rightingmyleftbrain

I’ve always loved vintage posters. I’m finally tackling my version in a painting of a Vespa, a modern classic, in acrylics on a 30×40 canvas. I took reference photos at the Vespa shop at NW Vaughn and 23rd in Portland. I liked the pose of the orange scooter, the “Buddy”!

My vision is of a Vespa surrounded by the phases of the moon. I’m not keen on the orange an I like the touches of red: the lines are painted in cadmium red after toning the canvas with yellow ochre. These two images are on the 16×20 support, testing out composition and color combinationsd am imagining a cream-y, maybe Naples yellow-y cream, warmer than the cream-y blue-white of the moons.

In order to work out the design and colors, I first paint a 16×20 study. (Upload image into Photoshop, crop and reverse the Vespa, print on 8.5×11. Trace line drawing, test different scales, and transfer taped-together enlargement to canvas using transfer paper.) The outlines are painted in cadmium red after toning the canvas with yellow ochre. These two images are on the 16×20 support, testing out composition and color combinations. The second shows the background of blue-black space and the Vespa logo in rust red.

So far so good. Now to figure out how to make a far more accurate depiction of the Vespa on the 30×40 canvas.

This is where I get it. My Uncle Jack paints cars.

Jack graduated in 1965 from the Cleveland Institute of Art. For awhile, he was an auto stylist with Ford Motor Company, Chrysler Corporation and owned his own design firm, BORT, Inc. He’s been a full-time automotive fine artist since 1982. He created a line of calendars with illustrations of cars and trucks from each year. He started the Automotive Fine Arts Society with a handful of fellow auto lovers and painters more than 25 years ago.

More about Uncle Jack at http://www.carart.us/products.aspx?x=2&f=artistID&v=41&t=i&ttl=artistName&tmp=2&menu=C6

The journal is now available online at http://www.afasjournal.com/2011/index.html.

Sketching some of the birdhouses in my Sellwood neighborhood is one of several art goals this summer. Here are the first few.