New Painting Work

I'm currently working on a series of paintings which I hope to exhibit in 2013. They are based around various motorcycles, I will be including various motorcycles from enthusiasts and builders. I'm really excited about this project and I will be posting updates in the coming months. Until then here are a couple of images to wet your appetite:

Vincent Rapide

(digital painting)

Produced as a study to quickly work out the composition and palette for the full oil painting.

 Studio shot showing my setup and the underpainting of the Vincent.

Oil Wash over Underpainting, to be continued....

Motorcycle Live 2012 with Royal Enfield

After attending the Watsonian Squire Centenary celebration at Stoneleigh Park earlier this year I was invited to sketch on the Royal Enfield and Watsonian Squire stand at this years Motorcycle Live at the Birmingham NEC.  This is a massive show with a lot of the big motorcycle manufacturers attending and putting on huge displays. I was very honoured to be sketching on the Royal Enfield stand as they are producing some very lovely bikes, including their latest model to be released next year the Cafe Racer. Thanks to Ben and the team at Royal Enfield for inviting me along and being so accommodating to what is essentially a sketching busker. For more information on Royal Enfield, Watsonian Squire and the Motorcycle Live event please click on the following links:

royalenfield.com

watsonian-squire.com

motorcyclelive.co.uk

Royal Enfield Cafe Racer Concept

  

(A2 ink sketch)

On the Watsonian Squire stand they featured the SBW Motorrad a sidecar for the BMW R1200. This was a great challenge to sketch as it is a very complicated beast. The ink sketch was done at the show and the water colour was added back in the studio as I felt it needed more definition in order to make the various elements of the design more apparent.

BMW R1200 & SBW Motorrad Sidecar Outfit

(A2, water colour over ink sketch)

EFI 500 Engine Detail 

(A4 ink sketch)

Royal Enfield Bullet EFI

(A4 ink sketch)

Royal Enfield Bullet EFI

(A4 ink sketch)

Inky hands in action

I'm actually sitting on what I found out was a child's camping chair which I managed to break during one sitting. A bit of gaffer soon sorted it out and it lasted the rest of the weekend.

 Seeing that I had time to spend with the Royal Enfield's I decided to try some larger sketches, I really enjoyed working at this size and will definitely be doing more of this when sketching conditions are favourable.

 Harry Potter Sidecar

Barbour Sidecar Outfit

Backstreet Heroes and Streetfighters Custom Bike Show

After seeing this Triumph Drag Bike at the show I had to take the opportunity to sketch it. It turns out it's one of the latest builds to come out of Barons Speed Shop in Croydon. These guys are real vintage Triumph addicts and it really shows in the simplicity and period detail they include in their builds.

1953 Triumph T100, drag bike

(A3 ink sketch)

This bike is going to be raced next year so not just a show pony, great stuff. for more information on Barons Speed Shop please visit their website:

www.baronspeedshop.com

Next to the Triumph was this very neat BSA A65 Lightning

 Saddletramp Sportster

Based on a 1989 Harley Sportster.

 Coventry Transport Museum Display

Coventry Transport Museum had a great display of old bikes:

 1962 Francis Barnett 'Fulmar 88'

 1912 Rudge TT Special

1926 Rex Acme TT 

 1916 Lea Francis

1903 Riley 'Moto Bi' motor bycycle

Carol Nash Display

Vic Jeffords Carousel

As featured in Back Street Heroes

More metal flake than the human eye can withstand!

 Harley Street Bike

Manx Norton

This 1958 Bantam got my vote in the Build in Britain Competition.

Other Highlights 

 Mitesse Triumph

 Norton TT Bike

I like the rough an ready feel to this bike.

Webbing and Driving

So many people I know wouldn't dream of having a few drinks at a restaurant or bar and then climb behind the wheel of their vehicle. While it's great that they have strong convictions about drinking and driving, I wonder how many of them text while they drive. Studies have shown that people who text and drive are every bit as dangerous on the roads as drunk drivers.



It seems human beings are in a constant quest to show just how stupidly they can behave behind the wheel. As detailed in this report from State Farm, there is a new way drivers are not paying attention to the road and other vehicles: webbing and driving.

Webbing and driving is the clever new name given for when people actually surf the web while they're driving. They might be Facebooking, tweeting, writing up a blog post or just perusing the news online--anything but actively driving their vehicle. As State Farm points out, surfing the web and driving poses at least as much if not more of a distraction than texting and driving. Simply put, it's a really dumb idea!

I cannot tell you how many times I've almost been hit by another car that is driving erratically on the road, to then see that the driver is texting on a phone. In the recent past I was behind someone I could have sworn was extremely drunk. When I passed the car, I saw that the driver had headphones in his ears, which were plugged into an iPad he had balanced on the steering wheel! Literally, the guy was not even looking up from whatever webpage he was on. I don't know how any intelligent person could think it was a good idea to surf the web and drive at the same time!

This isn't a laughing matter, no matter how much I wish it were. Car accidents are one of the leading causes of deaths in the United States, and distracted driving is one of the leading causes of car accidents. Perhaps it's a good thing that within a short time robot cars will be available to consumers in states like California. I would far and away trust a robot more with paying attention while driving than some idiot reading up on the latest TMZ gossip on his iPad!

The Second Coming of Saab

Saab PhoeniX Concept Car

People love a good comeback story, the kind where a person overcomes seemingly impossible obstacles, and Saab right now might be shaping up to be that kind of a story. Many people decided the brand was deader than dead three years ago when talk of bankruptcy and winding down the brand  was first brought up by General Motors management. After languishing for a while, the Swedish automotive brand finally seemed to succumb to the many factors that caused its demise. Many kind eulogies were written for the brand and then everyone seemed to move on.



But like a phoenix, (or maybe a zombie, depending on how things turn out) Saab refused to stay dead for very long. Now it promises to rise from the ashes of the company so many wept over, hopefully stronger and ready to thrive in the modern automotive world.

Saab PhoeniX Concept

At first, plans were to relaunch the brand with only EVs (electric vehicles). That plan was an ambitious one, one that seems to have been placed on hold. Rather than let consumers continue to think that the Saab brand is dead, the company will release a new generation of the iconic 9-3 sports sedan, but it will be gasoline-powered like in the past. Rumor has it that this new 9-3 will be based on the architecture of Saab's PhoeniX concept (but sadly the scissor doors probably won't make the cut--pun intended). In the next few years, expect to see electric Saab models rolling down a road near you.

How is it that Saab has been brought back from death? Despite what most people think, when a company goes bankrupt and closes that doesn't mean the products are dead forever. If that were the case, Jeep would have been history a long time ago. The Swedish company National Electric Vehicle Sweden AB (or NEVS) is partially responsible for this reboot. The company is owned by National Modern Energy Holdings, which is based in Hong Kong. A significant portion of the company is also owned by some private Japanese citizens, with the alliance surviving the current tension between the governments of China and Japan.

Saab PhoeniX Concept

China has been weighing in on electric car technology with a mandate for quite a few electric cars on the country's roads in the near future. This has helped fuel an interest in bringing more EVs to China. The US so far is the largest EV market in the world, so expect to see quite a few of these EV Saabs coming to America in the near future as well. I would imagine a fair amount of the new 9-3s will be landing on American shores as well, considering the US was a vital market for Saab back in the day. Still, with NEVS being based in China, and with the country's growing appetite for cars, Saab should be expecting to see a huge upswing in growth in China (just like Jaguar, Land Rover and Volvo are all experiencing).

Of course, everything is up in the air right now. Relaunching a car brand is not an overnight process, especially with part supply chains, readying factories, negotiating with assembly workers, training, testing, etc. I'm sure the public's response to this news will play a factor in deciding if Saab is back next year, so let's all make sure to let NEVS know there's still a viable market for a combustion engine 9-3!

Saab PhoeniX Concept Wheel - I love how it looks kind of like a turbine!

The Joys of Driving a Minivan!

I am a car guy, but I'm also practical and I'm not rich. I also have several kids (which is partially why I'm not rich) to transport safely and comfortably around town and on long trips. Because of my life situation I have found myself doing what I swore I would never, ever do: I bought a minivan.



What's so bad about owning a minivan? Many people consider minivans to be a scourge on the road. I've noticed the most violent reactions against minivans and those who drive them come from women. Perhaps these women view minivans as an undue form of female bondage, like the bra-burning flower children of the 1960s? I once had a woman explain to me that driving a minivan is "sacrificing your sexuality for your children." I had no idea I drove my sexuality around on the road, but of course the little guys who drive huge trucks help confirm that at least some people do. How sad.

I really like SUVs for a number of reasons: they are excellent in snow, SUVs are good for camping and other outdoor activities and some can actually be fun to drive (while others constantly feel like they're going to tip over). But there is one major problem with 95% of the SUVs on the market today: if they have a third row, its large enough to transport a house cat or maybe a beagle and that's about it. Don't believe me? Go try to sit in the third row of a Toyota Highlander, Volvo XC90, Acura MDX or even a Ford Explorer. If you're tall like me, you won't even fit. To add insult to injury, with the third row up the vehicle's cargo area is completely annihilated. So that means if the family goes shopping together, everyone has to hold the store bags on their laps. Road trips are accomplished with everyone holding the luggage or using it as wonderful in-vehicle ottomans, or by loading everything onto the roof and increasing the possibility the vehicle will rollover at freeway speeds. Car makers could at least expand the hip room on the second row of these SUVs, allowing parents to place three car seats or boosters side-by-side and still close the doors and use the three shoulder belts.  

Minivans in general offer more cargo and passenger space than SUVs

Minivans, for the most part, have ample space on all three rows, as well as a surprising amount of cargo space behind the third row. Image be damned, having space for everyone and everything makes life bearable! Kids also have an easy time getting into and out of minivans, since they have a low step-in height and wide sliding doors. Kids have trouble with the large, heavy doors found on SUVs, which means they're more likely to hit other vehicles, metal poles, etc with them.

As gas prices continue to climb, minivans offer a more fuel-efficient way to transport a large group of people. In general, their tires and other consumables cost less. They are a more budget-friendly way to transport around your family. So many people have SUVs that cost an arm and a leg to maintain, and yet they never tap into the vehicle's off-road capabilities. If that's not conspicuous consumption, then I'm not sure what is. 

Ultimately I feel like I'm villainized by other drivers on the road because I chose a vehicle that makes sense. I had been conditioned to think that minivan drivers were some sort of a scourge, but my thinking has now changed by necessity. If more people would give minivans a try, they might realize that their kids don't need to eat their knees in an SUV's crammed third row. My experience is that the more comfortable kids are in a vehicle, in general the better behaved they are in that vehicle. I enjoy driving down the road without crying and fighting, which is hardly a scourge but instead is a huge blessing.

The Robot Cars Are Invading!

 
I grew up watching the Transformers (as well as the hopelessly inferior GoBots) and so from an early age I have a positive association with robot cars. Night Rider was also part of my ultra-healthy diet of mindless television, which also helped prepare me for the future of automobiles.

Yes, that's right folks, the future of automobiles will be robot cars. Like it or not, states like California are helping usher in a new era in motoring (as my friends across the pond like to say) where the human behind the wheel is not the only one driving the car. 



What baffles me is the massive opposition to robot cars. There are throngs of people who are upset, saying robot cars are dangerous (these people watched the Terminator and the Matrix a little too much), that they take away our freedoms and that robot cars will create the ever-dread "nanny state" I keep hearing about. If you don't believe that robot cars are a hot-button issue, check out this real (I swear it is real) political ad from Florida:

 
Back in the day windshields were called "not commercially viable" by people who irrationally were fighting any kind of change. Considering how many deaths and serious injuries are caused by car accidents, and how many people who want to do everything but drive when they're behind the wheel, I think the benefits of autonomous cars are immense. How many times have you been in a near car accident that was due to another person talking or texting on their phone, or doing something else that completely distracted them? A robot car would prevent the damage to property and loss of life that comes from car accidents (which are altogether too common). In fact, according to the United States CDC, the number one killer of teens in the US is car accidents! 

Of course, not all autonomous car tech is created equal, so the debate should really be about what is the best way of going about it.Having a system where all the cars are controlled by a central group of servers can be a recipe for disaster, since one glitch could cause thousands of cars to drive out of control, leading to catastrophic car accidents. Instead, tech like Google's self driving cars is far better, since a glitch would only affect one or just some of the cars on the road. 

To those who bristle at the thought of a computer driving a car, since computers won't be as careful, consider that humans have proven to be quite careless behind the wheel. Most of these robot cars will allow drivers to take control at any time, so in the event of a malfunction the human driver can still maintain control. This could also mean that people could drive without using the robot aids, just like how you can turn the traction control system off on your car (and let your tires spin uselessly as a result). The point is people would have the robotic aids, just like how people have backup cameras and other technology that makes driving a car a safer and easier experience.

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Are You What You Drive?

2013 Land Rover Range Rover

The old Detroit adage was "you are what you drive." Actually much of the automotive industry, not just American automakers, have drummed this into people's heads for decades. I have heard people use this phrase with glee (when they have a car they just love) as well as with disdain (when they have a car they would love to drive off a cliff). Is it really true?



There are many stereotypes revolving around people who drive different types of vehicles. I have owned a variety of vehicles, and always notice with a little twist of humor that people treat me differently depending on the car I drive. For example, when I had my little Volvo S40 (which for those of you who don't know is a compact Swedish sedan) I would regularly get cut off by the "big truck crowd" or guys driving full-size pickups. I even had one cut me off on the freeway, slam on his breaks and then gun it so a cloud of diesel exhaust spewed all over my car as he waved a finger out his window. After my car was in a little fender bender and then had to take a trip to the body shop, I was given a rental full-size pickup truck to drive around. I immediately noticed the other full-size pickups on the road treated me like royalty, but a new group started to target me: middle-aged women in economy cars! I kid you not, I would have women in Civics, Mazda Proteges, Corollas, etc ride up so close behind the truck I could barely see the roof of the car in my rearview mirror, meanwhile in my side mirror I could see them yelling and making faces at the back of the truck. What I couldn't believe was that if I had slammed on the breaks, these women would have been pulverized by a vehicle that weighed at least twice as much as theirs.

When I drove a Japanese SUV I had people in American SUVs try to show off all the time, and while driving my Saab I would have BMWs try to race me and Lexus drivers cut me off constantly. Driving a minivan now, I have the lovely joy of women (yes, pretty much just women and not men) treating me like I am the scourge of the earth and shouldn't be allowed on the roads. I could go on, but I think you get the point.I think it's pretty safe to say quite a few people have bought into the belief that the vehicle makes the person.

Does owning a Ford Raptor make you a more active person?

I would argue that a vehicle doesn't transform who you are. To an extent the vehicle does affect how you drive: I don't go nearly as fast in my current vehicle as I did in my Saab, and when I had an SUV I wouldn't hesitate to plow through deep water on the road. I would argue, though, that the person chooses the vehicle, and that different people gravitate to specific vehicles for a number of reasons. It's not always cut-and-dry like some try to pretend, but I do think that the type of vehicle you drive says a lot about you and the stage of life you're in.

Automotive industry marketers would agree with me. I often see automakers' profiles for buyers of different vehicle models. For example, once I saw Honda's for Accord drivers. I don't remember everything about the profile, but I do remember that they found the average Accord driver vacuums out his garage rather than sweeping it. While you can't say that everyone who drives X vehicle is exactly the same, you can say that most people who drive the same vehicle share some key traits. I do believe the list of similarities between drivers with the same vehicle grows tighter the more "niche" the vehicle is in the marketplace. For this reason, I think this is why there is such a strong Subaru culture or a similar group of people who drive Mazda Miatas. Meanwhile, you will find a less homogenous group of Camry drivers, although most Camry drivers do share some key traits (just not as many as Subaru Forrester drivers). 

I could also launch into a big, deep discussion about vehicle customization and what it says about people. I wrote up a 60+ page paper (complete with photos) for a college class on this very subject, and trust me I could write a 500+ page book on it. But we'll leave it for another day, and maybe even for a future book. 

Perhaps we should modify what we say about a car being an extension of a person. I guess we could always say "what you drive reflects who you are" but that just wouldn't be very catchy.

R8 Audi

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Audi has entered the field with classic outer design such as variable ratio steering, blind spot detection and MMI. R8 audi has grown larger and it is one of the largest. The newly designed Audi r8 is now 4.6 inches longer and two inches wider than before. Audi's extremely stiff body gobbles up bumps on the road and stays balanced. Its extra rigid body gives an improved body control while driving. Audi is easy to roll over the corners and its all wheel drive makes it easy to drive clean and straight. Audi's new 40/60 torque split improves its stability in low speed corners. It handles all types of roads and there is an intrinsic tautness to the way it handles the road. Typically, the firmness in the body helps stifle cowers and dives, while the car's body movements are kept well under control.

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