How to draw a truck
A pickup truck is even friendlier to draw than a car: the cab is one box, the bed is another, and nothing about it is curved enough to go wrong.
- 9 steps
- 11 minutes
- 4-10 Ages
- Easy
How do you draw a truck?
Sketch two rounded rectangles, one for the cab and a longer one for the bed. Add the headlight and the side step, then the hood, the roof and the windshield. Draw the front of the bed and the taillight, then two big wheels with rims, the windows, the door lines, both bumpers and the mirror. Nine steps, about eleven minutes.
Watch it drawn, line by line
The whole drawing in under half a minute, in the same order as the steps below. No sound, so play it anywhere.
Draw it step by step
The new lines for each step are drawn in red. The grey dashed shapes are guides, sketch them lightly and rub them out at the end.
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1 Step 1: Guide shapes
Lightly sketch the two big rounded rectangles, one for the cab and one longer for the truck body.
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2 Step 2: Headlight and step
Draw a small circle for the front headlight. Add a long thin rectangle under the doors for the step, plus a few short curved dashes for the wheel bumps.
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3 Step 3: Cab and windshield
Make a curved front line for the hood, then a long line for the roof and a straight back edge. Add two slanted lines for the windshield.
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4 Step 4: Truck bed and taillight
Draw a short tall rectangle for the front of the bed and a long horizontal line for its top. Add a small circle at the back corner for the taillight.
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5 Step 5: Wheels and rims
Draw two big circles for the wheels, then two smaller circles inside each. Add a short curved line over the front wheel and a tiny L shape at the very back edge.
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6 Step 6: Windows and handle
Make two rectangles for the windows. Add a tiny curved line on the door for the handle.
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7 Step 7: Door lines and handle
Draw two vertical lines for the door edges, the front one bends over the wheel. Add a small rounded rectangle for the handle.
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8 Step 8: Bumpers
Add a small rectangle at the front bumper and another small rectangle at the back bumper.
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9 Step 9: Little details
Draw a tiny curved shape on the front fender, a small rounded rectangle for the side mirror, and a short line on the back panel.
What do you need to draw a truck?
A pencil, paper and an eraser. A ruler is allowed here if straight lines frustrate you, but hand-drawn wobble honestly suits a cartoon truck.
Where do you start?
With the two grey guide boxes, sketched lightly. One is the cab, the longer one is the bed. Get their sizes right relative to each other before anything else, because every line after step 1 hangs off those two boxes.
What is the hardest part of drawing a truck?
The proportions of cab and bed. The cab is TALLER and the bed is LONGER, and beginners draw them the same, which turns the truck into a van. Make the bed clearly longer than the cab and keep its top edge lower. That one contrast is what says pickup at a glance, and it is decided in step 1, before you draw a single real line.
The wheels follow the same rule as the car: both the same size, both resting on the same line, and drawn in step 5 once the body is already there.
How do you make it your own?
- Load the bed. Three boxes, a ladder, or a happy dog looking backwards.
- Make it a monster truck. Same body, wheels three times bigger, and raise the whole cab above them.
- Make it work. A rolled hose and a small crane arm turn it into a service truck.
- Give it somewhere to go. A straight road line behind it and two hills.
What else is worth knowing about trucks?
The pickup you just drew is built as two separate pieces in real life too: factories bolt the cab and the bed onto a ladder shaped frame one after the other, which is exactly why drawing them as two separate boxes looks right. And the bed is measured by how much it can carry, not by how big it looks: a full size pickup can haul about a ton, roughly the weight of a small car, in that box you drew with four straight lines.
Questions people ask about drawing a truck
Is this easy enough for a 5 year old?
Yes, though it has the most small details of the two vehicle tutorials: handles, mirrors, bumpers. A five year old can stop after step 5, when the truck already has a body and wheels, and it still looks finished.
How long does it take?
About eleven minutes over nine steps. Steps 6 to 9 are all small details and can be spread over a second sitting.
Is a truck easier than a car?
Slightly, because a pickup is two clear boxes and a car is one shape with a curved roof. If a child has drawn neither, start with the truck.
