JRK Illustartions. The art of Robert Kotan

 James Robert Kotan is a colour Pencil specialist from Waterloo, Ontario, Canada. He found his muse at an early age. His love of the automobile was nurtured first by his father’s profession as an automobile salesman in the1940′s and continued with his brother Andrew’s first muscle car.
Robert Kotan’s familial connections to the automobile have developed into a deep, perceptive appreciation of the beauty and detail of the automobile.
This appreciation is evident in his intricate designs and illustrations. Rober Kotan’s speciality is Automotive Art.
Robert’s automobile-related artwork covers a wide range of subjects, including Classics, Racing, Muscle, and Hotrods.
Talented, and initially without formal training, Robert followed his muse and began drawing his favourite automobiles. To hone his craft, Robert enrolled in the Graphic Design and Advertising program at Conestoga College in Kitchener, Ontario, Canada. After receiving his diploma, Robert chose to focus on illustration.
Robert’s talent for illustration and especially his passion for the automobile are immediately evident in his artwork. He has developed a unique style that captures the complex detail and inherent beauty in each of his subjects.
He showcases his artwork through various automobile events and shows throughout Canada and the United States.
In addition to individual car collectors from around the globe, large corporations, such as Steele Rubber Products Inc., and LG ELECTRIC INC., have commissioned him to create exclusive illustrations.
Robert Kotan’s Limited Edition Collection depicts a personally selected subject, which pays homage to many of the key historical automobiles and drivers of the 20th century.
Please inquire about personal commission items and thank you for looking!

You can contact him and see more of his work here. Alternatively he is also on Facebook here.

www.in2motorsports.com 

The art of Gilbert Verani

This week's artist is from Nice in France. Enjoy,

Born in Nice, France, Gilbert was too close to the Paul Ricard Circuit not to get involved.
Seeing Race cars coming and going it wasn't long before he was involved with cars and mechanics. Having had an interest in painting, he decided one day to gather these two passions. (And we are happy he did)

Once he retired as a teacher in 2009, he picked up his brushes and started painting once more. He started experimenting with water colour which he uses to this day.

"I live now in Gers, very close to the Nogaro circuit, which allows me to attend many races ( cars, motorcycles, trucks ), meetingss, gatherings, in short any motoring event" he explains.

He has taken thousands of photos from these events from which he paints these wonderful pieces.

I am sure he'll entertain a few commissions, but you need to ask him yourself.

You can contact Gilbert by email on; gilbert.verani@sfr.fr

Even better, follow and like his page on Facebook here.

We have the pleasure of sharing some of his work below. 

Always respect copyright.

Sonja Verducci Art

This week's artist is from Germany, Sonja Verducci.

Born in 1970 in Schwabisch Hall, Germany, she was noticed as a talented artist at primary school. First her teacher noticed this so she was given much harder subjects to paint than her classmates. A keen artist from very young she got her first camera when she was just 9 years old.

A self taught artist, she has worked since 1989 in various mediums such as water colour, airbrush and more recently digital art on her computer.

A self confessed admirer of the old masters, specially Monet, her aim has been to show everyone that vintage and traditional art and oil paintings can be done on the computer.

She spent much of her childhood around cars as her uncle and father were both mechanics and she observed while they fixed cars. Her fascination grew even stronger when she met a female rally driver who lived close to her family.

"When I visit a garage, I love the smell of oil and fuel and the sound of cars is music to my ears" she comments (which we all agree). "Ever car is a work of art and has a soul" (I certainly agree with that statement).

She is very happy to have managed to find a way to combine the world of racing with art and photography.

So, there you have it. Check out and like her page on Facebook page here to get regular updates on her work.

Check out her website here.

Below you can enjoy some of her amazing work. Always respect copyright.

More featured artists here.

RK1 Dsign

This week a different approach to Autoart from France...

Thomas Sébastien alias RK1 Dsign, wants to mix technology with aesthetics. A full time Prototypist had to take a different approach to work because of health issues. He decided to express his know-how through an artistic project.

Thus, after much thought and after nine months of hard work, he finally presented his works to the general public. His paintings in relief, unite sculpture and painting using prototype manufacturing techniques. This allows him to show these magnificent representations of mythical cars and show off their lines and curves to the best of his ability.

Passionate about Porsche and racing atmospheres of the 70's, his first achievement was naturally oriented towards the beauties of Stuttgart.

He creates his works from scratch and spends hours refining the sculptures. Once satisfied, he creates a mold from the first piece and reproduces it with inclusions of carbon to use it like a blank canvas that he paints leaving black details appearing.

Perfectionist that he is, he can spend up to 20 layers of polish that he sands and then polishes obsessively to give this aspect of depth and vitrification.

The idea also came to sublimate his paintings by the light, because what better to magnify the lines of a car. He then made a frame with an aerodynamic profile to integrate customizable color lighting that allows him to play with the light spectrum. The hues of his paintings thus modify the perception of the color of paintings that make them hypnotic.
His paintings are completely autonomous ; once recharged they allow to enjoy 16 to 18 hours of light controlled by a remote control which makes the work scalable at any time. It must be seen in video as the range of color is varied.

Each of his creations inspiring him for the next he created what he describes as a "Porsche egg" because of its ovoid shape. Pivoting on its axis and having two sides it can propose different decorations according to the mood of the owner. Its carbon base seems to propel it in the air and highlights this work with its lights springing from an evocation of discontinuous lines of a road. This display alone required three times more work than the other pieces to give full scope to the sculpture.

He is always bubbling with ideas that just want to be executed, like inclusions of saddlery or corked aluminum and he is working right now on the interpretation of a 964 that could display these inclusions more agree that carbon with these models. The technical challenges please him so do not hesitate to follow his Facebook page or visit his site to discover his world.

Each work is limited to eight copies, signed, numbered and provided with their certificate of authenticity. Some customization is possible, RK1 Dsign will be delighted to study the enhancement of your choice of colours on one of his paintings in relief.

Find out more on the website here.

Keep in touch with new designs and ideas on Facebook here.

Below you can enjoy a selection of the pieces by RK1 Design. Always respect copyright.

Design by Gaber

A different approach this week from Italy...

Design by Gaber is a young reality born in Milan from the union of the passions of two youngsters, Simone Milanesi and Gabriella Crippa, for both cars and art.
Started almost as a joke, we began to outline this project in 2015 after the realization of a painting in coloured chalks of one of our favourite cars, an Alfa Romeo GT Junior. The clear lines and the bright red that emerged from the black background exalted the car perfectly, giving the painting the effect that they were looking for.
Taking this first model as a sample, they have realized and then uploaded a small series of paintings on their Facebook page and managed to get in touch with Davide Cironi, who has kindly offered them to exhibit their paintings at the presentation of his first book at Turin’s Mirafiori in May 2016.
From then, a series of events has followed until Design by Gaber has come to fruition at the Autoclassica exposition in Rho where they took part in the “Driveexperince” stand.
The preparation for the exposition allowed them to experiment with new techniques, dimensions, supports and compositions implementing shapes or photo cuts which could blend with the subject.
Each car has been represented not only by using the most adequate composition, but also by choosing a technique that could reflect the elegance through the use of ecoline and watercolours. It could also give a vintage charm through the use of charcoal, sanguine and coloured chalks or by using enamels and oil colours in order to emphasis the shades and the character of the car.
Beside a meticulous technique to represent at best all the emotions that a car can transmit, the dimensions and supports can influence the final result. For this reason they have started to work on important commissions of 150-250 cm realized on wood supports or on canvas.
"At present we carry on our project with passion and dedication, realizing new works according to our inspirations in order to pay tribute to the cars that had made car’s history and working closely with our costumers to accommodate their requests and to help them choosing the best supports, dimensions and techniques so as to implement their idea", They comment on the subject.
Recently, as they have been taking part in different events, they have had the opportunity to exhibit for the “Scuderia del Portello” at Alfa Romeo museum in Arese where during the prize-giving for the 2016 Alfa Romeo drivers, they honoured the Scuderia with a painting of theirs.
They also have, upon request, a painting of the 350 GTV in permanent exhibition at Ferruccio Lamborghini museum beside the original prototype. Recently they also gave a painting of a Zonda inspired by Leonardo da Vinci to Pagani.

You can keep in touch with them via Facebook here, or on Instagram here.

Here are some of their pieces for you to enjoy. Always respect copyright.

More images here.