New Years Eve

gosh dont the holidays go fast? Happy New Year!!.. hear that whoosy sound.. thats another year gone by!
did another couple of hours on the Solent.. slow going... the acrylic needs redoing to get that depth.. im using a new thing called a retarder medium that slows the drying down.. its pretty good too. Can you see the band on the side of the plane is a deep blue? Im probably going to inject a touch of colour in the lights too..
This is definitely starting to grab me... which is great as it gets me up to keep going and painting.. not as easy as pencil but I think, more fulfilling in the end.
Hope you all dont mind too many posts.. its just that I have the time to do it so...

 off to see a movie now I think.. drawing with wollox on monday... might get that ERA done eh?

Oh dear Warwicks at Work...

But Im not... gotta new desk easel so spent a couple of hours on the Solent..
Jeez my back hurts...
and listening to matinee Idle isnt helping!! Lol

wet friday

absolutely persisterating down outside!

Progress on the artworks continues tho..

the ERA undercarriage takes shape  and Ive started the Short Solent on the hard commission acrylic painting...
Its all a bit black and depressing!! lol

where's warwick's posts then... too busy wrapping sold catalinas?

Boxing day +1 2011

E.R.A has progressed a bit, A2 size prints now available ($22 + postage) and I thought I'd show the new toy. A 1/18 P-38 Lightning. Im too scared to actually open the box yet... its monstrous! (as you can see from the senna blu-ray case for scale)..

AND.. Ive started the commission painting... Its to be a night scene of a Short Solent on the hard! Pic next time...

Christmas Eve 2011

Glorious day here in Wellington NZ. Frickin' georgeous!
Dr son home for 3 days and Im finally starting to unwind from the last few weeks stress at work.
Looking at really attacking another painting for an exhibition. Found a great old picture of mine from the 70's of a Skyhawk on display at Ohakea with admirers... Will be great at A2 size in acrylics.
But to keep the sunday pencilwork going with Warwick I needed another car so choose this action packed study on B&W of an E.R.A  Specifically R4D in a full blooded drift with Willie Green at the wheel... started with the wheels for a change!.. lol..

Have a GREAT Chrissy and an excellent New Year wherever you may be (even Christchurch!)  and buy lots of our prints!!!

Seasons Greetings

A Merry Christmas and a Prosperous New Year to all of you who have viewed and bought our art work. We will be bringing you more representations of transport with a Kiwi theme in 2012.

Brett & Warwick

We were wired...

Today was possibly the last drawing session for 2011 as we normally restrict ourselves to Sunday mornings and next Sunday is... Christmas Day. It's been a productive year as a quick trawl through this blog will attest. Brett has produced more, and sold more, than me, but then it's not a competition. We both have our own techniques and approaches which affect our productivity. Regardless, we both enjoy what we do and intend continuing into the next year drawing vehicles that interest us and exploring a few commissions.

Because it was Christmas (well, that was just an excuse really), we forewent our cheese and had some Christmas Cake (with Almond and Royal icing) with a glass of 8 Wired Brewing Co's The Big Smoke Smoked Porter.

The Opel is progressing beautifully - a real bargain, if I may be so bold. I particularly like the way your eye is drawn to the hand and face of the driver.


And Ka945 has bulked out a little. The remaining pipework and wheels may seem a little daunting but the diminishing perspective will help in that respect.

Cheese, Wayne!

The same range of cheeses as last Sunday - shaved parmesan, aged cheddar and a smooth, nutty Gruyere. Brett brought a Monteiths Celtic Red along with him & I chewed my way through a Wigram's 'The Czar Imperial Russian Stout'.

The Opel is looking good - some excellent reflections along the side panels - and I could tell from his imprecations that the complex shades of red were challenging Brett. This is going to be a great Christmas present for the commisioner...


Ka945 is proving challenging - once again I'm appreciating the subtleties of depicting black locomotives (the last few diesels had very little matt & gloss black paint as part of their livery). The red and brass number proved a welcome relief...

Only Petone

We are selling on a local fair stall again! A late evening Christmas fair... hope the weather stays fine!!
If you're a local we'd be pleased to see you there, come up and say Hi!

Wooden it be nice

The boys were not at their best today on Sunday. A solid 90 minutes of hard work but neither of us felt inspired. We fed on shaved parmesan, some aged cheddar and smooth Gruyere. And the special beer? A Wigram Brewing's 'Spruce Beer' that contained the flavours of rimu and manuka (native NZ woods) as James Cook reputedly brewed it in 1773.

Brett has started a Christmas commission - an Opel Monza GSE...


and I managed to get most of Ka945's cowcatcher done (although it will need a little rework).

Shades of Black

After a fortnight's lapse, Brett & I have returned, pencils at the ready. A rather nice Monteith's Celtic Red along with a Dutch gouda & a Kiwi brie set the tone. (Next week's beer is very special - something very, very old and quite unique.)

Brett has finished the black and gold car - the background remains to be painted...

whilst the black and blue Ka945 is nosing its way along:

Black Senna

and I even managed the odd 5 minutes to get some progress on the senna drawing.
Actually I think it helped as whenever I started drawing someone would wander up and start looking at the prints!!

Maiden Petone

A successful four hours for both Brett and I - we sold five prints each and gained a few potential commissions. Well worth the early morning start.

moving right along...

No drawing on Sunday - Brett had gone North (better than West, I guess, which leads to either Tyburn or Oz).

on the carpet

Had to lay carpet this weekend so no Sunday drawing with Warwick..
However I found some time to tweak up the oil painting of the Skyhawk and its come along nicely. Not too much to go now to finish it.. Just the stripes really and some touch ups...

A train of thought...

No team event today - Brett has domestic responsibilities.

I have finally decided what my next drawing will be - I had pondered whether to start this or a rather ambitious aircraft-themed drawing I have been sketching & researching for some months. In the end I decided on another locomotive, this time my favourite New Zealand steam engine - Ka945. I have travelled behind 945 on many excursions, ridden on her footplate a number of times (the most memorable hurtling down the Koputaroa Bank north of Levin) & driven her (in the Paekakariki sidings). I hope I can do her justice.


Oh, and the first of my Bugatti & Stampe prints was bought by some-one in France - thanks to Brett for posting it on eBay.

Petone Arts & Crafts...

In case you didn't know - 19th November is International Men's Day - celebrated in 50 countries around the world, but NOT New Zealand! So come and visit us - who knows, you might buy something for the man in your life.

Petone Arts and Crafts Market

If youre in the vicinity (Petone, Wellington, New Zealand ) on the 19th November drop into the arts and crafts market to see a selection of our prints. We may even be persuaded to personally autograph them for you....You dont have to buy tho... just pop in and say hello, were keen to get some (any) feedback!!

A Study in Brown

A wheelie productive morning - Brett has nearly completed the Lotus's wheel (only one, but it's a big bugger) and I have completed the Bugatti's wheels. We supped a thick brown Cooper's Best Extra Stout & polished off some cream-coloured cheeses (Kaimai Mature Cheddar, Cheddar with black peppercorns & a Kapiti golden wash-rind soft Ramara).

My drawing is complete - it depicts a drag race between a supercharged Grand Prix Type 51 Bugatti (the last T51 built, driven by Geoffrey St John) and a Stampe et Vertongen SV4C biplane (which is very similar to a de Havilland DH82 Tiger Moth (Stampe was once a sales agent for de Havilland), piloted by Victor Norman). The race was a standing quarter mile - not surprisingly, the Bugatti completed the distance in 13.8 seconds whereas the Stampe took 16.3 seconds - and took place at a disused airfield in 1984.


And here is the JPS Lotus (with it's loose wheel)...

Long Weekend - Deja Vu

Labour Weekend, and the boys put in an intense two hours. A glass of cider (Mayer's Irish) & a couple of cheeses (Kaimai Mature Cheddar & Millel Parmesan) to help stimulate the Muses, but mostly hard work on pictures we are both enjoying.

Brett's new drawing is of Ayrton Senna in the JPS Lotus:


The Stampe SV4c is almost complete (although not in this image - it's undergone further work since the photo was taken) and the Bugatti is starting to be fleshed out:

Long Weekend - Day 2

Completed the Begg... This is a nice colour update of my old Black and White version. Been tricky to get the sign writing on the side correct but I think its OK now...
And the first one has already been bought by the current owner of the actual car - Calven Bonney!  so thats all good.

now whats next?  aha... thats a surprise....  keep watching..

Back we go!

No worries, Brett - this is a team event, after all.

My new drawing is also from the past - a race between a Stampe SV.4C and a Bugatti. More details of the race as I unearth them.


Not the best of images, but I am enjoying drawing this one.

Go the Blacks!!!

Woohoo... were in the finals!!!  trashed the Wobbilies!!!

Late night on the couch but worth it... The car flags stay on another week..

Oh yeah and we did some drawing.. This is my Begg progress. Just wish I knew what those damn decals were.

(sorry Warwick.. Ive leapt in again!)

As only Sport can be...

I knew if I hesitated, Brett would leap in and list all the sporting events for us. A very busy Sunday, but I managed to segue from the end of the first half of of the Boks v the Aussies to the end of Bathurst 1000 to the start of the second half of the Aussie v Boks without missing anything of importance.

DSG3059, the shunter, is complete...


and Brett's new drawing is the Begg 018...

Crazy TV weekend

As well as slobbering over large Messerschmitts we also managed a little drawing round the TV.. What with

• Bathurst
• Suzuka F1
• Ireland / Wales
• England / France
• South Africa / Australia
• All Blacks / Argentina

virtually ALL on at 6pm NZ time I was being a crazy surfing couch potato...
But I did manage to finish the Mustang and put it up for sale..  Warwick also majorly progressed his Shunter but I dont have a pic of that!

and Ive started my re-do of the Begg 018 in colour. Again Warwick has the image of the work in progress!

Phew!

Toys for the Boys

1:18 scale Bf-109G "Black Devil of Ukraine" that was flown by Erich Hartmann. Brett and I have one each, to accompany our F-4U Corsairs & Brett's P-51 Mustang. A beautifully detailed model.

Hartmann, with an amazing 352 confirmed victories, is the all time ace of aces. He did not attain his first victory until November 5, 1942 as he missed the opening phase of Operation Barbarossa, when many Luftwaffe pilots ran up amazing victory totals against an ill-equipped and relatively inexperienced Red Air Force. In the month of August 1943 Hartmann shot down 49 aircraft. After scoring his 148th victory, he was awarded the Knights Cross in October of 1943. In August of 1944, upon attainment of his 301st victory, Hartmann was awarded Germany's highest decoration, the Diamonds to his Knights Cross. Only ten Luftwaffe pilots received this decoration.

In combat, Hartmann was shot down twice and crash landed his aircraft on fourteen occasions. He was assigned literally dozens of different aircraft during the conflict. The Soviets nicknamed him The Black Devil of the Ukraine. A price of 10,000 Rubles was placed on his head. When the war ended, Hartmann was captured by the Soviets and was imprisoned for ten years. He was released in 1956, and rejoined the Luftwaffe with his former rank of Major. He learned to fly jet aircraft at Luke Air Force Base in Arizona. Hartmann served in the Luftwaffe until his retirement. He passed away in 1994 at the age of seventy-two.

Simply intuitive

[detail from a pencil drawing of Steve Jobs by Guillermo Contreras]

Simplicity. What happens inside your computer doesn’t matter - it's what you want to do that is important. And the interface should be simple and intuitive, freeing you up to be creative rather than wrestling with trying to understand or, in my case, remember, how to use it. Steve Jobs understood that and the iPod / iPhone / iPad devices are a testimony to that understanding. I succumbed & purchased an iPod Touch2 (leading, not bleeding edge - I've been in the computer industry far too long to buy first release kit). Brett was sceptical (I think) but soon realised it's potential & purchased a 3 (or 4) quickly followed by an iPad. It would seem most of our fellow commuters in the morning have one of the 3 iProducts. Let us hope that Apple continue with his vision.

'We' still have Jobs

Been a long week. Warwick swanning around at home on leave while I ride the red eye train every morning with the other grey beards..  and of course today was the end of the Jobs era at Apple!

But Ive done some more on the Muzzie and linked the blog to Twitter (check @faminz to follow me) and FB

Warwick seems to have had a very good week trains wise, at least 3 sold while Ive had one ebay, one trademe and one bidded on for next week. And that one will be interesting as I may have to now redo an old (3 decades old drawing to bring it up to my current standards). Have also had a nudge from the oil painting Skyhawk chap so thats floated to the top again too...  need more sleep!

any way, here's the Mustang..  Ill take orders now... lol

Religion is by no means a proper subject

Brett managed to get a firm grip on his pencils, despite his strenuous activities on Friday. However, he was troubled by the loss of a key player in the All Black team (the IRB 2011 Rugby World Cup is being held in God's Own at the moment), not helped by my wry and sardonic asides.

DSG3059, the shunter, is nearly finished - just a bit of fiddly grille work to be done (huh!)...



and the Mustang progresses:

Feeling very wooden...

2 cord of wood arrived at 7am (thats 8 metres worth) and Ive spent all Friday stacking it in beautiful sunny weather. You cant beat Wellington on a good day... whatever... Im knackered.. but the muzzie has come along during the week.. The side is just full of weird colours and shapes but its lookin good, I reckon you can see the No. 17 through the reflections of the armco even.....

Found out I have a work colleague who is a 'real' artist. Lady called Kate McLaren.. you may like to have a squizz at her work... One day we'll grow up and be able to command those prices... siiigh.
Kate McLaren

By the nine Gods we swore

Just another Sunday, not helped by the loss of an hours sleep due to the start of Daylight Saving. But it was productive, even if a little blue as we invoked our Gods - greens that weren't green and greys that challenged comprehension. But we persevered.

Brett's Mustang reflects the Spring-like colours of the new buds outside...


whilst my DC3059 is reminiscent of the Winter weather that we've been having...


By the way, Brett reckons there's another months work on the shunter - watch this space!

In quiet they repose

A relatively peaceful but productive Sunday as Brett and I concentrated on our art work.

Brett has started a new car - Dick Johnson's Mustang II...


while I continued on DSG 3059:

The Good, the Bad and the Ugly

Sunday, September 11. The 10th Anniversary of the 911 WTC attacks.

Brett and I are old enough to remember the Moon landings - standing in the clear Manawatu night, gazing up, knowing, knowing that there were men standing on the Moon. Man's supreme achievement - a truly memorable occasion. I also remember watching the live TV feed of the horrors that were 911, unable to tear myself away from the ugly brutality of an unreasoning hatred of the USA. Unforgettable images.

Chippy is nearly complete.


But DSG3059 has a way to go yet...

The Boys are back in town!

It's been a rough few weeks. The winter blues attacked us both - Brett suffering from a nasty cold whilst I was laid low with bronchitis. Today was a beautiful mild winter's day with a blue sky - our first weekend together but, even then, we had to finish slightly early as neither of us had much energy left at the end. On a positive note, sales of our prints have been steady. I though we both needed some iron so an Emerson's London Porter was imbibed and, continuing the blue theme, a Whitestone Windsor Blue and a very tasty Shropshire Blue.

Chippy is coming on in leaps and bounds, so to speak,

and even DSG3059 has the blues...

Theres snow place like home!

yes, snowing in wellington for the first time in 26 years..
managed a few more hours during the week tho... and he's coming on.

good couple of weeks for both of us for sales.. I think Warwick managed 7 or 8 and I did about the same plus a bonus few on ebay today.

chipping away

Chippy was his name, and Im quite enjoying the challenge of a doggy portrait..
But its slow going... theyre very hairy beasties..