How to draw · Challenge · about 40 minutes
Bicycle
You need: Paper, Pencil, Eraser. Optional: A ruler for the frame tubes, Colored pencils: red, gray and black.
Thick lines: draw these now. Thin gray: already drawn. Dashed: light guides you erase later.
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1. Draw two light boxes for the wheels, side by side on the same bottom line. Make each a little taller than it is wide, with a small gap between them.
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2. Draw a light cross through the middle of each box. Where the cross meets a side is where the wheel will touch that side. The middle is the hub.
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3. Mark the pedal center between the wheels, a little lower than the hubs. Draw two light triangles for the frame: back hub, pedal center, seat; then pedal center, seat, handlebar.
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4. Draw the parts nearest you first: a crank arm pointing down from the pedal center with a pedal on its end, and the chainring, a small ellipse behind it.
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5. Draw the back triangle's tubes as pairs of thin parallel lines along the guide. Stop where they reach the chainring.
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6. Draw the main triangle the same way with a little thicker tubes: the top tube to the front, and the down tube from the chainring up to the front.
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7. At the front, draw a short, thick head tube and a fork that curves down to the front hub. Add the seat post above the seat tube.
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8. Draw the chain: a small gear ellipse at the back hub and two straight lines from the top and bottom of the chainring to the gear.
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9. Draw each tire as an ellipse that touches the middle of every side of its box. Stop the line wherever a tube, the fork or the chain is in front.
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10. Draw a smaller ellipse just inside each tire for the rim. Keep the same tall shape, so the gap stays even all the way around.
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11. Erase the boxes, the crosses and the two triangle guides.
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12. Draw a hub at each wheel center and thin spokes from the hub to the rim, spaced evenly. Skip any spoke where a tube or the chain is in front.
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13. Draw the saddle on the seat post. At the front, draw the stem up from the head tube and the handlebar crossing toward you, with a grip at each end.
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14. Add the far crank arm and pedal peeking out above the chainring. They are behind the frame, so draw only the parts you can see.
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15. Shade the darkest values: fill the tires between tire and rim with crossed lines, then shade the saddle and the grips.
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16. Shade a middle value on the chainring and a flat shadow on the ground under the bike. Leave the frame white or color it: the lightest value.
Practice here
Tip: Draw ellipses with light, quick loops, going round two or three times, then pick the best line and press harder.