Two crash test dummies in an orange car stop to pick up a hitchhiker by the side of the road. Upon seeing the dummies, the hitchhiker backs away in fear.

As I was drawing the crash test dummies last week, I had the idea for this cartoon. I thought I could expand a little on their adventure after having studied the book on how to crash, showing how someone might react to being offered a ride by crash test dummies. A hitchhiker was the obvious candidate.

I drew him as hippie type of guy on the side of the road with a bag of belongings. He has a beard, moustache and untucked shirt for good measure; the type of guy most people probably wouldn’t stop to pick up, but fearless dummies wouldn’t be deterred.

I was pretty happy with the friendly look on the driving dummy’s face and the beckoning hand gesture. The hitchhiker looks suitably wary as he declines the offer, backing away slowly.

For someone who doesn’t particularly like drawing cars, I seem to be drawing a few cars. I didn’t research this car and just drew it (as you can probably tell). It’s meant to be the same car as last week and hopefully is recognisable as such. It’s a bit out of proportion, and most likely wouldn’t pass a roadworthy. It doesn’t even have any windscreen wipers (as per last week). I figure they are learner dummies and they’re only going to trash the car anyway, so a prestigious set of wheels isn’t really necessary.

I originally did this with a gradient that faded to blue in the distance, but when I uploaded it and it got compressed, there was significant colour banding, so I abandoned that for flat colours.

On the back seat of the car, you may notice the book the dummies were reading last week. It almost appears as if the dummy is pointing his thumb towards it as if to explain they’ve read it and therefore it would be ok to travel with them. Let’s just pretend I drew it that way on purpose.