How to draw · Confident · about 20 minutes

Fire Truck

You need: Paper, Pencil. Optional: Eraser, Ruler, Red, gray, black and blue crayons, colored pencils or markers.

Thick lines: draw these now. Thin gray: already drawn. Dashed: light guides you erase later.

Finished

1. Draw a light ground line. Above it, draw a long light box for the whole truck: about three times as long as it is tall.
2. Draw a light line down through the box about two thirds of the way along. The cab goes in front of this line.
3. Draw three round wheels standing on the ground line: two close together at the back and one under the cab. Draw them first because they are in front.
4. Draw the body: the top, the back and the bottom. Curve the bottom up over each wheel like an arch and leave a small gap around the wheel.
5. Draw the long ladder on top: two straight lines the same distance apart, joined at both ends. Add two short posts that hold it up.
6. Draw the tall cab with a slanted windshield. The ladder is in front of the cab's back corner, so stop the cab's lines where they reach the ladder.
7. Draw the bumper as a small box at the front. Add a headlight, and a side window whose front edge slants the same way as the windshield.
8. Draw the ladder's rungs: short straight lines across, all the same distance apart.
9. Draw three doors on the body, the same size with the same gaps between them. Add a handle to each door.
10. Draw a rim inside each wheel and a dark hub in the middle: circles inside circles, all sharing one center.
11. Add the light bar on the roof of the cab, and a door line and a handle on the cab.
12. Erase the guides: the long box, the cab line and the ground line.
13. Light comes from above, so the bottom edge of the truck is in shadow. Shade it with short slanted lines between the wheels and behind them.

Practice here

Tip: A ruler helps with the long ladder lines. Hold it still with your other hand.