Tricky Subjects

Blog 12/06/24

Once upon a time there was a teenage girl who loved motorbikes. Like many teenage girls she kept an eye out for a tall dark handsome stranger to roar up on his bike, sweep her up and carry her off. She expected that he’d arrive on a purple Norton Commando , (since this was her favourite) and even kept a poster of one on her bedroom wall etc etc etc…..

When the handsome stranger did rock up , he had long red hair and was riding another English bike – a Velocette – which turned out to be a good choice and 48 years later the three of us are still together. 

Since I seem to be in a classic motorbike painting phase  and I still have soft spot for purple Commandos I thought I should have a go at  painting one. And there the fun began….

Motorbikes are tricky things to draw, with lots of strange shaped bits of metal and dangling cables. Luckily (after many years of watching bikes being worked on)  I have  a good basic knowledge of their anatomy, so I usually can tell if something is a cylinder head or a sprocket. It’s easy to become obsessive about details , which is fine if you want to be a motorcycle illustrator, but I guess I just want to express the thrill I had as a teenager, looking at my Norton poster and fantasising!

I even found that I had a tube of purple watercolour – bought years ago for the flower paintings that I never did.

• Once I established a basic outline for the bike (and they often fit inside a big rectangle) I marked out where the wheels sit – they’re not always the same size. I often begin with the tank , as that’s the eye candy, and work my way out from there. I compare sizes of things, angles, whether they’re lighter or darker than the bit next to them. A really, really important thing is to draw in the negative spaces, especially around the engine and gearbox. This is much easier than drawing every single part. I look carefully  at the shape and size of these spaces and draw them in. Often I’ll spot something recognisable on one side of these spaces  –  a kickstart , some cylinder head fins, a carburettor – and can adjust as I go , once things start to make sense. Sometimes I can’t tell what a bit is so just draw it’s shape and hope that no one is going to point out that model didn’t have a …….So far I’ve been lucky! I figure that the purists would probably rather have a photo anyway.

So don’t be afraid to try unfamiliar or complicated subjects . Negative painting is often the way to get them right.

What’s the trickiest subject you’ve ever tackled? I’d love to know.

What else is going on at Korimako?

• If you’re reading this then you’re visiting my beautiful new website built by Nelson web designers https://www.slightlydifferent.co.nz. 
• I’d like to say a huge thank you to Inga Clemens from www.anuko.com, who has hosted my site for the past few years but is retiring – you’ve done a great job and been very patient with me 🙂
• In the studio I’ve been busy working on my entry for the Tasman Art Awards exhibition, which happens in September, and have just finishing framing up my painting so it’s all ready to go. Watch this space.
• Our Tasman Wai Knot group will hopefully be organising to get out and paint during the winter , just let me know if you’d like to join the mailing list.
• We head to Western Australia this week, so the studio will be closed for a couple of months. An artist friend will be housesitting for us and using my studio for her “paint away” break, but she won’t be opening up as she’s looking for some peace and quiet! You can still contact me by email if you need me – janthomsonart@gmail.com – as we should have Internet here and there. I’m hoping to have plenty of time to paint new subjects, and next month will be talking about the process of painting in a country with quite different colours and light, using Australian made paints.

Enjoy the winter – a perfect time to curl up by the fire with a book or two, watch an art video and play with your paints,

Keep warm! Jan

PS. Here’s a good watercolour video to get you started..https://youtu.be/ksT_Gyp5Ytc?si=0UuN0mKomkHw7Us4