16973 replies to this topic

[macoran]

Originally posted by Tony Matthews
If it is a near side-on view going right-to-left I think it is a Terry Collins drawing, he did a lot for FMC and I have never seen that car drawn by anyone else.

I think that is the one I am looking at now, and yes the style is pure Terry Collins

Oops no. it is the Ford 3L..P69 was it ?

[Tony Matthews]

TC may have done both, I don't remember seeing an F3L by him though. Theo page, I think, did an F3L...wish I had!

[Jones Foyer]

Andrew Kitson,

You might be interested in this photo that was in a Japanese modeling magazine I picked up last year with an article about the Honda RA300.

There's your 1960's Honda piece at Mr. Sano's house (chassis designer for the Honda RA302, among other cars)

Sano-san

I always wondered where you got the source reference for the RA270 in the middle...photos of this car are very scarce and I've never seen one with Mr. Honda driving!

[Andrew Kitson]

Originally posted by Jones Foyer
Andrew Kitson,

You might be interested in this photo that was in a Japanese modeling magazine I picked up last year with an article about the Honda RA300.

There's your 1960's Honda piece at Mr. Sano's house (chassis designer for the Honda RA302, among other cars)

Sano-san

I always wondered where you got the source reference for the RA270 in the middle...photos of this car are very scarce and I've never seen one with Mr. Honda driving!

Wow..thanks for that Jones Foyer, very interesting.
This was one of 7 paintings that I was commissioned to do for Honda in the mid-90s.
Six of these were published, by Honda's R&D styling department at Offenbach near Frankfurt in Germany.
I arranged the printing for them at a print shop I knew in Fulda in Germany and most of the prints were sent back to Japan and given to company executives, or people such as Sano-san who had an involvement. I had some to sell as part of my deal and John Surtees signed this particular edition for me:
http://www.andrewkit...s/honda6468.htm

The seventh painting was a one-off commission, a montage of Honda's F1 successes with the German HQ building in the centre. It was presented to the companies retiring president Nubohiko Kawamoto as a gift from the staff at the European R&D HQ at Offenbach.

The head of the styling division, Koike-san, was a huge racing fan and proud of the companies history, he provided the photographs for reference from the Honda archives. I recall that his favourite driver and car of all time was not Honda related, but Ricardo Rodrigues and the Ferrari sharknose. There was a photo of the first F1 car, the RA270, when it was shown to the Japanese press with Honda-san sitting in it. It was painted a bronze/gold colour for the launch.

Great people to work with. This work dried up when Koike-san moved to another division back in Japan but the first six paintings they commissioned are still displayed in the entrance foyer to the styling department in Offenbach.

Some others here:
http://www.andrewkit.../sennahonda.htm
http://www.andrewkit...acart-print.htm
http://www.andrewkit...ges/f2honda.htm

The two remaining ones were montages of Satoru Nakajima's F1 career and the Honda powered F1 cars from 1984-92.

[Jones Foyer]

Originally posted by Andrew Kitson

Wow, they did keep you busy for a while. Very nice work. I guess I'll have to track down more pictures of the RA270 for my collection. I put every one I find in a file.

The most famous shot of the car has Mr. Honda sitting/leaning on it which disguises the fact that the car is devoid of an engine and the rear cover. I'm not sure how much else is missing inside, but the front suspension indicates that the car is abnormally light.

http://www.flickr.co...57605028296049/

[Tony Matthews]

There was mention of the McRae GM1 cutaway earlier in the thread, and as I've just found a print small enough to fit my scanner I have scanned it!



Image quality not too brilliant, the result of pixleating line-work.

[macoran]

Originally posted by Tony Matthews
There was mention of the McRae GM1 cutaway earlier in the thread, and as I've just found a print small enough to fit my scanner I have scanned it!



Image quality not too brilliant, the result of pixleating line-work.

Yes sir, that's the cutaway Milan scanned for me from a Motoring News.
Due to the MN paper quality and the paper ageing I had to clean it up quite a bit,
but this scan of yours is really great !
Thanks for sharing so much of your artwork!

[Andre Acker]

Does anybody have or know about a Surtees ts9b (1972 F1 car) cutaway drawing ?

Many thanks and best regards !

André Acker.

[Tony Matthews]

I have one but can't find a print small enough to scan - I'll keep looking.

[Andre Acker]

Hi Tony,

Thanks for your reply !

I will be grateful if you can find it and show it here.

By the way, looking at an old small book about the 1972 Lotus / JPS Team winning campaign, I found a Lotus 72 (JPS) cutaway drawing made by you (very well done, as usual) .

Best regards.

André Acker.

[macoran]

Originally posted by macoran
Just a list of the cutaway artists I have works of in my collection.

John Hostler
Theo Page
Tony Matthews
Max Millar
C.O. LaTourette
Bruno Betti
James Allington
Bran Hatton
Dick Ellis
Michael Badrocke
G.Alloisi
Serge Bellu
Phillip Barber
Bill Bennett
Cliff Marks
Rosso
Vic Berris
Creswell
Peter Griffin
Giovanni Cavara……also the book ai Raggi X
Takashi Jufuku

Also thanks to TNF I now have an Andrew Kitson and 2 Anders Bonde renderings




As for Drawings

Werner Buhrer
P.D’Alessio
Giorgio Piola……..the lot
Bob Freeman
Hector Bergandi
Vittorio del Basso


I will have to check for a lot more which haven’t been filed yet.

And this is just Motor Sports I am speaking of………if I check my aviation library……..

A great pity the Kevin Hulsey site on Tony Matthews doesn't work very well for me, I suppose there are quite a few good cutaways there to drool over.

[Tony Matthews]

That's because I still haven't finished writing and collating stuff for the site!

[Andre Acker]

Hi,

How can I see these images properly (bigger size) ?

Very best regards !
André Acker.

Originally posted by Mistron
Earlier in the thread I mentioned the Motoring news '72 collection, well, here they are.

If ever a subject deserved to be photographed properly, it is this, but I can't find a tripod and the lighting is impossible. for these faults I can only apologise! (they are a bit over A3, too big for my scanner)






















I'm not sure about anyone else, but Whilst the finished coloured drawings are incredible I personally find the working pencil drawings so much more fascinating - I think it's that the finished works are so perfect it's hard to imagine that they are actually done by hand, where as the pencil ones are clearly the work of an incredibly skilled person.

[B Squared]

While looking through my Carl Hungness Indianapolis 500 yearbooks this morning, I found an article on page 76 of the 1995 edition that is titled "The Fine Art of Tony Matthews" by Ian Bamsey. Well worth the read.

Brian

[Tony Matthews]

Originally posted by Andre Acker


How can I see these images properly (bigger size) ?

Anders, I am still looking, (but not constantly!) for a scanable print of the Surtees TS9B. Soon as/if I find it I will post it. I don't have the set that mistron has, and they are well over A4 anyway.

[Andre Acker]

Hi Tony,

The problem is, when I try to see these images, all I can get is a complicated info from ImageShack ...

VBR.
André Acker.

[Bonde]

Originally posted by Tony Matthews:

Anders, I am still looking, (but not constantly!) for a scanable print of the Surtees TS9B.

Tony,

You and I have obviously been communicating too much!;) ...having said that, I'd love to see your cutaway of the TS9B, too...

[Tony Matthews]

I'll try a larger Imageshack scan, if it works I'll delete the runt of the litter...

[Tony Matthews]

1600x1200 was too big, this is 1280x1024, something in between would have been better...

Andre/Anders, forgive me gentlemen! Here it is, once again the Brave New World of digitisation has meant poor quality linework...

[Tony Matthews]

Found a small print of the D50 working drawing at the same time, so for better or worse, here it is.

[Doug Nye]

TONY - DON'T! STOP IT! THIS ISN'T FAIR!!!!....

DCN (...are you selling prints...???)

[Tony Matthews]

Thank you Doug, but selling prints is a mugs game, has been for some years and must be a lot worse in these interesting times...

[Philip Whiteman]

Tony; even in these straightened times, I certainly would happily pay good money for a fine print of the Lancia D50 working drawing reproduced above. I wonder how many other forumites have the same thought – and what kind of price would make it worthwhile?

I hope it doesn't undermine the cause to mention that the final colour versions of Tony's D50 and Mercedes W196 cutaways appear in Chris Nixon's 'Rivals' book, recently available at a discounted price from Chaters…

[David M. Kane]

Tony good stuff, I've always admired the D50, this makes it even better.

[BRMfan]

Hi Tony any chance of a book of your prints with the working drawings?

[Tony Matthews]

Philip, David, many thanks, I'm moved by the interest in the cutaways. The print business is full of pit-falls, deep, unscaleable, spike-filled pit-falls! However, it is certainly easier to reproduce the working drawings than the full-colour finished artwork, so it might be feasable. I'll give it some thought.

BRMfan, I would like to do a book, but it would need serious backing, now is not the best time, I'm not sure if there will ever be a good time to undertake such a project. However, I will post a little something of the right flavour...!

[Tony Matthews]

I can't find a transparency of the modified version with long exhaust, so here it is with the stub exhausts as I saw it at Bourne just before the big sale.

[Manfred Cubenoggin]

Sigh... Another TM wallpaper to choose from. So many cutaways...so little time...



Thanks, Tony.

[macoran]

Originally posted by Tony Matthews


I can't find a transparency of the modified version with long exhaust, so here it is with the stub exhausts as I saw it at Bourne just before the big sale.

I'd love to see the working drawing for the BRM

[Tony Matthews]

There isn't one I'm afraid, Marc, it was done in the days when I did all the pencil work on the water-colour board then painted over it. It was only later that I did the construction on film, then pressed that through to paint over.

[macoran]

Originally posted by Tony Matthews

I can't find a transparency of the modified version with long exhaust, so here it is with the stub exhausts as I saw it at Bourne just before the big sale.

This post is already a great favour to me.
I believe that it belongs to set of three ? the BRM, the D50 and the Mercedes W196 ? Or were there more ?
I managed to get some from a site offering prints for sale, the pics on the net had the word SAMPLE splashed
all over them.

[antonvrs]

This is a fascinating thread. I've always thought that the best part of the original two volumes of "The "Grand Prix Car" were not the finished cutaways but the sketches in the back of the book.
Mr. Matthews, I love your BRM piece- do you know who did the translucent cutaway/overlays of the V16 in the 1954 V16 BRM engine book? That book has been one of my treasures for nearly 50 years now. I too would be a buyer of a book of working drawings, especially of the earlier cars like the D50 etc.
Anton

[IrishMariner]

Mr. Tony Matthews,

That D50 working drawing is extraordinary. Every time you post one of these working drawings, I think they are actually better than the finished work. I'm not demaning the color-work, but rather it seems to me that the working drawings have - what's the word I'm looking for ...... Soul. The heart & soul of the car, it's design, it's manufacture and your art are all captured very finely.

Well done.

IM

[Tony Matthews]

Originally posted by macoran
BRM, the D50 and the Mercedes W196 ? Or were there more ?

Jaguar 'D' type, Marc

[Tony Matthews]

Thank you antonvrs and IM, I have mixed feelings about colour versus working drawing, I started using colour because that's what the market demanded - also, I suppose, because I wanted to see if I could do it - but the construction work, especially with engines and gearboxes, was always the most interesting part for me, I just rather regret not using draughting film earlier, so many working drawings are now 'buried' under gouache, or in the case of the really early paintings, poster paint. I knew no better in those days, and on the samples that survive, and I only know of one, the colour has completely disappeared from some areas and changed into another colour in other places! Very odd, I was naive about pigments.

Which reminds me of a painting I did for a friend nearly 40 years ago of him racing his Mini Cooper at Brands Hatch. The car was metallic peacock blue with orange roof and bonnet stripe - was, because now the painting depicts a GOLD car with orange , if I'd wanted to paint a gold car I couldn't have done a better job! Another little task for yours truly...

As for the working drawings, most design engineers requested copies of these rather than the colour versions for their drawing office walls.

[alansart]

Originally posted by Tony Matthews
Thank you antonvrs and IM, I have mixed feelings about colour versus working drawing, I started using colour because that's what the market demanded - also, I suppose, because I wanted to see if I could do it - but the construction work, especially with engines and gearboxes, was always the most interesting part for me, I just rather regret not using draughting film earlier, so many working drawings are now 'buried' under gouache, or in the case of the really early paintings, poster paint. I knew no better in those days, and on the samples that survive, and I only know of one, the colour has completely disappeared from some areas and changed into another colour in other places! Very odd, I was naive about pigments.

Which reminds me of a painting I did for a friend nearly 40 years ago of him racing his Mini Cooper at Brands Hatch. The car was metallic peacock blue with orange roof and bonnet stripe - was, because now the painting depicts a GOLD car with orange , if I'd wanted to paint a gold car I couldn't have done a better job! Another little task for yours truly...

As for the working drawings, most design engineers requested copies of these rather than the colour versions for their drawing office walls.

I always prefered the construction drawings as it was where all the working out was done. I would often get told off by my bosses for putting too much effort into my pencil work, being told adding shading and different line weights was a waste if time. I couldn't get it into their heads that that I was planning for the final artwork and it would save time later. I occasionally stayed back late (for no extra pay!) and did it all then in peace

The other reason for prefering construction drawings was having drawn it once in pencil I'd had enough and didn't want to the whole thing again in paint or ink.

On the subject of pigments I wonder how many tubes of Permanent White Gouche we've been through over the years

[Tony Matthews]

You will have deduced by now from the number of posts that I don't have much work at the moment! Testa Rossa

[Tony Matthews]

Originally posted by alansart
I always prefered the construction drawings as it was where all the working out was done.
On the subject of pigments I wonder how many tubes of Permanent White Gouche we've been through over the years

Agreed, Alan, but not about the Permanent White, it took me some time to read what is writ small on the Windsor & Newton shade chart - PW harms the light-fastness of the tint, Zink White should be used! The colours I used most were the wonderful range of greys, later messed about/deleted by W&N, much to my fury.

[alansart]

Originally posted by Tony Matthews


You will have deduced by now from the number of posts that I don't have much work at the moment!

Bad for you, good for us

[Tony Matthews]

Originally posted by alansart


Bad for you, good for us

I don't think me fitting a kitchen has much influence on your work, Alan!;)

[RTH]

What a strange world we live in when some bloke puts a dead shark in a tank and it sells at auction for £11M and they call it art, and Tony's talent which is way beyond belief does not get anything like the public acclaim it deserves. That BRM is truly astonishing work ! It really is a mad world.

[Tony Matthews]

£10 M to you, Richard, and I'll frame it for nothing!;)

[P. Dron]

Originally posted by Tony Matthews
£10 to you, Richard, and I'll frame it for nothing!;)

I bid £11.

By the way, here is David Cerny's take on the pickled shark thing:

http://www.thefilero...ase.cfm/id/1029

Now there is a real artist, unlike that chap Hirst. Oh, dear me, Twin Window, I seem to have veered off topic. Again. Are you related to Arthur Dent?

[Philip Whiteman]

Just returned from Chater's new shop, near Hook, clutching limited edition signed colour prints of Tony's wonderful Lancia D50 and Mercedes W196 cutaways. Clive has seven or eight pairs left (mine are both numbered 7/250) and you might get them at a bargain price because he has had them sitting around so long he'd forgotten they were there…

[alansart]

Originally posted by Tony Matthews


Agreed, Alan, but not about the Permanent White, it took me some time to read what is writ small on the Windsor & Newton shade chart - PW harms the light-fastness of the tint, Zink White should be used! The colours I used most were the wonderful range of greys, later messed about/deleted by W&N, much to my fury.

I have to admit I didn't know that. I always found that Zinc White was never opaque enough. The few pieces of my artwork I've retained hang on the walls of my office and the colours still seem to be hanging in there

[Tony Matthews]

This, the Ilmor Chevrolet 265B, never went beyond this stage, as the company decided to make a leap straight to the 265C, and although I meant to finish it as a private project - well, you know what happens.

[Tony Matthews]

Originally posted by alansart
I always found that Zinc White was never opaque enough.

On it's own it's not, I agree, I used Permanent White as well, just not to make large quantities of tint. Cut edges, high-lights and lettering all got a slug of PW!

[Tony Matthews]

Originally posted by Philip Whiteman
he has had them sitting around so long he'd forgotten they were there…

Well, that sums up the print market! Hope you are happy with them Philip - regards, TM

[Philip Whiteman]

As an admirer of your work for many years, Tony, I am absolutely delighted with the prints (even if I would like copies of those working drawings even more!)

[Andrew Kitson]

Originally posted by Tony Matthews


On it's own it's not, I agree, I used Permanent White as well, just not to make large quantities of tint. Cut edges, high-lights and lettering all got a slug of PW!

I find the best solution is to use the Liquitex brand of acrylic Titanium white. I've used it for years now. I find it works well as mixed media with gouache too. Lightfastness is excellent and as with all of the Liquitex range, can be thinned as a wash, through the airbrush ( make sure it is cleaned thoroughly after every use though, acrylics dry hard quickly and they trash paint brushes if not washed out every minute or so! You get through far more brushes using acrylics) or they can be used as 'thick' as you like. My favourite brand of acrylic, Nick Watts told me he uses them too.