Heroic Sketches of a Vintage Fire Car

When I was a little kid growing up in Athens, Ohio, I lived next door to the fire chief.

That was cool.

I loved his car.  I had one of my own, in several ways.

First, I had one I could pedal.

I loved that thing.  If I could get an adult-sized one now, I would.

Second, I had (and still have) a matchbox car which closely resembles his.

So, as I considered my drawing class's assignment to do "heroic" drawings (using something small as a model and drawing it much bigger), I decided to work with the toy of the fire chief's car.

First I drew it using pastels on 18 x 22 newsprint.

There's a lot about this sketch which I like, particularly the shine.  Well, it looks like shine, but on the actual toy, it's where the paint has rubbed off.  I played with that toy a lot when I was a kid.

Next, I wanted to try something less messy than chalk pastels but perhaps just as vibrant, so I tried oil pastels, also on newsprint.

You can see I messed up when it came to fitting the entire object on the page (this is a continual problem of mine... or perhaps I should embrace it as a stylistic strength?).  And, given that this was my first use of oil pastels, I was just learning how to apply and blend.

It was fun for me to do two sketches of the same thing in two different mediums, one right after the other.  It allowed me to see and re-see the object.  It also allowed my mind to wander a bit back to what little I remember of those wonderful neighbors.   She always had fresh chocolate chip cookies.  He let me sit in a big recliner and listen to the police/fire radio.

I am glad I drew these portraits of this vintage toy--it has me inspired to draw more!