Hillman Imp and Timelapse video

 

This is a Hillman Imp. The Rootes group, that built it, was an amalgamation of British car manufacturers including the previously independent Hillman and Singer marks, in competition with BMC, the amalgamated Sutin Morris etc. which became Leyland in 1968. The Imp was Rootes' answer to the Austin Mini. In one way, the Imp, which was a similar size to the Mini, was innovative, since its engine was in the read, like the VW Beetle. I was moved to add an Imp to my collection of car paintings, since a blue Hillman Imp was the first car I ever owned. My beloved grandmother bought it for my 18th birthday. Alas, I would soon learn that I was several years short of being ready for driving, but I don't blame the car for that, and think back to it fondly as a gift given with love. Here's the link to the timelapse video on Youtube, and also to a tutorial video. If you do make your own, I'd love it if you posted a picture of it here in the comments. Here's those links: - 

Timelapse Painting of Hillman Imp

How to Paint a Hillman Imp Tutorial

Austin Mini and Timelapse video

 If you're doing iconic cars of the 60s and after, then sooner or later you've gotta do a Mini.

I'm pleased with how this turned out, especially considering that I actually realised too late that I'd made the side too long. Thankfully the paint job makes all the difference. I went for this iconic colour scheme, with the union jack roof because I really wanted the full classic mini experience. 

I'll pst the instructions and tutorial within the next few days. Meanwhile, here's the video.

Drawing the Rover P5 - Instructions and process photos

 

1) I'm so happy if you've decided to have a go at this one. There's a lot of stages, but it's definitely do-able if you take your time. So, do you have your paper and drawing implement? As before, if I was just drawing this for myself I'd have started with pencil, but it's much easier to see ink marks, so I've gone straight in with ink.

So. let's start in roughly the centre of your page. Draw an oval - quite a fat one, but not quite a circle - slightly taller than it is wide. Draw another line around it just outside the outline. That's the headlight nearest to us 

2) Now, underneath and slightly to the left, draw a slightly smaller oval. There needs to be a small semi circle to the left, to make the chrome border of this second light. 

3) Just to the right of the bottom of this second light, draw a much smaller oval. Then an upside down hook, which will make part of the bumper.

4) Now we'll draw the left hand edge of the radiator. The radiator is such a striking feature of this particular car. Go from just above the upside down hook you drew in stage 3. Go upwards, and ever so slightly to the right, until you reach a level about 2/3 of the way up the headlight. Now curve round to the right. 

5) Now we're going to sketch in the rest of the outline of the radiator. At this stage, take your time. Look, look, and look again, so that you can get the angles of slant, and the length of lines as right as you can. I'd do the bottom line first. That way, you've got the line which the bumper will follow when we come to do it. Then draw the line of the top edge of the radiator. It should slant upwards from the left, to just over halfway along the length of the bottom edge of the radiator. Then it should slant downwards to the right to the point where it's above the end of the bottom edge. It doesn't matter if it's slightly further. Now curve a line down from the top edge to the bottom. Once you're happy with this, you've actually done a lot of the heavy lifting as regards working out angles and distances for the 'face' of the car. Well done!

6) Now, look where the first headlight we drew sits in relation to the top of the radiator. We're going to draw the headlight on the right. Now it's position should be a mirror image of the first, but it needs to be a little bit smaller, since it's further away from the viewer. The outer line can also be a little furtheer away from the inner line that it is on the first headlight - you could almost have it touching the curving corner of the radiator, and it would be fine. 

7) Now draw the slightly smaller light underneath this right hand headlight. Leave a bit out of the bottom, though, for the bumper post. Again, look at the photograph so you can get the positioning right, and then just draw those marks at the bottom of it as guidelines for the bumper post. 

8) Now we start the bumper. Go back to the upside down hook beside the tiny left hand light that we drew in stage 3. draw that shape - a bit like an iced finger bun - um - finger buns! - to make the bumper post. Now make a small line underneath and parallel to the bottom edge of the radiator. Make another parallel line beneath it, connecting to the bumper post. Finally join them up with a convex curve. Great! All the rest of the bumper will now be so much easier for you.

9) Now we're going to start drawing the number plate (license plate). This is easy ow we have that bit of bumper drawn in from stage 8.The top of the plate should be parallel to the bottom edge of the radiator, and go from the bumper we drew in stage 8, to underneath the bottom right hand edge of the radiator. The corners of the plate should be slightly rounded. 

Look underneath the right hand lights,. We're going to finish that bumper post now. It should be fatter, but slightly shorter than the one on the left. 

10) You can complete the number plate now, Notice that it does stick out quite a bit below the bumper. There's also that backwards capital D sticking out from the left hand short edge of the plate. Now, eye time again. Look at the bumper stub we drew in stage 8.Now, draw an imaginary line from the top edge of the number plate, curving upwards to the right hand bumper post. Now draw it in with your pencil/pen. Now, draw a line parallel to the one you've just drawn from not quite halfway down the right hand edge of the number plate. Finally draw a line from the right edge of the bumper post, curving very gently upwards away rom the lights, to about the same height as the centre of the right hand headlight. The face of the car is really taking shape now. 

11) Now draw a little long oval on top of the line on the far right. That's a light. Do a small semi circle sticking out of its left hand edge. Move a bit higher, and a little to the right, draw another oval, taller, than its wide, and a close second line outside it. Now draw a small curving line joining these two lines up. 

12) Now we start on the bonnet (hood). Now we go in an upwards curve from the top right hand corner of the radiator grille, and the line should end above the centre of the radiator. Really look at the photograph to get an idea how high above the radiator your line should be. Look at the distance from the tp to bottom of the left hand headlight. That's the kind of distance you should be aiming for, and slightly less if anything. 

13) Now, start at the top right end of the line you just drew. Go down the line just a little bit. Now from that point, draw a line to the right very gently curving down to the top of the top light on the far right. Can you see the body of the car starting to appear?

14) Now, just about a third of the way along the line you drew last time, we're going to draw a mirror. Do a little circle above the line,(yes, you CAN draw a circle this time!) then a little stalk slanting downwards to the right until it meets the line. Mirror done. 

15) Okay . Now I want you to make a dot. Yu want a point which is above a space between the left hand headlights and the left hand edge of the radiator grille. It should be on a level with the top of the mirror you just drew last time. Turn the dot into a small - very small - ring. 

16) Now we're going to continue the bonnet line. Gently curve it round to meet the little ring shape that you drew in the last stage. Now draw a line from that ring shape curving gently down to the centre of the top of the radiator grille. The curve should be shallower at the top, and more pronounced as it gets closer to the bonnet. 

17) We're cooking on gas now, good people. The right hand front wheel is next. Draw a semi circle from the bottom right hand corner of the number plate, to join the plate again in about its centre. Now draw another line from the bottom of the bumper post which makes a parallel curve, but at the bottom of the curve, instead of curving back upwards, make the line meet the bottom of the other semi circle, to make the bottom of the tyre. It should be slightly slanting downwards to the left. You can put another two curving lines inside the wheel now to make the tyre tracks. 

Now, inside the outline of the radiator grille, draw an inner outline. This should make the chrome surround, and it needs to be thicker moving towards the centre of the top of if. 

Then, make the bar from the top centre of the radiator, to the bottom centre. It's like a long, curving, downward pointing blunt triangle. 

FInally, there's a little bar on top of the number plate. The top of it goes parallel to the top of the number plate, but not quite the full length of it. 

18) Last stage was a long one, so there's a lot less to do for this one. Look at the two badges I've drawn in the blank space inside the radiator grille. These aren't essential if you don't fancy, but it really doesn't matter if yours are a little misshapen. 

19) Analytical eyes needed again for this stage. We're going to draw the left hand end of the bumper. Do the top line first. It should replicate the same slant as the number plate. Start from the left hand edge of the bumper post. Extend the line until it is as far left of the lights, as the lights are left of the radiator. Now curve it round and upwards until it matches my photograph. Now make a line parallel to this one from lower down the bumper post and round, then when curve it round to meet the first line, just as in the photograph. 

20) More lights now. There's a curved oblong which should be the same height as the centre of the left hand headlight, and which should be almost as far left as the end of the bumper. Then a small oval light to the right and just above it. Believe it or not, you're halfway to a finished picture now, and about 2/3 of the way through the drawing stage. Don't give up now!

21) Now for the wheel arch. My advice is again, look, look, and look again at the photograph before you start. Now start slightly left of the bumper, and I do mean slightly. Now imagine you're drawing an upside down capital U. The top of the curve would be level with the top of the left hand headlight. You have t make the U slant a little bit to the left - not too much, though. Well done! Now just make both of the legs of the U slant down and to the right a bit. The leg on the left should not be quite as long as the leg on the right.  

22) Now for the wheel. Draw an oval. It Should just touch both sides of the wheel arch you drew in the  last stage. The top curve should end quite a bit under the top of the wheel arch. Look carefully at where your oval should bottom out in my photograph. When you're happy with your oval, them draw a sort of J shaped curve from the bottom of the oval to join the bumper, pretty much directly under that curved rectangular light. Now draw a small oval in the centre of the wheel. This will be the hubcap. Look how it's further from the edge of the wheel at the top and bottom, and closer at the sides. 

23) Eye time. Look at the distance across the width of the wheel you just drew. Keep that distance in your mind. You're going to draw the end of the front of the car to the left, and it needs to be that distance left of the wheel. Most of the line is straight upwards. At the bottom, it can curve round and then down to the wheel arch. Stop the line at just a bit higher than the top of the wheel arch. Now draw a very slightly curving line, touching the top of the wheel arch, down to the left hand edge of the curved rectangular light. Now draw a line parallel to this and slightly above it. You've just made the chrome trim. Now we're going to another line parallel to this chrome trim. This is the left hand edge of the bonnet. Start from the top of the left hand headlight. Extend this curving line, parallel to the chrome trim, and touching the top oval light on the way. This should end on the left above where the chrome time ends. Now just draw one small slightly curving line to join up the trim with the bonnet line. 

24) For this stage we do the top edge of the bonnet, and also a mirror. The easier way is to draw the whole bonnet line first, in a gentle convex curve from the top left hand end of the last line you drew in stage 23, joining the bonnet line at the little ring shape you made in stage 15. Then draw a little stalk from the top left hand edge of the bonnet, directly above the centre of the wheel arch. At the top of the stalk, draw a circle for the mirror, which will bisect the bonnet line. I drew the mirror in first because I'm drawing in ink, which means I can't rub lines out as you can in pencil. 

Now, go back to the little oval light above and to the right of the curved rectangular light. Can you draw a line downwards, and towards the bottom of the line, curve it down to the left to meet the bumper. 

25) Now the windscreen (windshield). Try the two upright edges first. Go from where the top edge of the bonnet means the left hand edge of the bonnet. Draw a straight line upwards, and slanting very slightly inwards to the right. Look closely at the photo to see how far up you should go. It should be quite a bit shorter than the line down from the sane point. Now we're going to do the right hand edge. This should start from the top edge of the bonnet. Now it should start from a point above about halfway between the left hand edge of the radiator, and the centre of the radiator. This line should go to about the same height as the left hand edge, but it should slant in to the left more than the left hand post slants in to the right. It's all to do with perspective. Now we're going to join these two edge up. Start at the top of the left hand edge, and draw a convex curve around and down to the right hand edge. The curve needs to be more pronounced to the left, and gentler to the right. 

25) Let's complete the face of the car now. draw a line curving upwards and away  from the top edge of the windscreen. I wouldn't go quite as far up as I did - this was my first big mistake in this drawing. End above the left hand edge of the screen. Slightly inside the outline of the windscreen, can you draw another line to make the runner seal of the screen. 

26) Now we've done the hard work drawing the face we can speed up a bit. Now, take the spot where the bottom left hand corner of the screen joins the top corner of the bonnet. You're going to continue the line of the bonnet to the left. However this should slant upwards far less, in fact the line should be almost horizontal. Look at the photograph o judge the distance. As a rough guide, it's about the same distance as the downwards line on the far left is from the curved rectangular line. Now make a line going left from the top left hand corner of the screen. This one should be slanting downwards, very gently tapering towards the last line you made. but ending before that line did. Draw a straight line slanting downwards to the left, to meet up with the lower line, and another line parallel to it and just inside it. Now, working left from the top line you've drawn in this stage, go past halfway along it, then draw a line slanting down to meet the other line. The slant should not be as much as the other downward lines you've just drawn. And that's the side windows. 

27) Now we'll take the line at the bottom of the windows, and extend it to the left a bit. It should curve downwards. Don't take it very far, it should be about the same length as the distance from the left edge of the back window halfway to the right edge of it. Just start the straight line downwards from the end of the line. This will be the back of the car. 

28)Continue the line of the chrome trim, curving slightly downwards. Extend the line of the back of the car down to meet it. Draw a small curved line from the bottom of the post between the windows to meet the top of the chrome trim. Now just draw those two oval handle shapes, one at the bottom of the rear post, and one below the line between the two windows. 

29) Right, here's my second big mistake. Now We're going to do the edges at the bottom of the side of the car. I made my slant upwards too steep for my liking, and did adjust it as I came towards the end of the drawing. You need to draw one line from the bottom of the front wheel arch, going straight back an upwards to the left until it ends at a point which is beneath the inside of the back window, not quite as far as the rear post. Look at my photo, and try not to make your upwards slant quite as pronounced as mine. If your're working in pencil it should be easier for you to make adjustments. Now, I want you to draw another line a little bit above this one, and tapering slightly towards it as it goes. This has made the bottom edge of the doors. 

30) Now we finish the back of the car and draw the back wheel and the back wheel arch. You could continue drawing the line of the bottom edge of the car, and extend it left until it almost but not quite reaches a a point at the back end of the car. Now you can draw a line down from the chrome trim to the bottom edge of the car, curving round to meet it. Then we can draw the wheel and wheel arch on tp of it, and rub out what we don't need. Now, the upside down U of the wheel arch needs to slant more to the left than the front wheel arch did. Take the curve from the bottom left hand corner of the doors, right round but not as far as the back edge of the car, down to the bottom line you just made. Draw a semi circle from the left hand bottom edge of the wheel arch around, to eventually meet the bottom of the car, like a mirror image of a  capital J. Then draw in the thing oval inside the curve you just made, which will be the hub cap.

It was when I'd done this that it struck me that the slant on the bottom of the car was too much exaggerated.  

31) You can see the fairly heavy remedial work I've done on the side of the car here. Please don't worry is you find yourself doing things like this. You can rub out any pencil marks you don't like, and even with ink, the colour layers hide a multitude of sins. Altogether now - we're not making a photograph!

That's the drawing done. It's been a bit of a marathon, but the front of the Rover P5 is quite complex, and worth taking time and trouble over. 

32. I had in mind to do a two tone job on this car, since I've seen some which have a colour scheme like this and it really makes them look a bit special. I was going to go bluey purple and crimson. As always, I started with the front wheel arch. I really liked the way the colours worked out on this, and decided that I wasn't going to do too much more with the front tyre, although the wheel arch would need darkening. Because these were largely going to be the colours of the car, I spattered early this time - charge your brush with paint, and tap it on the side of another brush to get the drops of spatter on the page. I also used a very very watery blue as a base for the shadow between the front wheels. 

33. So this is the first layer of watercolour applied to the bodywork. You can probably see the mistake I made here. I applied the purple to the side first, and mistakenly took it past the wheel arch. It was only then I checked some photographs and found this went too far. The purple should have only been below the chrome trim, and not past the top of the front wheel arch. When I applied the light crimson colour, I had to go over the purple in those places. I did drop just a hint of the purple into the wing on the right to add some more visual texture. 

34. I applied a watery light blue to the left hand side of the bonnet, as a reflection of the sky, and also applied a little of the same to the edges of the windscreen. I also added a very light grey pillar in the centre of the screen. I used a watery brush to also lift some of the colour from the right hand side of the top of the bonnet, and the top of the line stretching back from the right hand headlight. On the underside I applied another layer of purple to darken it even more. A stronger application of the crimson under the car, and on both sides of the radiator working up from the bumper helped to give definition to the shapes around the lights. At this stage I thought that I needed more of an contrast between the purple sides and the crimson. 

35. I applied a dark blue on top of the purple, to give me the contrast I wanted. I also used a watery light blue to outline the windows on the right through the screen, and the rear window as well. I used a moist brush with no paint to just spread the paint past the edges of the car in places -most noticeably at the back of the car. This completed the levels of watercolour, and from here I moved to the brush pens. 

36) I used a black brush pen to darken the top of the front wheel arch. I used a wet brush to pull down some grey and then used the same brush to apply the grey to the interior of the car. I used the black pen to darken the underneath of the underside of the car, and used the went brush again to pull down the grey shadow you can see. I darkened parts of the wheel on the right as well, and created a few shadows between the bumper and the lights. Using the wet brush to pick up some pigment from the black areas, this allowed me to apply grey to the bottom half of the bumper. Finally I used it to also add a little grey shadow to the bottom of the tyres. 

37. I used a 0.8mm fineliner to craw in the rubber seal of the windscreen, and to give some shadows to the edges of the side windows. I switched to my 0.1mm fineliner, and started going round the outlined of the lights, bonnet, radiator and the chrome trim on the sides. Running the wet brush over the black areas I picked up the grey to fill in the radiator grille with, and the top half of the interior of the headlights.  

38) Nearly there now. I used the 0.1mm fineliner to do the outlines of the rear window and the windows on the right. I've drawn in the details on the headlights. I also applied a brown brush pen to darken a few areas on the edges of the bonnet. I drew in more of the details of the radiator with the horizontal bands, prior to finishing the radiator grille. Up to this point I hadn't made my mind up with the number plate. 

39) To finish I shaded in the details of the radiator grille. It takes a bit of time and a steady hand, but it's well worth it. I shaded in the badge on the right in black, and applied some blue to the RAC badge on the left of the grille. The curved rectangular line needed to be made orange. Finally I drew in the (made up) numbers on the number plate, and shaded the rest in black fineliner. Oh, and signed it. 

Considering the mistakes I made while I was making it, I don't think it looks too bad. If you've had a go, and made your own, I'd love to hear from you, and even better, if you posted a photo of your picture, that would be great. Good luck!

Rover P5 and timelapse video

 Another really lovely old car from the 60s. These Rovers were nicknamed 'poor man's Rolls Royces' although frankly they were way beyond the financial reach of anyone who wasn't worth a bob or two. Here's the finished picture, with the time lapse video below. I will eventually post stage photos and instructions, but it might be a few days.

Drawing the Ford Anglia - Instructions and photos

 

If you’ve come to the blog following the link on Youtube, then thanks for coming. I’m going to show you how I made my Ford Anglia picture, and I hope you’ll be able to follow it, and make your own picture. If you do, I’d love it if you’d post a picture of yours in the comments box with this post.

So – the details. I made the painting on a piece of A$ paper from a Reeves watercolour sketchbook. You can use any sketchbook you like, but a thicker, specifically for watercolour paper does take the paint better. The thinner your paper, the worse it will react when you apply paint.

When I sketch a vehicle like this where I’m playing with proportion I’d do it in pencil first. However pencil marks look very faint when I scan them, so for the purposes of these instructions I went straight in with a 0.1mm ink pen. Any brand you like will work.

1) So, When I sketch a vehicle I always want to show off its ‘face’ – it’s front end, and as a rough rule of thumb this normally puts the headlight closest to the viewer close to the centre of your piece of paper, but not quite halfway up. If you look closely – and there’s nothing that will help your drawing so much as learning to really look closely at things – if you look closely you can see that the circle of the light itself isn’t actually a circle. It’s a bit taller than it’s wide. Also there’s a wider semi circle which goes about two thirds around it’s length. Look closely and you’ll see where it rejoins the main part of the light.

2) The car we’re drawing, the Ford Anglia, has a very distinctive ‘face’. We’re going to make the first line of the radiator grille. Can you see that we start just underneath the headlight. The line goes gently diagonally down, then when you’re just past the headlight, curve more steeply downwards, just as I’ve done above.

When I sketch, I’m always looking back to the photographs I use for reference, checking whether the distances I’ve got between my lines look like the photographs. To this extent, I draw with my eyes as much as my hand. Keep checking distances, keep checking the angles of your curves and diagonals. I don’t mean you should be taking a ruler or a protractor to it, btu keep asking yourself – does it look right? You’ll get better and better at doing this with practice.

3) I’ve always thought that the headlights and radiator grille of the Anglia give it something of the appearance of a frog. We’re going to curve the line round and start drawing the bottom of the ‘mouth’, the radiator grille. Visualise a pair of tweezers. At the end, the two arms splay out away from each other slightly. Well, this is what your bottom line should do.It should slant upwards slightly less than the top line. Look at the distance between the left hand side of the headlight, and the end of the radiator on the right. That’s just about the distance you want to extend the top radiator line to the left, and then you can extend the bottom one that far as well. We’re only going that far now, because the radiator curved differently from the middle.

4) Now we have to put your skills to the test. We’re going to make the second headlight. Estimate the distance from the end of the radiator to the edge of the headlight. Now work from the left hand top edge of the radiator, and that distance you estimated, put a little dot. That’s where ethe bottom of the oval of your second light should start. Remember, it will be noticeably a bit smaller than the first, because it’s further away. Also, it’s proportionately a little thinner than the first. Then don’t forget the little semi-circle on the right hand side of the lamp. There, how did you do?

Whatever you do at this stage, don’t give up if you think it doesn’t look right. It’s very hard to tell how a drawing will turn out just from your first few lines. Have faith, and keep going – it will turn out a lot better than you think. Well done!

5) With this next stage you should really start to see what I mean when I say it’s like a frog face. Now, we’re going to extend the top line of the radiator. Take it easy now, it hardly goes downwards at all until it’s under the centre of the headlight, then you can curve it downwards, until it’s just past the headlight.

6) Now join the frog mouth – sorry – radiator up. Take the bottom line up from the middle, so that it is tapering towards the top line. When you get just past the headlight, curve the line upwards to join the top. Now make those two little curved marks extending from the ends of the radiator – curving out just a little further. These are where we’re going to start the bumpers.

7) In the bumper of a Ford Anglia there’s a recess where the top of the number plate (license plate)  sits. Now, judge about half the distance between the headlight and the centre of the radiator. Put a little dot slightly at that distance along the radiator, but a bit underneath it. Do the same the other side of the centre. Join these dots up with a line – you an uses a straight one if you like, because it’s for the plate, but mine is slightly curved. Just make those two small marks either side where the number plate will sit.

8) Now, going from the curved marks we made at the ends of the radiator, take those, and gentle curve them away from the radiator, to meet the recess you drew in the previous step. It’s already starting to look like the face of the car. Have faith!

9) Draw in the bottom of the number plate. It should follow the same angle as the bumper. Then draw a very gentle curve from a little bit before the end of the underside of the bumper, to the bottom left hand edge of the number plate. Do the same on the right hand side. Finally, can you see the other little mark I made here? Make a concave curve from just before the top left hand edge of the radiator, to the underside of the headlight.

10) Let’s draw the line where the bonnet (hood) ends. Draw a line from halfway up the left headlight, to hallway up the right. It should mirror the line of the top of the radiator. That elongated, flattened arrow shape below id the car badge which says ‘Anglia. It’s like a flattened arrow head or chevron. Now, can you take a point on the top of the radiator underneath the left headlight, and slant it down diagonally to the right until it touches the bottom of the radiator. Make a line which slants down right on the other side underneath the right headlight. There – you’ve made the side lights. Slightly inside the outlines of the radiator, can you draw another line, which gives us the chrome rims.

11) We’ve made a pretty good go of the front of the car. Now we’re going to start making our way backwards. Underneath the headlight on the left, can you make that curved line up to the bonnet line from last time. Then start to curve it back , ending on a slightly higher point than the right hand headlight. Now we’re going to make the nearest wheel arch. If it helps, then think of it as an upside down capital U. The top of it should be about as high as the centre of the right hand headlight. The bottom of it on the right should be slightly higher than the bottom of the bumper. You can mark these out with dotes if it helps, then faintly draw in the lines, going over it more heavily when you’re happy with the shape.

12) Draw a dot slightly above the top of the right hand headlight, and slightly to the left of the right hand headlight. This is where you’re going to draw the stalk of the mirror. Draw the mirror on top of it – you can see the shape- a distorted rectangle – but don’t panic if you don’t quite get it perfect. Remember – we are not trying to make a photograph. Now from the top of the mirror, can you make that shallow convex curving shape. This will help us draw the end of the bonnet (hood) and also the bottom of the windscreen (windshield).

13) Now, if you make a very shallow convex curve around and then down from the bottom of the shape above the mirror to the line we made to the right of the left hand headlight, then you’ve made the bonnet line. Brilliant! I bet that yours is looking more like an Anglia all the time.

14) Now make another very shallow curving line up to join the bonnet line. It should join the line just about level with where the Anglia badge starts on the left. Just past that, can you make the shape above the bonnet line?

15) The next stage is simple, but will really make your car look a lot better. Draw a line upwards from the mirror, slightly right of the centre. The line should be slanting only very slightly left from perpendicular. As a rough guide how high it should go, look at the distance between the bottom of the mirror and the top of the wheel arch. That’s about as far up again as you should go. Now, we’re going to do the other side of the windscreen on the left. Go just inside the top left corner of the shape on top of the bonnet. Slant it so that the line ends at a spot slightly before the right hand edge of the shape on the bonnet, and slightly higher than the line on the right. Now, just draw lines alongside both of the windscreen lines, since this will make the rubber seal around it.

16) Now draw a curving line to join up the top of the windscreen. It can be straighter at the left end, with a slightly more pronounced curve at the right end. We also need to start thinking about the wheels. Under the wheel arch, you’re going to draw a very tall, thin oval, the top left hand quarter of which just is slightly hidden by the bumper. When you’re drawing it, do it faintly, and try to observe how the top of the oval is further away from the wheel arch, than halfway down it. When you’re happy with the oval, draw a semi circle underneath it. Look how it flattens out and goes level to the left when it’s underneath the bottom of the oval.

17) Going from underneath the left hand headlight. Make a gently curving line downwards from the bottom of the car. Increase the curve and bring it round to make the left hand wheel. It shouldn’t reach as far down as the bottom of the wheel on the right. And that’s it! You’ve made the face of the car. We’re on the home stretch as far as the drawing is concerned.

18) We can begin sketching in the bodywork now. Look at the line I’ve drawn from the bottom of the wheel arch, rising diagonally to the right. Imagine there’s a line from the bottom of the wheell arch to the bottom of the bumper. Now extend that about as far again to the right of the wheel arch. You can make it a little steeper going upwards if you want to make it more dramatic. Not going quite as far to the right will have a similar effect. Draw another line replicating this one and the side of the wheel arch just inside them.

19) Draw a curving line from the side of the mirror, down to where the inside line of the bottom edge of the body meets the wheel arch. Draw a similar line with a similar curve from the right hand edge of the bottom line. It shouldn’t do quite up as far as the previous line. Then join them up with a line curving slightly downwards. That’s the door done.

20) Now we draw the passenger side window. Draw a line adjacent to and just to the right of the right hand side of the windscreen. Then curve it round and then draw it moving diagonally downwards – at a slightly steeper angle than the door line below, but not as far to the right. Join them up with a diagonal line slanting down to the right slightly.

21) Now for the other passenger side window, and this is something of an iconic feature on an Anglia. Think of it as a misshapen letter D. It should start curving back down to the door from less than halfway down. Then draw the line of the rear pillar, This goes diagonally down, - which means it moves away from the window you’ve just drawn – it mirrors the edge of the front passenger’s window. Then extend the door line underneath the windows down to meet the pillar you’ve just drawn.

22) You’re really close to a finish so don’t be tempted to give up now. We draw in a line. Move to the right of the centre of the headlight, to just to the right of the left hand edge of the wheel arch. Draw a line connecting the part of the doors where they start to curve inwards up to the windows, and extend the line to just past where the rear pillar ends. Extend the line underneath the windows part the rear pillar, then curve down and in to meet the other line. Now look at the bottom edge of the doors. In your mind’s eye, extend that line. Now draw a line which goes down diagonally right for a bit, then diagonally left down to meet where the imaginary line you drew in your head would have finished. Doesn’t have to be perfect, but it will help you with the perspective. Now, just draw a curve for the read wheel arch between that line, and the bottom of the door. Phew, We just need a small, thin oval inside the wheel arch, extending out beneath the bottom edge. Finally a curve down, across, and bark up and round to the edge for the bottom of the tyre. You are brilliant!

23) Now the roofline. Go from just above the left hand top edge f the windscreen. Curve gently upward , but then start curving gently downwards where the windscreen does, joining the rear pillar. Ladies and gents – you have a Ford Anglia. Now, if you’re going to do a Harry Potter Anglia. Then you’re done! But I want to make a police car.

24. Make two small upward lines. One from the roof above about the centre of the windscreen, slanting upwards to the right. Do another line, which slants a little more, from above the left hand edge of the mirror. Make a small downwards diagonal going right, then a much steeper one down to the roof line.

25) Join up the lines of the box on the top of the car. Draw a little thin dome on top for the light. You can write the word POLICE on the side , slanting like mine if you like, but you could leave it till later and do it with the brush pen. And that’s it. You’ve drawn the Ford Anglia Police Car. Are you up for painting it? You can use whatever you like. I like watercolours, brush pen and ink fineliners, and that’s what I’m going to show you now.

26) Drawing a police car means I don’t have a great deal of options with regards to colour. Basically, it’s blue and white. This meant going to town on the wheel arch, tyre, and underneath the bumper. I did start with blue for the body panel above the wheel arch, but I allowed the greens, purples and gresy from the wheel arch to bleed into the panel. At this stage don’t worry about getting the true colours right, you just really want to get some varieties of colour in there to give the picture some visual texture. I used a watered brush to just pick up some of the grey from the tire and spread it under the bumper, before adding the yellow immediately beneath the bumper, allowing it to bleed down into the grey.

27) I painted in the bonnet. Believe it or not it’s all the same blue colour, but I waited until it was drying before applying it slightly more strongly below the windscreen and above the radiator. Beneath the bumper started with a thin layer of grey, into which I bled the blue on the left and the green on the right. The blue also bled down into the left hand wheel, which was fine.

28) One obvious thing in this stage is that I started to use a bit of spatter. Just charge your brish with one of the colours you’re using, and tap it onto another brush or pen. I thought a bit of yellow on the bottom of the white door might be effective. I also painted the interior through the windscreen with yellow, into which I bled grey to make the darker edges. I used the same grey to pick out some of the shadow within both headlights, and then watered it down a little more, before using it to paint inside the radiator grille. I did darken the blue in the die a little as well. This was as much as I wanted to do with the watercolour – for the last few stages I would use brush pens.

29) So, the first job with the brush pens was using black to darken the underside of the car, and dark blue as well to make the edges of the darkness less sharply defined, and also to add shadow and definition to the underside of the headlights.

30) Ink in the window seals now. I used a 0.8mm fineliner. I also used a blue brush pen underneath the bumper on top of the grey- keeping it darker than bonnet, but at least giving it a hint of blue colour.

31) Penultimate stage now. I used two different blues on the light at the top. I also inked in the sign on the box beneath the light. At this stage I also inked in the letters on the side of the car with a dark blue brush pen, very lightly applying just the tip of the pen. I drew in the curved vertical lines on the radiator grille and began to shade in the horizontal ones. Just finishing touches left now. 

I applied the tip of my black brush pen to a watery brush and used the resulting grey to darken some parts of the interior. Then just finishing details remained. I drew in the remaining details of the radiator grille, and applied orange to the side lights. I was undecided about the number plate, but in the end went tor inking it in, and I’m glad, because it makes a difference.

That’s it – your finished Anglia. If you followed the instructions, why not post a photograph of your work in the comments.