Styling Trucks

Posts Tagged ‘Headlights’

A car’s headlights are like a person’s eyes, we look at them as if they were eyes. On modern cars, the headlights are highly stylized, they blend into the fenders and create a unified “look.” Some extra time spent in drawing the front lights correctly will pay dividends in making certain that the likeness of the car is accurate.

Styling Trucks

In modern cars, the term “headlights” is not very accurate, they usually contain several lighting elements, from turn signals, to hazard flashers, and more. Some cars have lights surrounding the headlights that seem to serve no function other than to tell you what brand of car they are (Audi springs to mind here).

Because headlights have to undergo such rigorous testing to be approved for highway use, they are very expensive (I have read estimates of upwards of ,000,000 to get a light through the approval process). This is good for the automotive artist, it means that once the light is produced, it will probably remain in production for some years.

Another benefit for the artist is that car makers want their different models to have a certain family resemblance, so a maker’s small cars will look similar to its larger models. If someone was willing to buy a certain small car, based on the styling, why risk them being unhappy to buy the next higher model because the styling is completely different? So the artist wins again, once you have drawn one of a manufacturer’s cars the other models’ lights will probably be very similar.

To illustrate this point, I once was asked to participate in a “focus group” about auto styling. Several people were in it with me, and we were asked questions about the styling of different vehicles. We were shown photos of various vehicles, all of them disguised to make it hard to tell what brand they were. As an automotive artist, I had little trouble in telling the brand of every vehicle. The car builders go out of their way to maintain the same look to their vehicles, so be sure to study the lights, it will make it much easier to render the car, or truck, more realistically.

If you draw the front lights faithfully, you will be well on your way to a great car drawing!

Drawing Cars is Easy – The Headlights

Headlights are an extremely important factor within newly innovated cars. With the newly released automobiles, it looks like headlights are getting brighter and better with greater reliability. Concept cars are now being upgraded with more elaborate headlights. One of the newer vehicles by Mitsubishi called the Eclipse Concept showed great advancements with have a lightning-bolt effect due to neon crack-tube indicators. Newer headlights are showing a trend of looking like lightning bolts and are sure to becoming more common in the coming concept cars.

Styling Trucks

Styling up a vehicle is becoming more popular but can significantly upgrading a car. Yet, there are some safety concerns that must be addressed with the upgraded headlights. Officials claim that drivers receive 80 percent of their information through visual effects. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) in Washington D.C stated that 42 percent of all crashes and 58 percent of fatal crashes have resulted due to poor visibility from damaged headlights and late night conditions.

There have been 2.8 million reported crashes comprising of 23,000 deadly crashes show that poor visibility plays a great factor. Recently the NHTSA has been looking at federal headlight standards that have not been revised within the past decades. They aim to update them within the coming years with pressing issues such as glare, bluish lights from HIDs, and how high headlights should be put only on high cars such as SUVs or trucks.

Yet, the most significant changes to headlights have been made in the past years showing that they have changed since they first entered the automobile industry in 1885. They were powered by acetylene gas and put in to lengthen the amount of travel time within later hours of the day. The first electric headlamp debuted in 1905. The 1970′s brought sealed beam lights which were later replaced in the 1980′s by halogen headlights. These lights brought controversy with many complaining they were too expensive and too bright.

Afterwards high-intensity discharge (HID) lights were introduced which also resulted in complaints. Mercury vapor, high-pressure sodium, and metal halide are within HID lights. What actually causes the light within an arc tube is an arc discharge. HID lights create a brighter light when compared to iridescent and fluorescent lights. A headlight manufacturer called Viseton said that the HID lights within the 2005 Chevrolet Corvette produce double the light than halogen lights and saves power, which is a growing concept in luxury cars today.

LED’s and digital format lights are also being used within headlights which can be used for safety and style purposes. However, there is still a growing controversy amongst headlights and what should be done to improve safety.

Headlights Are Going to a Brighter Direction