Drawing Bikes – not an easy ride

I had fears that this would not be a popular subject, yet bicycles are so ubiquitous in streets and lanes, ridden and riderless, that I felt they were something we should all have the confidence to draw.

For a relatively simple mechanism, the bicycle offers quite a range of challenges. Circles, ellipses, angles, patterns of spokes… general connecting up of parts.

But once in the saddle, our artists quickly got into gear…

It was interesting to start ‘blind’, drawing a bike from memory. Here’s a few of these imaginings:

Then, presented with the complete item, some approached the challenge by concentrating on isolated parts…

…sometimes making quite careful studies.

Of course, what this approach avoided was the overall challenge of relating the two wheels to each other while getting the connecting structure right… Not easy, especially when you add perspective.