In addition to her work as an award-winning disability advocate, television presenter and social entrepreneur, Sophie Morgan somehow finds time to indulge in her original love: drawing.
Sophie, Toyota UK’s Olympic and Paralympic mobility ambassador, graduated with a degree in Fine Art from Goldsmiths University in London and since 2004 has been exhibiting her award-winning artwork. Working from photographs, she creates beautiful, bespoke line drawings.
After Sophie showed us a drawing of her Land Cruiser, we asked her to jot down some simple tips on how anyone can create their own car art from a pencil.
How to draw a Land Cruiser: step one
Here we go! The first step takes the longest, but it is the most important so it’s worth taking your time. Sketch the outline of the image that you want to draw on your paper. I have chosen an A4-sized piece of paper, but you can choose whatever size you like and whatever material. Basically, keep it very simple and only draw the shapes, paying attention to proportion and position.
Read more Sophie goes off-roading in her Land Cruiser
Draw with a hard pencil as opposed to soft, so that you can get clean sharp lines. Decide at this stage what background you want to add or if like me, what you want to remove. I’m working from a photograph of myself driving my Land Cruiser, so I have decided to remove myself because I want all the focus to be on the Land Cruiser itself. I have also decided to leave out the background details and instead to draw a line to mark the ground.
How to draw a Land Cruiser: step two
Once you are happy with your outline then you can start to fill in the detail. Take an HB pencil and block in the areas that are a mid-tone, leave the light areas and simply colour all the darker sections. Try to keep the pencil marks even throughout and block out as much detail as you can without drawing any of the light areas of the image. Keep those as the white of the paper.
How to draw a Land Cruiser: step three
Once all of your darker sections are filled it is time to take a softer pencil (2B-5B) and draw over the areas that are the ‘darkest darks’. Pay attention to the blacks and the shadows and really block those areas in. This will give the drawing more depth. I have decided to keep the number plate blank to draw the viewer’s eye to the front of the car. I am trying to give the illusion the Land Cruiser is travelling towards you. I have also drawn the ground line and decided to add my signature. I have worked in more detail with the darker softer pencil so that the shapes ‘pop’.
How to draw a Land Cruiser: step four
This is my favourite part of the process. Take a putty rubber, rip a small section off then gently pluck out some of the shadow shapes that you see in the dark sections of your drawing. Keep working on more dark where you want to and use your rubber to bring up the lighter sections in contrast.
How to draw a Land Cruiser: step five
You can spend as much time as you like at this stage. Really take your time and have fun! Keep an eye on the details you want to add and the details that you think aren’t needed. If you want your drawing to look hyper-realistic then you may want to add a lot of detail or, if you are like me, you may want to reduce the shapes down and simplify the image. These decisions are up to the artist! Only stop when you feel happy. Enjoy!
