Arts And Crafts Stuff

How I Draw My Roads

So the people that have known me for a long time knows that I draw Roads.  I do admit it is a very interesting hobby to do.  It is also a hobby that some people think I am crazy to do.  I am a avid road fan and geek (as well as weather and news junkie).  I love to drive on roads, take pictures of roads, read stories on the infrastructure, watch TV shows about roads, and love watching traffic go by.  Especially at traffic light intersections (why my logo is a traffic light).  While in high school I wore a traffic light necklace and the people thought I really went crazy!  When I introduce someone to my road drawings most are very surprised in what I do.  And some think I have a weird hobby.  So I can get a little crazy talking about roads as well, I think of it as a way to express myself.  This is what I love to do; everybody has a crazy hobby they love to do and mine is one that only a few people do very well; and that’s drawing roads.  So how do I do a drawing from start to finish.

I start off with a blank piece of white paper and I use a variety of pens and markers to create a road.  I just think of something to draw and then start.

I use a Paper Mate Eraser Mate pen and draw the outline of the road design I will do.  Notice all the lines that have been erased.  I will usually make some changes when I draw the outline of the road.  It does look like a mess but the next step makes everything look nice.

I then use a BIC Wite Out pen to cover up the erased lines and to create the dashed lines for the road drawing.  I also add the yellow lines in the middle of the road and the lines for the train track on the left.

I then draw on the yellow lines onto the road drawing.  I use a Sharpie Accent highlighter pen to put on the yellow lines.  It does not show up well now but in a little while you will see a difference.

I then get back out the Paper Mate Eraser Mate pen to draw on all the other features for this road drawing.  Signs, traffic lights, and the railroad lights are added to this road drawing.  In other drawings I might add freeway signs, delineators, bridges, tunnels, toll booths, and other things that you might see in a road picture.

I then use a Pilot Precise V5 extra fine pen to draw over the signs and traffic lights that will not be colored in by a Sharpie pen.  Notice the Yellow lines now have the darker ink drawed in also.  Notice the lines that have not been drawed over by the Pilot pen.  They will have a Sharpie pen colored over.

All the lines that were not drawed over by the Pilot pen now have been colored over by a Sharpie fine point black pen.  Since I am using white paper the black lines represent the white lines you would see on a road.

The next step is to draw in the colors of any traffic or caution lights I have on a road drawing.  I use a Sharpie ultra fine point red and green marker.  If I use a yellow light, I use the high lighter again.  I usually am random on which side gets a green or the red lights.  You think I have might gone a little overboard with the traffic lights.  But you can not have enough traffic lights at a intersection.

The last step to complete a road drawing is to draw on the reflectors onto the drawing.  All those orange and black dots on the drawing is a reflector.  I also use a Sharpie ultra fine point orange and black marker.  I also use the black marker to draw on any symbols onto the drawing.  Like arrows and words.

Here is the finished product.  A very creative thing I do you might say.  I have been drawing roads for over 20 years now and it started with school paper with a pencil to now with color being added.

This is how I draw a freeway road drawing.  I draw big overhead signs and the delineators on the side of the road.  Thanks for reading how I draw my roads.

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4 replies »

  1. Have you considered turning your road geekiness into a profession, namely civil engineering specialized in traffic?

  2. Won’t happen in Alabama. I invite you to visit redoalabama.com Alabama D.O.T. and the road building contractors does not like me because of all of the corruption and poor road maintenance that I have exposed. That website is gaining a lot of traffic and followings because the roads in Alabama are bad.