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!