How to draw Lightning McQueen - a Step by Step Guide

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I am sure many of you get excited when you are drawing one of your favourite cartoon characters from your childhood. Well, I know I do, especially when making a tutorial to teach you how to draw Lightning McQueen.

1. Okay let's start with a basic outline.

1. First draw his windshield.
2. Then two circles. These will be his pupils.
3. Now you can draw the outline of his eyelids.
4. Tracing the rest of the lines should be pretty straight forward from here on.
2. We can now draw the front lights and the front right wheel.
   Notice how the height and the position of the wheel could vertically halve the shape in half. Its centre also marks the horizontal 1/3 of the image.
   Keep this mind when drawing to get your proportions right.
   
3. Next up add the 'Lightyear' brand name to the tires. Fortunately the wheel is almost 90 degrees to the camera so you shouldn't worry too much how depth distorts the text, but you should still try and keep your rotational radius consistent.
   
   When done, trace the rest of the chassis. Pay extra attention which way the car is starting to face and keep that direction consistent throughout the image.
   
   Now add the two other wheels then the some minor details such as the exhaust, the lightning bolt and the windows on his side.
   
4. Okay almost done with the outline

1. Draw the number 95 on his side, but this time pay attention to the perspective.
2. Follow this by outlining the larger thunderbolt pointing at his front wheel.
3. For his mouth create a stretched out banana and half way up its height draw a horizontal line as the mouth.
5. We finished the outline, what do we do now, you may ask. Well, we start shading. This is the fun part. (To be frank it is the most hated part, but we have to do it, because it makes everything realistic)

1. Start drawing dots, but make sure they are more frequent on the left than on the right. This should give you a gradient-like result, exactly like in the cartoon.
6. Now shade the side windows and the space surrounding the wheels. Continue with the tires, rims and the rest of his side.
   NOTE:Make sure you use a different direction and pressure when you shade the wheels and the surrounding dark area, to avoid having a big black unrecognisable area in your drawing.
   
7. Okay we are going to cover this topic in a lot more detail, but for now just try following my directions to draw his eyes.

1. First draw a circle in the dead centre of the eyes
2. Then overlap it with another smaller circle drawn positioned up and right. This one will be the reflection of the sun, so we are leaving it white.
3. Colour the first circle black and draw lines from the very edge of his eyes towards the centre (keep the second circle we mentioned, white). Repeat this until you've coloured the whole eye.
4. Repeat the same process on his other eye, then colour the eyelids.
8. 

   Sourced from Pixar Wiki

   The next part was a little tricky considering I had no idea of the illustration on his hood, but my best friend Google helped me out.
   
   So turns out it is a sponsor logo by 'Rusteze'. Luckily it isn't too complex and we only need the bottom third of it.
   If you are really having trouble with it, print it or trace it to a piece of paper, bend the paper to the shape of the hood, and now it should be somewhat easier to get it right.
   
   
9. Imagine a line from which the chassis starts bending inwards. (It should be about half way up the 95 and at around the position of his mouth) Below the line everything should be shaded darker, because the sun projects a shadow on those areas.
   
   
   When you are drawing his smile, picture how our skin folds up a bit when we are truthfully smiling. NOTE: It is easier to draw those lines first then start shading. Pay attention to which parts we've shaded and which parts we left white.
10. Finally this is for perfectionists. Give some shading to the sides of his mouth to make it even more realistic.

Well done, you've brought Lightning McQueen to life. If you want to get even better at drawing, you need to do 3 things. Practice, practice, practice.
My advice is check out a different tutorial now then tomorrow draw this one again.
Luckily at the Neverlanders YouTube Channel or here at the blog, we have a bunch of tutorials you can go through to improve your skills.
If you listen to me I can guarantee that you will notice the difference in a week.

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