What are you doing today ? 2019

[idrivejunk]

We arrived home safely yesterday afternoon.  There had been tornados in our area the day before but they all stayed north of our place.  Leaving this morning for NSRA Mid America Nationals.

We left here about a month ago.  Our first stop was Ireland, then England, Wales, Scotland, and Iceland on the way home.  My wife and I travel to see historical sites and natural wonders.  We do not shop or search for fancy places to eat.   We get up early and we keep moving all day and into the evening.  Home is for sleep and resting.  The list of the things we saw and did is amazing.

Here is a shot of Pendine Sands a beach in England that was used to set land speed records before  Daytona Beach and Bonneville.  It is a sorry photo but we were there early one morning as the sun was rising.

The next big trip is to the Canadian Rockies.

John

This makes me as green as KB's deuce truck. :mrgreen:  The tour you took. Wow.

Boss and friend (Mustang / Camaro) are driving up to try and break their junks on the autocross. That would be fun to see. Not sure any of mine would make it there and back though.

[phat46]

Finished the commission piece today. The young man that requested said he "felt his whole body lighten" when he saw it. He really liked his uncle, he said he will give it to his Dad for Fathers Day! The portrait part came out very well, I got lucky! 😃

That portrait looks to me to be a good likeness even though I don't know the guy. Its just nicely descriptive of an individual. I wanted to toss out some casual thoughts not as critique but as encouragement from somebody who went to the Art Institute and if nothing else, picked up on some techniques for advancement in illustrations.

One instructor felt it very important to pull the rug out from under the students each quarter by establishing the strengths they have shown then assigning a project where that doesn't apply. From me to you, I would say if working from photos is mostly what you end up doing in your own hand, that if you were to do some still life as practice with the acrylics, and do some dark images with subtle coloring and low light... you may find that what you encounter doing that could send your portrait, and other, skills into orbit. For personal satisfaction of course, but potentially for gallery activity and perhaps paid stuff if you wanted.

Just friendly artist to artist discussion there, I know I do prefer specific input to general encouragement myself. What I'm saying is I'd like to see what you can do with a vase of flowers or stack of books next to an open window on an overcast day with the lights off in the room and curtains half open for example. Big shadowy areas, big tube of black. One thing that seemed to be consistent among teachers I've had is to boldly establish dark background areas first thing. Of course when you are doing cars it has to be more precise than with faces or scenery but it amounts to just more intense planning. Your way with textures and overall mood is great but you can be bolder and more confident now.

One thought I had about the kid's face is that, aside from like I said, working from two dimensional reference material maybe being a hindrance... you just most often see a child's face from a high angle rather than straight on or low, so getting a likeness is probably generally easier if the view is a little above eye to eye. Make sense?

I tried a still life, I don't do vases, flowers or fruit, but I did have an old fog light and a shop rag...very different painting from real life as opposed to photos. This is crude, but I will try more, much to be learned.

[chimp koose]

JUST WOW ! Thats my kind of still life picture      

[chimp koose]

We had our 10th annual car show today . 20+ cars showed up to show in the rain . We usually get about 60 . Still managed to raise a substantial amount for our skills program . No entry fees ,no 50/50 , just selling burgers and such . Managed to get a guy choked about not getting a trophy in one of the classes and demanded to see our bylaws for judging    , it is all judged by spectator votes , his car got none   . I had to leave early to attend the memorial for an old drag racing buddy . Nice send off , we will make an honour pass with his race car right before eliminations start at the season opener tomorrow . Lynden was the kind of guy you wanted to pit next to because you would have fun no matter what happened on the track .

[idrivejunk]

Ah! Yeah, like that! );b(  I think that looks good. Hope you enjoyed painting it, it has the effect I knew you could create. A little of that style leaked onto portraits could add a lot of intrigue and help you portray moods as well as faces. Scenery like old barn in sun but with old car peeking from shadows need techniques for the bright and dark both in the same pic. Still life is just always good exercise at any skill level.

Neat painting. When I was an aspiring student of illustraton, I just couldn't put down the Norman Rockwell books. Absolutely fascinating, what he did. I do see some similarities in what you show. Nice work, keep it up.

[chimp koose]

I learned a bit about shading in a university art class ( drawing and related studies ) . We charcoal blackened a sheet of paper and then erased away to create the subject matter .Powerful exercise . Makes you realize how important shading is and that we often make things too light . I have always left things too light , not enough dark in the shaded areas . Just an idea , but maybe you could use that method to do a portrait in the corner of a canvas , then paint a color image ( car ) in the foreground .

[enjenjo]

Went to my younger brother's wedding saturday. His first wife passed away two years ago, and he reconnected with an old family friend, and today they were married. She is 15 years younger than him, I teased him all day about being a cradle robber.

[phat46]

I learned a bit about shading in a university art class ( drawing and related studies ) . We charcoal blackened a sheet of paper and then erased away to create the subject matter .Powerful exercise . Makes you realize how important shading is and that we often make things too light . I have always left things too light , not enough dark in the shaded areas . Just an idea , but maybe you could use that method to do a portrait in the corner of a canvas , then paint a color image ( car ) in the foreground .

Years ago I did a scratch board of a '32 Chevy, simply black and white, It came out well and I really liked it. It was on display at a local show and it was stolen! 😕 Luckily it was published in a small local booklet that I still have. There is no light without dark, and no dark without light.

[idrivejunk]

Chiaroscuro is the word I was taught for what I admire about Rembrandt's works. I liked doing scratchboard projects too, I remember doing a Chevelle front end that way once and liking it but man that is an unforgiving medium. Having your art stolen speaks volumes! The toughest means to an end I could ever imagine is the engravings like portraits on folding money, where shading is accomplished with line width.

I'm the last person who ought to coach anyone but I do try to be encouraging if I do like what I see. And I am the first to throw out phrases like theres no good without bad. But... In my quest for spiritual growth I found an interesting insight that holds true in the whole universe: For example, cold is not a thing. Dark is not a thing. Bad is not a thing. Those are the presence of heat, light, and good... in varying degrees. Hmm, food for deep thought.

Back to cars... boss man and tool man autocrossed at the nats and the Mustang took two seconds longer than the Camaro. But the Camaro has big brakes and had a trailer to go home in and the Mustang did not. Man, it must be a blast doing that kind of stuff.  I didn't go but have done a bunch of fun cruising around locally in the loud car so far this weekend.  She gets lots and lots of nice comments for a car thats barely basic transportation. She's way way out of my league but I'm her man.

[idrivejunk]

Fixed the kickdown switch in the Model J today.     Don't think it has ever worked right so it was quite the eye-opener.    

Of course I broke the housing getting it apart    but zip-tied it.  Works.

[enjenjo]

Fixed the kickdown switch in the Model J today.     Don't think it has ever worked right so it was quite the eye-opener.    

Of course I broke the housing getting it apart    but zip-tied it.  Works.

Is that the one on the throttle pedal? I think I have a couple around here.

[Crosley.In.AZ]

I heard couple days ago , a friend from my neighborhood I grew up in , passed away. Jeff was a good fellow.  Couple yrs older than me.  His mom just passed away in April, she was 93 yrs olde

[phat46]

I bought a new used truck in N. Carolina. It's a done deal, my son in law and daughter are in possession of the truck in Raleigh. I was hoping to drive it back here on the plates the p.o. had on it, but they were expired. Has anyone driven a vehicle home across state lines before they could change the title? I plan on waiting till the title reaches the p.o. from his bank and he can sign off on it. I will have the signed title, and a notarized bill of sale, but no plate. Several people, including my insurance guy said to just drive it, that you are allowed to drive directly home from a sale of a vehicle without a plate. I know that is legal in Michigan,but I wonder about going through several states. Anyone had experience with this?

[Charlie Chops 1940]

I drove a couple back here from Louisville without a plate with no problem until i was in Grand Haven, 11 miles from home, where I got pulled over. Quick explanation and I was on my way...no harm, no fowl. DO NOT put a plate from another car on it as that is very likely get you a ticket. Do have an insurance certificate if at all possible.

[phat46]

I drove a couple back here from Louisville without a plate with no problem until i was in Grand Haven, 11 miles from home, where I got pulled over. Quick explanation and I was on my way...no harm, no fowl. DO NOT put a plate from another car on it as that is very likely get you a ticket. Do have an insurance certificate if at all possible.

Thanks. That's probably what I will do. And yeah, on the plate from another vehicle, that's a great way to get the car impounded. I had hoped to use the p.o. plate to drive it home, it would still be registered to the truck till I changed the title to my name. I do have insurance on it. I think with a signed title, insurance, and a notarized bill of sale, from my s.i.l.'s law firm I should be O.K. I expect to be stopped, at least in Ohio! 😉