Tuesday 29 May 2018

The art of Alain Leroy

This week another amazing artist who certainly likes his cars. This week from France.




Alain was born in 1951 and studied industrial/technical drawing at college and university. Afterwards he had a job in an architects office for a number of year to learn his trade.

After 41 years he now draws what he really is passionate about. Motors in various forms!

He has a double page feature in the illustrated magazine "Trucks and men".

Passionate about the automobile he takes commissions and orders, so do get in touch if you are interested.

His Facebook here.

Below you can enjoy some of his work. Always respect copyright.






Monday 14 May 2018

The art of Grant Thomas


Grant Thomas has been an award-winning Automotive Artist/Photographer for 24 years. He was formally trained as a Technical Illustrator, graduating second in his class in 1989. He enjoyed an exciting two-decade advertising design career, while drawing and painting his cars as a sideline. The exotics are his number one passion. His works can involve portraits of entire automobiles – production or racing cars. More often, though, the image is of an enlarged detail of the car, abstracting the idea somewhat, but the model is still recognizable. His paintings start from his photographs and depend on them for details and accuracy.
Years of painting has honed his photography skills. He enjoys finding unusual angles, or searching for a character-filled detail that can represent the car’s beauty and convey the owner’s – and Grant’s – passion for the car. While his photography – having won awards in juried show with this alone – is Art in unto itself, its a step towards larger and more creative things. Also, being an artist fluent in a variety of mediums, Grant has the ability to take the photograph to much higher creative levels. An interpretation through ink, watercolour, computer vector art or oil paint, communicates to the viewer in a much more personal and emotional level, the power and distinct character of these cars. Watercolour – sometimes with an ink drawing – is his medium of choice. Very loose and sketchy but still technically accurate. As a ground: paper or board has been used. In the past four years he has discovered synthetic papers such as Yupo and Terraskin and has adopted them with excitement. Both are employed regularly in his present work. Grant enjoys trying new mediums and surfaces; always experimenting and willing to evolve his work to the next level.
While Grant paints a wide range of marques, two are featured heavily. Ferrari and the DeLorean.
Grant has been a passionate Ferrari fan for years. The history and beauty of the Italian marque has prompted Grant to feature it and many drawings and paintings and has been the most-rendered marque by far in his large portfolio of work. Production cars, old racers and current F1 cars have all graced Grant’s drawing board. The Cavallino Classic in West Palm Beach has afforded Grant hundreds of photos of rare and older models. Events at Mosport and around the Greater Toronto Area also serve to hone his professional photographic skills. At the same time these shots will serve for many a future painting. Ferrari has and will continue to be Grant’s first choice for his artwork subject matter. Sometimes Grant can been seen actually sketching with graphite or ink onsite at these events. While photography has now been publicly accessible to the public with digital SLRs being purchased en-masse.. seeing an artist creating his work at these events is a rare site, and attracts many a curious bystander.
Grant’s fascination with the DeLorean began like a lot of people: in 1985 with the Back to the Future movies. But, already being an exotic car fan, he began to study these extraordinary cars, almost memorizing the book “DeLorean: Stainless Steel Illusion” during his three hour Friday-night bus rides home from Sheridan College, where he was studying Illustration. Due to the shortage of cars, the interest was put on hold. The rise of the internet heralded the car’s resurgence in the past years having formed a die-hard niche of owners and enthusiasts who focus on these unique cars. And Grant has followed suit, the model re-appearing often in his renderings. In 2011 his photography was featured in “DeLorean World” magazine. The creation of the Ontario DeLorean Owners Club has connected Grant with a large and friendly group of owners. As the group’s official photographer he can be seen at their events happily composing his future painting through his lenses. The percentage of time the DeLorean spends under Grant’s creative eye is fast approaching that of Ferrari. The unique beauty of the car being one reason; the other: the great group of owners in his area who have become friends as well as customers.
Grant’s career as an Automotive Artist has garnered him multiple awards from galleries and juried shows, including the Automobile Journalists Association of Canada “Art of the Automobile” shows that travelled nation-wide. He is also a member of the international group “Club Auto Artistes” and an invited member of the “Transportation Artists and Authors Guild”. His work is promoted regularly at Automotive Artists.com. At his most recent juried show at the Robert McGlaughlin Gallery in Oshawa, his “F430 Reflections” and “Sassafraz Serves Italian” was accepted. The former winning second prize in watercolour. Last May his large charcoal drawing featuring the DMC-12 “Companions” won best Drawing and Best in Show.
He had his first one-man show in 2012 featuring over 40 of his automotive works and was very well received. The Toronto Star Wheels section gave it a front-page review.
You can find more information and images on Grant’s website here.
You are welcome to join his Studio Facebook page and keep up to date with his recent photoshoots and artwork at http://www.facebook.com/GrantThomasArtStudio. Or follow his blog at www.ferrariart.blogspot.ca.
To purchase a print or original or to commission work please contact the Studio at: gthomasf1@netscape.net.
Meanwhile, we have some of Grant’s work below for you to enjoy. Always respect copyright.

www.in2motorsports.com





Wednesday 9 May 2018

Sturgess Designs


Born and raised near Cambridge, England, Leslie moved to New Jersey in 2008 through his current employment.
“I grew up with a passion for art and spent many hours drawing with ink pens and pencils” explains Leslie.
With his keen enthusiasm for all things automotive, he decided to bring his art into the 21st century and began to digitally draw.
He works from photographs of a vehicle and using the principles of vector drawing, spend many hours on his PC and laptop creating realistic reproductions of the chosen subject. Vector art is ideal for printing and will reproduce a crisp and clear print even when enlarged.
He tends to use CorelDraw X5 software to create his work.
Each commission is different, even if he has drawn the same car before, the angle chosen for the new drawing can change the level of details and both the reflections and shadows.
Leslie spends an average of 30-50 hours to complete a commission depending on the subject matter and detail.
Please contact him if you are interested in his work or if you would like to commission a piece.
You can reach Leslie by email here; sturgess1313@gmail.com. Alternatively, you can check out some of his work for sale here, or why not have a look at his Facebook page and follow him and his work here.
Below we have some of Leslie’s work which he has kindly sent to us. Always respect copyright.

www.in2motorsports.com 







Wednesday 2 May 2018

Jean Claude Derringer

Another talented artist in the form of Jean Claude Derringer. Enjoy. . .




"My first contact with motor sport I owe it to my passionate father who also raced , which allowed me to attend in 1957, if I remember correctly, this was the GP of Morocco, hosted on the circuit of Ain Diab in Casablanca" Commented Jean Claude.
He was just 7 years old when he was hooked. Motorsport is like that. And, as we all know, once you are hooked. . .
It was the time of Collins, Brooks, Trintignant, Fangio, Behra among others ....! He especially kept the magical and dazzling memory of cars of the time that he had the chance to study in detail before the race.
A few years later, he watched names such as Clark, Hill, Rindt, Regazzoni, Beltoise, race. This has always fascinated him so much and that is what his first drawings were all about.
He has been painting car and motorsport for more than 30 years For more than 30 years with Formula 1 as his favorite.
The history of motor racing has furnished a large part of his life and as Enzo Ferrari so aptly put it, "these are my terrible joys".
"I am self-taught, have never had any artistic training. I have forged my experience, alone, according to my needs and my desires", Jean Claude explains.
He uses various techniques, acrylic, oil, pastel, watercolor, drawing and recently, painting or digital composition that offers great artistic opportunities.
You can reach him through his blog, or through his Facebook page here.
From September this year, as well as his blog, a specialized complementary site will be created, whihc is intended for the diffusion of prints in Digigraphie, in limited series numbered and signed.
Below you can enjoy some of Jean Claude's work. Always respect copyright.