LEYTON HOUSE MARCH CG901

my vector F1 project

So I am a Formula 1 fan. Like many dutch people I support Mad Max verstappen at the moment. But I first began watching Bernie's great show in the 1990's.  The aestethics of early nineties formula 1 cars have always been an inspiration to me. The clean, elegant lines, beautiful liveries and the combination of being very low and very wide are unique to this period in the sport. Compared to later years the cars are uncluttered and iconic. Each team had a unique car.

One day I ran across the great work of PJ Tierney, a very gifted illustrator. He had drawn the absolutely most beautiful F1 car of all time (not just according to me) the Jordan 191. And what I, and many others found amazing was the fact he had drawn the whole car in Adobe Illustrator. So all the shiny goodness was vector based...omg.

PJ Tierneys amazing Jordan 191

Here's a link to PJ's website and work

This got me both thinking and inspired. I bravely stated to some people I could also do this. ;-)  One problem: I did not feel I could better his work on this particular car. So I picked another beauty of this era and personal favorite of mine. The most elegant Leyton House from the 1990 season that almost won the French Grand Prix and was designed by legend Adrian Newey.

Ivan Capelli in his CG901

I thought it would be nice to let PJ know I was following his footsteps in his way. So I contacted him through twitter. He was very kind and gave me a lot of support and positive vibes during the project. I started somewhere in October and spent a lot of hours here and there throughout the month. Mostly weekends and evenings. Step 1: getting the necessary reference. This was immediately a problem. There where no blueprints available of this 25 year old car. Thankfully a CG 901 was recently restored and running again. So recent hi res pictures were available. Finding the correct reference was troublesome. There are so many variations in the depiction of this car...

which one is correct?

small reference overview, I don't own these pictures

Which is the right reference? They are all different :-(  I decided to just follow my instinct and make it look correct in my opinion. So this is by no means a technically correct illustration. Soon I started drawing shapes and details in separate document to keep the file size workable.

an early version

One of the subproject was getting al the sponsor logos in a vector format. Some were easy to find, others I had to trace or reconstruct.

the decall sheet

All went pretty well until I started work on the wheels. PJ had already warned me for that moment. I got really frustrated in making the wheels. So many lines, details, textures, perspective and gradients. I must have redrawn them 4 times.

frontwheel and the construction

details, details

and the same for the rear

Most fun on this project was applying the lighting through the use of gradients. If done correctly it gives the impression of the object in 3D space. Here is an overview of the car with and without the lighting on it. Especially around the airbox, the shape is really defined.

the effect of lighting the car

After working on the car and keeping PJ updated via twitter, the car was more or less finished. Just cleaning up the layer structure and getting the details nice and tidy was all it needed. One final step is making a large size print and sending it to mr. Adrian Newey to sign it for me. Hope he will...

Final note. This is my artwork, please don't use it without permission. 

THE FORCE AWAKENS POSTER

the final result

With only about 40 days or so to the premiere date, the next Star Wars installment is almost here. Exciting times for a lifelong Star Wars fan like myself. It certainly looks like JJ.Abrams, the director, got the look and feel right. Ever since that legendary first teaser trailer dropped last year, the iconic image of Sith wannabee and troubled soul Kylo Ren stumbling trough a snowy forest has been on my mind. So in March this year I made a small digital sketch:

first sketch

It shows the silhouette of Kylo Ren on top of a hill in a forest. Cross guard lightsaber drawn to do terrible things...At this stage the new stormtrooper helmet still played a big role in the background. The flaming giant sun symbolises the awakening in the title.

The final poster is a result of developing this idea whilst staying true to it's idea. It's still Kylo on a hill ;-)  I choose to have a stylised feel to this poster. There are some 1930's posters cues visible. Splattered backgrounds etc. Made entirely in Photoshop and Illustrator. I've tried to get as much correct credits in there as possible. Thanks IMDB. 

Finally, I had to put a nice detail in there...Oh hello Vader.

mr Ren looking ready to do some damage

painted foliage

is that Vader's helmet? omg!

Looking forward to this film.

OVO...ELIN'S CAR

endresult

Here's one a did a while ago. Me, my wife and my daughter Elin are all big fans of Leo Timmers and his illustrated children's books. We enjoy reading them together and admire his wonderful paintings. They've got a really nice stylized and honest feeling to them. check him and his work out: http://www.leotimmers.com

When Elin and me were reading one of his books and saw one of the many really cool cars, I asked her what her fantasy car would look like...her answer: "Orange and small"  Somehow I got inspired by that and the idea grow that maybe, just maybe I could attempt to paint her dream car.

Our real life car is a Volvo, but when Elin tries to read the chrome letters on the back it comes out as "OVO" (meaning egg in some languages. So the plan was now there. Let's paint a small orange car called ovo in the style of Leo Timmers.

Where to begin? Finding reference...

so beautiful

and then...a very rough ballpoint sketch:

simple but enough to start with

Leo Timmers is a fine illustrator and a skilled painter. I am not. So I decided to "paint" Elin in her car completely digital in photoshop. Finding out a new way to work is always nice. I got some custom brushes and tried to get a painted feel in this digital work.

Ovo :-)  the eggmobil!

I Can tell you that painting Elin the car cost me as much time as painting the whole car. To get the likeliness is quite a challenge. But in the end I was happy with the result. And Elin recognized her own face when she saw the result.

my angel at the wheel

Thank you for the inspiration Leo Timmers!

PEUGEOT 504 COUPE

Widely regarded as one of the most beautiful cars ever made, the Peugeot 504 Coupe was designed by legendary design studio Pininfarina. I always liked this car, it is elegant and yet powerful looking.

I chose the 504 to try out an illustration style I hadn't worked in yet. It basically comes down to only drawing the highlights of the subject. So as an illustrator you need to work very precise to capture the cars exact lines but also to interprete the shapes through the lighting. If that makes sense. Ideal to put on a T-shirt maybe...;-)

the unique 504 typography

classic beauty in a nice stance

some vintage colour options

OCTOPUS vs PLATYPUS

One day I asked myself the ultimate question...what would happen if an Octopus and a Platypus would meet in the wild. No doubt an epic battle would commence! And who would win? Two of nature's strangest animals in hand to 8 arm combat. "You callin' me a Puss?"

In stead of reaching for the mouse and my favorite digital drawing tools I decided to go analogue for this one. It meant actually visiting a store and buying black pens and nice heavy stock Canson paper.

the epic premise

full on battle!

one angry platypus

eight armed nightmare

TWO SIDES SHIRT

Another oldie this time. In November 2012 the great people at Threadless held the Dr.Jekyll & Mr.Hyde design challenge. Ultimately 169 designs were sent in and 71,907 votes were placed...and to my great joy and surprise my super simple graphic representation of Jekyll & Hyde in a Venn diagram style was chosen to be the winner. The design shows the two sides of the character and how they overlap. Couldn't be more proud.

original submission

close up detail

final shirt printed...image copyright Threadless

BIRTHMARK ;-) a symbol for Elin

Our beautiful daughter Elin was born December 9th 2012. Ever since my wife and I found out we were "getting" a baby, we started thinking about a New Born card. We like to think we are creative so the intent was to make something special.

I didn't take long to get the idea of a wax stamped symbol on the card...a symbol or initials? One minor problem: we didn't want to know yet if it was a baby boy or a baby girl. But we did have names for both. The initials were "M" for the boy and "E" for the girl. Both scandinavian by the way :-)

one of the original sketches and final execution

So clever old me designed a stamp that could work for both! Just rotate it 180 degrees and the E
becomes an M.

the stamp and lovely metal closeup

After we agreed on the design, it was sent to a stampmaker and all we had to do was find some beautiful pearlescent white wax and get waxstamping ® ( is that a word?)

the wax stamp on the card and a close up of the final result