The Hong Kong artists who love to sketch vintage cars, and their tips on how to draw them best
Annual Classic Car Club show attracts members of Urban Sketchers group, who share advice on the best ways to depict classic cars
Chater Road is closed to traffic for the day and packed with about 100 classic cars, but a beautiful Russian woman seems to be stealing the show. Elena Klimova of Yakhroma, Moscow, is drawing a small crowd at the Classic Car Club of Hong Kong’s annual parade of the city’s most collectible automobiles.
The 29-year-old has a sketchbook on her lap and she’s sitting face to grille with Michael Kadoorie’s grey 1936 Rolls-Royce Phantom III. Klimova surveys every line and curve of her priceless subject, and gradually brings the grand old prize winner to life in delicate layers of watercolour. The art teacher seems oblivious to the growing number of passers-by who peer over her shoulder at her sketchbook in polite silence. One onlooker smiles; another nods, and the sketch says it all: Klimova has captured the gleam of the vintage Rolls-Royce’s huge, shiny grille, the sheen of its big wings and maybe added a benign glint to its giant headlights.
I thought it was very hard to draw a car, but later realised that it’s the same as drawing a portrait
Klimova is at the car show, held annually in November, with fellow members of Urban Sketchers Hong Kong, a group of artists who get together to capture life in the city on paper. Each creates their own interpretation of the vintage vehicles. With more than 5,000 members on Facebook, the group holds open monthly events on various themes, and its devotees have attended the car cavalcade since 2014.
Klimova, who is a teacher at Anastassia’s Art House academies in Hong Kong, says her sketching at classic car shows has expanded her interest in automotive art.
“At first, I thought it was very hard to draw a car, but later realised that it’s the same as drawing a portrait,” she says. “[Cars] are like people, all are different and have a special personality, [which means I must] decide the best way to depict them.”