QUOTE (beighes @ Jul 31 2009, 23:58)

Tony.........At least Gwendolyn will ring you when she finishes her novel.
Steve, I may have a 'special relationship' with Gwendolyn, but that doesn't mean that I don't have to join the queue! I treasure the quieter moments with her in her Knightsbridge apartment, when the bone china and the Earl Grey are produced, and we can chat until late in the evening, sometimes well into the next day, by which time, of course, the tea will have been replaced by her favourit pink gin. She used to have a chiuaua called Angostura, as much after the dog's personality disorder as her favourite bitter flavouring. Personally I think it's nose was put out of joint by the constant commings and goings in the apartment, and Gwendolyn's displays of affection to all and sundry - the dog was just jealous - like many of her suitors, young and old alike!
QUOTE
Serious question here, " When doing any cut-away, is there much rendered totally freehand? Meaning, no straight edges, elliptical templates, etc.." I guess I mean, were there time that you needed to be more artist than technical illustrator?
cheers.......Steve
Ah, well, it depends on what you mean by 'rendered'. The working drawing of a car has a great deal of freehand work, but in the examples I've posted the freehand stuff is a bit lost under the later stages of tighter pencil work and then .02 ink line to give me the final drawing. Engines not so much, as I constructed them using a bastard system of my own - unless I re-invented a system that has been used for ever and I didn't know about it! As for the final colour artwork, that was also different for cars and engines, most cars were entirely brushwork, only glazing getting a flick of airbrush, while the engines are the opposite, 95% airbrush and a bit of brushwork - mainly fasteners and hose couplings, etc. So the cars have a lot of freehand work at both stages, but I also used ruling pens to show carbon fibre weave and to edge tubes and whishbones - not all the time, but when I felt that I might screw it up with a brush.
The earlier B&W line drawings were fairly heavily dependent on French curves, straight-edges and ellipse guides, but there was still some freehand inking, and of course, all the stippling, which was frequently taken for a mechanicl tint like Letratone! Ah, stippling, a very satisfying persuit if you are that way inclined...