all arms and angles

Finished the Anglia and it was purchased straight away... caught me on the hop a bit so have had to scan it asap.. In researching it I was contacted by the editor of a local well known magazine who may even do a wee news item on it.. could be useful.

now onto the Mustang, and maybe start a WW1 plane...

Warwicks had his ups and downs this week but Ill let him explain if he wishes..

Idol chatter

Pints? A few pints? Oh, you said prints. Damn.

I did drop off a framed version of J1211 at Capitol Books on Saturday, so...

I rather liked Elbow's Grounds for Divorce played by the Matinee Idolists and (from Chris Whitta's Labour Day National Program's morning program), Peter Gabriel's cover version of Elbow's Mirrorball. Ouroboros, anyone?

Idle chat

and dont forget the framed Vulcan Warwick... bought from Capital Books last week... Thats worth a few prints....

and hey... Matinee Idle is back on... Dead Puppies!!!

The Anglebox looks better..

Love it...

Brett has sold a Corsair and a PDL Mustang & I've just sold another J1211 Gloria....

A Labour of Love

Today was spent at Brett's. Just to be different. And that meant different biscuits - more chocolate based. Nice. Lots of swearing, too. Brett's finding the Mustang a real challenge, but I must admit that it's looking really good, despite the difficulty with coping with grass reflected in blue paintwork. At least it's not sky reflected in black paintwork. After an hour, he swapped to the black & white Anglia. More swearing. Monochromatic artwork is really different - there are many shades of grey (as my BR 9F proved) - but the Anglia is taking shape. I too resorted to a lot of swearing. Mainly because I hadn't taken my full set of pencils - just those yellows I thought I'd be needing. Silly boy. I didn't have the oranges, reds, or greys necessary to portray the weathered yellow safety livery that the front of the EM is painted in. But we managed 2 hours of good work, chocolate biscuits & some swearing. A labour day of loves.

Hard to image there's over two hours work just to produce a door and folded footplate...

Labour Day Looms

It the wednesday before Labour day and I finally sold another print. Been a slow couple of weeks for sure. Warwick has been cock a hoop with his 3 (count'em... THREE) sales of the new Train. (But I knew that one was a winner... Go Rick....)..

Anyway to offset the Muzzie (which is proving a 'difficult' colour as it reflects the grass, Ive started a quickie Black and white study of the Gary Sprague Anglia. V cool...

Yellow is the colour...

Another intensive session. Brett's persisting with the Mustang drawing although at times it seems a trial. He started this morning's session with a lot of swearing and cursing but soon settled down - may have been the superb coffee I brewed & the lemon biscuits he ate.


I've decided to draw a TranzMetro Ganz Mavag ET unit, possibly because it's mostly yellow and it will be a refreshing change from the recent reds and blacks.

'Nuff said...

It's not often I sell more than Brett, so I'll take this opportunity... two J1211 prints in 36 hours.

I see the spots on the visitor's map are growing - the Northern hemisphere is definitely outnumbering the Southern more than I would've expected since Brett & I are 'specialising' in NZ-themed vehicles (cars, planes & trains).

Arranged for Dave to generate a few J1211 prints - they're looking good. Pity the smaller versions on this page don't do them justice.

I managed to resolve my scanning issues (I had had to ask Brett to scan the FE 2B for me) by burrowing deep into the network & printer settings to over-ride the colour & A3 restrictions. After a discussion with Ray (who bought one of my RM30 prints) about the local (TranzMetro) passenger units I thought I might do a series of local trains. We'll have to see what Sunday brings - FE 2B, Sopwith Pup, Ganz Mavag EM or English Electric DM? I will definitely be drawing Cyclops and The Phoenix multiple units at some stage.

tuff couple of weeks

bugger all sales... 1 spitfire and possibly a framed McRae from the Barber shop in town (yet to be confirmed).
But Ive struggled on with the Muzzie and have more or less managed the wheels on the rear view now..

Did find a few nice black and whites to start maybe even at work at lunchtime... and got Warwick his new Fe 2B picture photo'd so he can scan it for a start. so not all doom and gloom but more sales would be cool!!!

Buggrit

A funny ol' day - cold & grey outside. Brett was a bit frustrated with his latest effort - kept muttering about lost Mojo's. I was frustrated as I hadn't managed to create an A3 sketch of my next aeroplane (an Royal Aircraft Factory F.E.2b) so I 'finished' J1211 (at least the photo is a tad better)...


And here is Brett's Mustangs - you wouldn't believe just how much work goes into those wheels...

NZR J1211 'Gloria'

Forty NZR J class steam locomotives were all built by North British Locomotive Works, Scotland. The locomotive was notable in that it had a boiler that was partly streamlined. J1211 was purchased by a syndicate from NZR in 1971 and moved to Steam Incorporated's site at Paekakariki. In 1978, Ian Welch purchased it outright and moved it to Glenbrook Vintage Railway for restoration. J1211 is named 'Gloria' and has been fitted with original style streamlining. It was converted to oil firing in 1996. Here we see J1211 simmering in the afternoon sun.

Bugger me.

That was a very intensive drawing session! What with the background sounds of a couple of juvenile & neurotic lambs bleating next door, and an interview with Michael Caine on the National Programme, Brett and I hardly said a word to each other. It was just heads down and pencils pressing. I didn't look but I suspect our tongues were poking out, too. Two hours later we stopped - only to discover that our backs had locked in the sitting position and our legs had seized up.

So, Brett has started yet another wheel ("where's me special blue? What sort of yellow is that!"):



And I have discovered, yet again, that highly polished glossy black metal isn't black - it's an impossibly complex mix of reflective colours:

Slow week

no sales so far this week but have sent off the set of prints to Zoltan in Wanganui.
Wonder if they'll sell OK?

anyway, started the background on the Suzuki. Must admit Im never sure whether I should do backgrounds but this one seems a no brainer. It needs the sense of flying up a steep road. So this pic is in the early stages with a basic overlay of the painted background. Then will pencil over the top for detail...

We'll see how it goes I guess.