A few questions

[Sketchster]

Sorry if i'm being a bit noobish but i want to know a few things.

1) Do you always need to use reference pics and if so do they need to be a certain size and do they have to be colour?

2)How do you work out the angles on the car and were things go like the rims (wheels), headlights etc.

plz add anymore info of your own that you think i should know.
Thanks.

[gbritnell]

To answer your first question, unless you know every detail about a particular car in your head you will need reference material. Even at that good close up reference pictures will help you with the details. As far a size, you will need something large enough to see good detail. A small picture out of a classified section just won't cut it. As to your last question, I'm assuming you mean at what angle do you want to present the car at. In this case it's up to you as the artist to come up with something interesting. Some people like a low angle, some like a side shot, some like a 3/4 shot from above. It's all up to you. I don't even know what you mean by where do the headlights go and I won't stick some crude comment in.
gbritnell

[knightvision]

1) No. It depends on what you want for a result. Of course, for a photorealistic drawing, you need a reference.
However, there's this little thing called art. I don't want to discuss the meaning of art here, in fact it has different meanings to each of us. So, maybe, the art is more worth, for you or your client, if you did the drawing without the reference, only from your imagination. Your thoughts, your soul, your feelings, your knowledge, your memories, all the things that make you human, work as some kind of filter on the drawing. You will put acents on the drawing where you think they are important, and you will forget to add things that are unimportant to you.

An example: If you gave 5 artists around here a reference and the order to draw it, you will receive 5 drawings which will be nearly all the same, they will only vary in their quality, like perspective matters and so on.

If you tell them to draw a given car, but without a reference, you will receive artworks of a higher value. Each artist has to inform himself about the car, has to deal with the shape, will choose an angle which he thinks is best, and will give you an interpretation of the cars shape and design how he sees it. The result will not be perfect, but it will have a much more artistic and expressional style.

2) once again: box design.