Wednesday, 30 January 2019

well its been a bloody long time since I posted on my blog but finally Ive started again.

Since 2017 Ive had quite a 2018 (finally retired in March with a nice redundancy package and really got into the garden with wifey. Adjusting to retirement was pretty easy but I found I had so much to do that drawing and posting here took a big back seat.

I DID keep drawing and painting tho and Ill post up some of the pictures in my next post. A LOT of time was spent on some ship painting commissions (HMNZS Canterbury, Wellington and Southland) plus some mundane cars for a dentist (Jeep, Spitfire and Karmann Ghia) but I squeezed in a few race cars, one in particular (the Murphy Commodore at Bathurst sold so well that Ive started another 'modern' racer.. the Scott McLaughlin Volvo.

and Ive also discovered a new drawing partner (I hope). Will Pike should be taking over from Warwick on sundays soon. He's a Liverpool football supporter so will be drawing soccer players for a start. Warwick has pretty well retired to Paraparaumu now so finds it difficult to draw and impossible to get to my place sundays. He seems to be concentrating on digital montages celebrating holidays but has produced a stunning Fokker DR1 picture with those same skills which Ill post here soon also.

anyway.. time to go now.. more later.

Busy May-June

So many things..

Sold my Skyhawk painting after the Ohakea airshow. Chap saw it there and rang me up next week and promptly bought it for his Office.
Then I got a commission to draw seven airliners in graphite on a very large piece of paper for the son of a retiring Air NZ pilot. (Thanks to Napier who found he didnt have time to do this)..

Then a magazine editor asked if he could use my PDL Mustang II image as a pull out poster and offered $400. After checking it was OK to use the pic I happily agreed !!

Then I got another commission to draw a chaps car from his partner, the Supra and GTO pic below.
Still a work in progress.

meanwhile prints have been ticking over (the Bulldozer is doing very well.)

and Ive hardly any time to draw the cars I want to draw to refill the stock.

and retirement is rapidly approaching!

Whew.

Big Healey completed

sealed and scanned! ready to deliver tonight. For something dashed off in 9 days its doesnt look half bad!

BT7 progress

been working hard on this.
The actual car colour is a super dark purple. almost black. The commissioner wanted to show that so the sun beating harshly on the top brings out the purple and blues and I hope relieves the black.
Just the top and then some white touch ups to do.. should only be a couple more days.

Big Healey

Have been asked to do a car for a chap who unfortunately has cancer and not too long to live I believe.
The car has recentley been restored for him and the restorer wants a picture to go with the car.
doing my best to get this one done.. time is very short obviously..
Why did I emphasize the front!!! so many grills and lights and holes and spokes AArrgh!

Lawrence pushes Lola

Ripped into a quick pencil drawing based on an old black and white photo of mine from 1975.
It shows a famous NZ race driver (Graeme Lawrence) pushing his Lola T332 race car to the 'pits' at Manfeild race track.

I colourised the car but left the people black and white. a: coz Its really hard to guess at colours for people and b: because it pops out the car as the star.

So thats done now onto a special pic of an Austin Healey as a special favour for an old mate.

and I have to get some aviation pics framed for the Ohakea airshow in a couple of weeks time. That should be cool.

The Airshow!

After the portrait I had to pretty quickly get into another painting as a main piece for the Ohakea air show exhibition at the end of February.
1 solid week really got into it and then I started work again (much to my chagrin!). So another 2 weeks to really sort it out.. but looking good now.

after 1 week

final painting

Portrait finished!

Took some time and I got blocked now and then but finally completed over Christmas 2016.
All ready to be picked up by the commissioner now.

Not exactly motor related (!) but eventually very satisfying.

A Huge Challenge!

Ive been asked to do a large (A2 size) portrait of a fellow worker's parents.
Her father has passed on a couple of years ago and her mother is quite ill so the family wants a nice portrait to remember them by. They are from Samoan / Chinese background and the reference picture chosen for me shows her mum in a very complex head dress with a detailed colourful costume!

A BIG challenge but one Im very happy to take on and so far, so good! I can sense a LOT of glazing to come tho..

Gilles Villeneuve Ferrari

Completed now... All the twiddly bits smerged over or tidied up and the road markings completed
(I assume these are actually white markings that have been rubberised over by the F1 cars going over them. ) The rubber peels off on to the crevices and cracks etc..
It does give more of a curve / corner feeling to complement the turning of the wheels and where the driver is looking.
Will be up on trademe very soon for sale of prints!

Red red and more RED!

Ferraris are red, right! and my arm is SORE!  but its looking cool! if I do say so myself...

Just some touch ups and the curving track marks to go.. phew...

Flame spitting Turbo

Finally found some more time..
Started to fill in the driver and a bit more round the rear of the engine etc. Leaving the big areas of RED till last...

Looking forward to a wee holiday in 3 weeks. over to Martinborough and down to the coast past Lake Ferry.. should be nice and relaxing... Im not cut out for this working lark I reckon.. pity that I need the dosh! Lotto failed this weekend for me too.. Oh well the odds were agin me really!! :)

Red 27

Topped and tailed! That red is funky man!

Gilles!

Started a nice Overhead picture of Gilles Villeneuve in his Ferrari (126K?) in the early 80's.
Good solid work on the tyres for a kickoff.

Mazda Montage

Finally completed the Mazda Montage... The chocolate side panel was quite tricky in the end.. had to get some special pencils and then I applied a wash of acrylic paint to darken it and then after that dried, some more pencil on the top. Quite the mixed Media image in the end.

ps: the pic is a photo and the lights caught some parts at a funny angle! The scan should be way better.

Nearly there

Finally attacked the red/brown sides. walked for ages this lunchtime to the art shop to get a pencil.. caput mortuum violet! Best match I can see but its still to reddish and light. have to darken it somehow... Might be time for some water colour paint!

I KNEW that was going to be a tricksy colour!!

screen time

Hard at the RX7 to try and complete this by the weekend.
Unusual pastel colours quite hard to match but looking OK so far I think.

on the 7th day

I got into the RX7! Tricky tricky wheels but perseverance has paid off I think and they look OK.
I must admit they were acting as a bit of an artist's block for a few days but its onwards and (literally) upwards now into the bodywork colour!

Looking very Familia?

Got stuck into the familia today and its pretty well done.
Now on to the RX7!

mazda progress

slow for sure..  but steadily getting the smaller car done!

Very complex wheel on that RX7!!! I think it will be more of an impression of the shapes.