darker areas in the shadows. My tip: Assign values from 1 to 10 depending on the luminosity and subdivide the different parts of the body drawing according to their respective luminous intensity. The graphic design of the car is all about creating drama, creating exciting movement from the interplay of light and shadow. Regarding the shading technique: first fill in the less dark areas with pen tip strokes, then fill in the darker areas with the flat side.
Find your own line
The first few lines on a drawing of a BMW car will never be perfect. Do not draw a solid line from front to back. Draw from a relaxed wrist; Feel Your Way Rough looking lines shape character. Where the lines are too perfect, the form quickly becomes boring. A drawing must be personal. Lines arise from emotions. Learning to draw for beginners also means slowly approaching perspective. Start with the two-dimensional side view. Once you feel confident, start your first 3D drawings with guidelines and imagine the vehicle as a box in space. Your understanding of the spatial representation will improve with each line drawing of the car.
The correct use of color.
The use of color adds the finishing touch to a car sketch. To do this, however, it is necessary to understand the proportions of a car. Color gives the vehicle emotion and reflects metal and materials. It is important to remember that a car is always interacting with its environment. For example, a silver car appears almost blue in sunlight because it reflects the sky. On the other hand, silver can take on a very warm hue in shadowy areas, such as the underside of a vehicle. Use the color wheel as a guide here. For example, the lighter the red color gets, the more it changes to orange and then yellow; in shaded areas it turns purple. For example, a green vehicle may appear orange to yellow in bright sunlight, while areas in the shade may appear a cool blue. The color gives your vehicle a three-dimensional look. Try to remember these rules as you draw.
Drawing a car: 5 tips from Anne Forschner
2D drawing: getting started
For beginners in car sketch design, I recommend starting with a side view. For a two-dimensional side view, I always start from the footprint on the ground. Determine where the car will be, then start by placing both wheels on the defined terrain in a circle. Think of the basic shape: Are you designing a sports car or an SUV? A flat front? A hatchback? Then you build everything step by step. Connect the wheels and define the silhouette with successive, flowing lines.
Draw the silhouette of the side view flowing from left to right; always from front to back.
Ana Forschner
Exterior Designer, BMW
2D sketches: the details
Once you have sketched the basic shape, you can go into detail when drawing the car. Define the greenhouse, i. H. Roof structure, supports and glazing. The front and rear design is based on the body shape. Finally, it is important to define and place details such as headlights, grilles, punch lines, air intakes and wheels.
3D sketches: the key points
Putting a 3D vehicle on paper is much more difficult. An important point is to first think about where and how you want to place the car in space. The guide will help you to create a drawing of a BMW automobile with the correct perspective and to display the proportions correctly. Think of sketching a car like sketching a house: in both cases, vanishing points play a key role. There are three crucial elements here: the horizon line, the vanishing lines, and the vanishing point. The horizon line is the viewer's eye level. You admire everything above this line; everything that is below you see from above. Vanishing lines are lines that run into the distance. They meet at a point on the horizon line known as the vanishing point. If you want the viewer's gaze to fall on the edges or corners of an object, you can also use two or three vanishing points. For the representation in space, this means that the shapes and lines of the sketched car seem to taper more and more dynamically in the distance. Therefore, car designers must be good at considering space. But this can be learned: be brave and start drawing!
shading
It is important to take your time and work slowly with this technique. When shading, make sure to leave all upward-facing surfaces free at first. These are the areas where the light falls. Then you can gradually shade all the other faces light gray: the more the face slopes towards the ground, the darker and denser you fill it with closely spaced parallel lines. In daylight, vehicle surfaces facing upwards reflect the sky and are therefore brighter than surfaces facing the ground. Automotive design plays precisely with this lightness and heaviness that arises from the contrast between light and dark surfaces.
Kor
If you want to color your design, start with the lightest shade of that color if possible. Should the paint be matt or glossy? The reflections of light and shadow depend on this finish. It is best to start with shades of gray and then emphasize, perhaps with red, in appropriate places. This automatically results in light and dark. But the same applies here: There is no such thing as the perfect first draft: practice makes perfect!
Author: Markus Loeblein; Photo/Video: BMW
