QUOTE (Tony Matthews @ Dec 6 2009, 15:12)

Yes, hard to believe how sharp and clean they are - thanks TW! I was working for Jim at the time they were drawn, but didn't contribute a single line or dot - my 'influence' was to change the way the tyre side-walls were stippled. I can't remember which cutaway it was, but having been given the task of stippling the tyres I took my courage in both hands and asked if I could try a different approach.
As there was no panic to finish the drawing and if I failed the stippling could be erased, Jim gave me the nod. I'd been studying the lighting on tyres in photographs and in real life, and noticed that the darkest area was an ellipse that ran eccentric to the tyre, from the contact point with the road to the top of the wheel rim. When Jim saw what I had done he immediately adopted it, much to my relief! I used exactly the same shading when I started with colour.
Thanks for the comments. That is really great coming from you two, especially ... not to disregard anyone else in the group. Those files that I posted are something like half the size of what I have as the assembled files. I have been saving those at something like 11x17 (or whatever would fit there) at 300 dpi. Just don't look too closely where I had to fill in the gutters that they trimmed out of the drawings at the page breaks ... wouldn't have wanted to layout things to get them in the centerspread or anything ...
Of course, I am having to piece them anyway, as the scanner won't do larger than 8-1/2x11.
Stippling is an interesting subject for me, as one of the worst sections of a drawing that I ever did (not that they were all that great) was attempting to stipple a tire, but without using ink. Obviously, you can't really get a dot out of a pencil unless you are all but stabbing through the surface, and since I am drawing on mylar, it would have had to be with carbon bullets or something. I ended up doing the stippling that turned into hashmarks ... making the tire look like a chia pet or something ... looked like it needed a shave, at least.
I finally cleaned it out so that it is out of my drawing now that I have been able to get it into digital form.
Now, the irony of the situation is that my sister, who has never done any artwork whatsoever, did two stipple-art illustrations of babies when she was in high school. Did a hell of a job, and then decided that they were too much work and never did another. Drives me crazy that she could do that, and I couldn't ... and I do this crazy stuff and she can't figure that out.
Anyway, I guess I will have to check out Tony's technique more and see if I can do it, although I have been cutting through the top of the tires now so the shading doesn't really work with my style.
Tom West