As a kid, I always drove my art teachers nuts because all I wanted to do was draw cars.
At parent teacher night in Grade 7 my art teacher told my mother “He’s talented, but I’m trying to get him to draw something other than cars!” I remember he once gave us an assignment where we had to use only circles to make a pastel drawing, so I did a birds eye view of an oval race track, with little oval cars going around it. My teacher was visibly exasperated.
Anyway this piece is from my Grade 10 art class, which would have been 1982. I recently found it my basement while looking for something else. The actual assignment was to create a 3-D shape out of construction paper. Most people were doing a cube, or a pyramid but I saw the opportunity to do something different.
I brought materials home and worked on it for a few days, my teacher was warning me because I was fooling around in class and he had seen nothing. So on the due date I showed up with this.
It’s supposed to be a 1st generation Bronco, and I still think I did OK without any references. The 1966-1977 Bronco was a pretty rare vehicle in my area.
The rear windows aren’t even close, but the two box shape came together well. I remember being a bit worried that the body would come out warped but it glued up straight.
Out front there used to be a bumper mounted winch, but that has gone missing in the past 37 years.
Jerry can on the back and generic tail lights.
Underneath we have leaf springs and pencils for axles. I had been concerned that my teacher would balk at my use of pencils, but when I handed it in he was thrilled. He spent the entire period playing with it on his desk, four wheeling over piles of paper.
This is also my academic high water mark, I’ve never had a higher mark on anything, ever.
In University I tried a similar thing, and instead of studying made a body for my remote control car out of beer cans. It looked fantastic, but was noisy and fragile. It did not survive.
I found a couple of other interesting things while looking in the basement, so there will be other posts later. In the meanwhile if anyone has seen my Leatherman tool please let me know where it is in the comments.
Very cool! Seriously nice craftsmanship for a grade 7. The gas tank on the back is a nice touch.
Your Leatherman tool will be in the last place you look. You’re welcome. 🙂
Nice work!
You have reminded me of the apex of my Grade Ten high school work – an English paper I did in high school of a Canada vs Russia hockey game. This would have been about 1971. The teacher loved it, and read the whole thing word for word to the class. He gave me an A plus. I made up the player names for Russia (then USSR) by reading a map and deriving names from city names.
Your Bronco is excellent! It deserves a spot in the CC Hall of Fame for homemade models. Excellent work! 12/10 no less!
Great work Reminds me of a friends real 1st gen. Bronco. Even the passenger side damage. He hit some large tree roots to the left and it began a slow roll over onto the passenger side. This was on the Farm we had along the Cortuois in the Missouri Ozarks in the 70s. The saddest part was he had just had it repainted a few weeks earlier.
I was the same way as a kid. I could draw several kinds of cars that would be identifiable as a small child. I liked drawing Batwing Chevies and other weird stuff. My art teacher would say “Draw a tree. Draw this apple…” etc. Ugh. No.
Then Mom bought me a copy of Cartoons magazine and their arguments went right out of the window. Instant validation.
Terrific. A perfect example of giving kids free rein with their creative impulses.
I won the Iowa City all-school elementary level art contest in 1964, with a clay sculpture, a bust of a woman. And it had a bust too, which my old spinster 6th grade teacher was a bit unhappy about.
And I also got third place for a mosaic, of a man’s face that looked way to much like Adolf Hitler. I guess it was just so familiar too me that it was easy to imagine.
Like it, Doug. And rolling too. What a great object to find again.
I don’t recall drawing cars in art class, certainly not after 1st grade or so. But I continued drawing cars in English, History, Math, probably Science classes too, for many more years, probably well into my engineering studies in university.
Fine work! The proportions are excellent. It was obvious to me before reading that it is a first gen Bronco, even though you threw us off by labeling it a 1982. Even more impressive that you did it from memory without references. It was clearly done by a car guy. You can tell by the chassis, which is remarkably accurate considering it was done in paper. I love the live axles, leaf springs (with actual layers of leaves) and rolling wheels.
Your teacher was right to give you over a hundred. 20% over, seems a little arbitrary. I wonder if he had actual criteria to base the number on.
Very nice! I recall doing a “perspective” drawing in 7th grade art class of a pair of 73 Lincolns as inspired by this ad, and used aluminum foil for the bumpers and grilles. Yes, it looked about as professional as you might expect (in other words, not nearly as good as yours).
Leatherman tool? I will give you the same answer Mrs. JPC usually gives me: “It’s supposed to be in your toolbox.” (if you have a desire to say “yes, I know it’s supposed to be there, which is why I went there first” – I will understand.)
Oh, and with all of these years of experience under your belt, are you ready to try a 99 Taurus or a Stout Scarab now? 🙂
Awesome work! Even better that you’ve kept it all these years.
Artwork is something that isn’t really in my DNA. My daughter, however, is another story entirely…
Brings back memories of working in a garage. I had an 82 Bronco for a service truck. Even had a factory mechanical winch on the front with a 289 engine. Rode like a lumber wagon but had no problem pulling big trucks out of ditches.
Doug, this is very well done, and indicative of a very creative person!
1982! You built that thing to last. A real Bronco would not have held up as well.
Very cool, Doug! Something else we have in common… I was constantly getting in trouble in grade and middle school for drawing cars, planes, tanks, etc. when I should have been doing maths or grammar. Finally in 7th or 8th grade, I landed in an art class with a teacher who encouraged artistic “play,” and it was a great experience. A friend in the class and I would spend a week or longer building miniature ships out of construction paper (maybe 2-3″ long). These were very detailed, complete with compartments inside the hull (none of which could be seen once we glued the deck in place).
“I remember he once gave us an assignment where we had to use only circles to make a pastel drawing, so I did a birds eye view of an oval race track, with little oval cars going around it. My teacher was visibly exasperated.” I laughed hard when I read that part. That so perfectly typifies how infatuated us motorheads can be.
That is so cool, along with the fact that you’ve held onto it all these years!
Very nicely done indeed! Thank you for sharing.
Great job. Thanks for showing us your treasure. I used to draw cars in elementary school when we had our “art” period. I do have a junior high project still at home which is a wooden box of different types of wood glued together to give a novel look and a lid that (get this) fits. I also remember kindly the teacher in Wood Shop who guided my clumsy fingers through the project. Great essay on a time of your life.
Got thinking about it last night. Your picture of the first generation Bronco reminded me. You did indeed get pretty close. My service vehicle was 1968 not an 82. Great work horse but terrible ride. I did have a 1989 when I was selling cars as a demonstrator. Much nicer and the family would actually ride in it.
That’s impressive. The only school project I still have is a metal spatula from middle school metal shop (1975 or so).
I loved drawing cars too. At age 6 it was usually a side view of a Lotus Europa (my favorite Matchbox car). I was often asked why my drawings had such smoky exhaust. (A: my parents drove a Saab 95 2 stroke wagon).
In middle school we had a semester of mechanical drawing as part of our shop class. I recall drawing cool isometric cars but being confused by trying to draw tumblehome.
In high school I once went to the local university library to research a paper using the microfilm reader. I recall procrastinating by finding 1930s newspapers and finding the car ads and tracing them – lots of tumblehome there.
Doug, this is outstanding! I love that you got two points of (well deserved) extra credit for this.