At the end of every month, I post a new AutoSketch on 'The View Through The Windshield' blog.

AutoSketches consist of a rendering of a particular year, make and model of automobile (either a pen & ink drawing or a full-color drawing), along with the story of the vehicle in question. The article sometimes includes period advertising and/or photos of scale models.

Then, after picking the year in which the car was made, I write about the big news events for that year in a section titled 'Remember When'.

The drawing takes quite a bit of time to clean up, especially if it's an old, smudged pen & ink one. The research needed to write the article is time-consuming as well. I use several sources for my research material, including my collection of reference books.

If I add photos of scale model cars, I have to locate them, set them up and photograph them as well.

I sometimes have been asked "learn-to-draw" questions. I've been drawing cars since I was 4 years-old. I never took an art class, but I have studied books about drawing. And practiced. The best one currently in print is 'How To Draw Cars Like A Pro' by Thom Taylor with Lisa Hallett, published by Motorbooks International. The best book of all time is 'You Can Draw Cars' by Bill Jenks. It was published in 1960 by Sports Car Press. I still have the copy I bought as a teenager. (You can probably find a copy on eBay or through a used book shop.)

I used to do give permission for my drawings to be used by non-profits. Then I had several businesses lift my work (from the non-profits' publications) and to use them for commercial purposes. I had to use legal means to protect my copyrights and, while I recovered my costs, the time and effort spent protecting my interests was too much. Therefore, I enacted a strict policy of granting limited usage of my works (words and images) only to paid licensees. I'm not currently offering licenses on images and am not interested in providing copies of my drawings to anyone.

AutoSketch began in print mode over 25 years ago, when I wrote a column for the Corvallis Historic Auto Club. When I moved to Washington state, I briefly wrote for a now-defunct local car club, offering more auto sketches.

In the early 1990s, I began drawing AutoSketches for the Pacific Northwest Region of the Lincoln & Continental Owners Club, in the club newsletter, The Continental Connector.

The subjects were of course, Lincolns, and over a 20-year period, I produced quite a few of them. I soon added the 'Remember When' section. I was Club Editor for the Continental Connector from August 1992 to December 2003. During that time, I wrote numerous other articles about cars which were also published in the Connector.

I continued to provide AutoSketches to the Connector newsletter even after my retirement as editor. I also wrote the 'Remember When' sections which accompanied each AutoSketch. Old Cars Weekly gave three Golden Quill Awards to the Connector during my tenure as editor.

When I established my own website, I realized that I could post my sketches online, reaching a far broader audience. An additional benefit is that the size of the article and photos is no longer limited by the available print space.

Since then, I've been adding more AutoSketches to my website. That's why there is now a section of my web site devoted to them. It contains over 70 of my car drawings. You'll find the complete list posted here. Enjoy. (posted 7/17/15)