OVO...ELIN'S CAR

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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!