I kept noticing interesting cars during the Summer, and tried sketching a couple of them. Here’s Eelke’s well-loved and well-travelled Citroen DS (it’s a ‘1974 DS 23 Pallas injection electronique hydraulique’). Eelke had driven it from Holland, around England, Wales and Ireland, and was on his way back to Holland when I met him in Tenby. My drawing doesn’t capture the various scratches, dings, modifications, bodged repairs, replaced panels etc that added to the car’s wonderful patina.

Pencil, Pigma 1mm pen, watercolour, A5 – about an hour

The curves and proportions are very tricky on cars, especially when you’re drawing standing up. I used a transparent grid to get the initial key lines correctly placed but still managed to draw the bonnet too short… I sketched the rest of the car freehand in pencil, adding the ink lines, tone and shading at home. Below there’s the sketch in progress, and a photo of me drawing the car; you can see how the Citroen’s luxuriously long and elegant curves stood out in the car-park. I just stood out.

Here are some blander cars, sketched on a windy day while sat on the steps outside No 1 Royal Crescent, Bath. More car sketches to follow.

Pigma 1mm pen, water-colour, A6 – 30 mins