New Print Development Page

Working on websites can be a very time consuming effort. To complicate matters, last Spring I created two new websites – one for my Illustrated Corvette Series, as seen every month in “Vette Magazine,” and the other for my PROFILE Series, as seen in every issue of “Kit Car” magazine. Since I create and maintain all of my websites, I have had little time for new Nostalgia Drag Racing print images.

But I’m an artist first and a webmaster second. So, I decided to carve out some time to get something new started. I thought it might be interesting to follow along with the progress on this page. We will be showing you 8 distinctive steps that I will be taking to progress towards a completed new print image.

I will be showing the following 8 steps:
Step 1. Pencil sketch.
Step 2. Basic inking of the line drawing.
Step 3. Line shading for depth and distinction.
Step 4. Adding black fill.
Step 5. Drawing the ground.
Step 6. Adding details.
Step 7. Adding background.
Step 8. Noodling & doodling towards completion and signing.

As I complete each step, I will upload the latest scan along with comments about what’s been done. I never “really” know how these things are going to turn out. I just let the rendering flow where it wants to go. eventually, I get to the point where I look at the rendering and say, “That’s it, I have nothing else to add.” Then it’s signed and ready for reproduction.

So, here we go...

Step 1. Pencil Sketch

Here’s how I got started. I have a HUGE collection of old car magazine. Some are ones that I bought back in ‘67 and others are moldy old magazines I’ve been picking up over the years. I have a few Hot Rod Magazines issues from the mid-’50s.

I found a head-on photo of a front-engine dragster that looked interesting. The photo wasn’t centered as well as I liked, so using PhotoShop, I scanned half of the photo, made a mirror image of the copy of, then joined the two halves in the middle.

I then scanned just the engine from the original image and carefully traced the engine with the polygon tool, then copied the selected area, and pasted it on top of my symmetric composition of the dragster. I placed the engine in its proper position, flattened the completed image, and printed my newly composed image that I will use to create my line drawing.

Although this might seem like “cheating,” let me assure you that this is a common illustration technique that goes back to shortly after the development of photography. Norman Rockwell was a master at this technique. All of his illustrations were composed using this technique. One of my illustration instructors from Philadelphia College of Art used to remind us that this is an acceptable thing to do, just don’t be a slave to the photo. Use the photo to define your shapes, then add your creative interpretation.

At this point, the pencil drawing is a basic framework for a combination of hard-edge illustration of parts of the machine and the softening effects of line shading, cross hatching, and stipple work. The end result will be a distinctive rendition that will capture the thunder and aggressive stance of a ‘60-style front-motor dragster – what us old guys call a SLINGSHOT!