While competing in the 1964 Bolivian Rally, the Fiat 500 of Diego Massini and Felipe Zeppo suffered unexpected mechanical problems due to a flock of Tin-Can Toucans descending on their car while briefly paused waiting for the next stage to start. The Tin-Can Toucan is so nick-named due to its perchant to scavenge mechanical parts.
Next I’m going to go through the process of creating this cartoon.
Initial outline of the car
I got the idea to use a Fiat 500 after seeing a post on Instagram featuring the car.
I was looking for a car that already looked quite ‘cartoony’, and the Fiat 500 certainly fits the bill.
Adding the toucans
I referred to a previous drawing of a toucan when drawing the new ones.
Colouring the toucans
I washed in the colours on a separate layer. You can see the colour overlapping the outline, so I’ll erase any overspilt colour next.
Erasing any excess colour
I’ve now cleaned up the colour layer. Next I’m going to find a suitable background to use.
Searching for a background
As the cartoon features a rally car, I had a look through some previous cartoons to see if there was a forest scene that I could borrow a background from. I was having trouble finding one that matched the angle of the car, until I stumbled across the following cartoon:
I thought that I swapped out the river for a road it would fit the bill, but first I removed the characters.
Now to drain the water for the road.
Adding the characters to the background
I’ll keep the car white so that it stands out against the background.
Adding more detail to the car
I added the racing numbers and also a little grey to add more form to the car.
Resizing the car
I finally settled on this size.
Adding shading and hatching
The shading and hatching helps to ground the car and also adds some more form to it.
The finished cartoon
And that’s it! It was a lot of fun to draw.