Zen and the art of motorcycles 2

My partner is restoring a 90's dirt bike and I am finding the process very inspiring.  There are some challenges to capturing the fast moving processes in the garage, but also opportunities to study muddy, intricate mechanical parts.  

Some of my previous explorations in mixed media have come in very handy, allowing me to layer, collage and use opaque media (gouache) to build the image.

Spray painting the bike frame, the fumes were all encompassing.  Waiting for the action to start gave me opportunity to explore the clutter that accumulates around the restoration process in the garage.

I "borrowed" the carburettor and sketched it like I would a building.

Back to the action.  Here I was drawing the motor as it was being cleaned, which meant it had to change positions fairly often.  I decided to carry on with my lines through the movement.  So rather than an exact sketch of the motor, it is an amalgamation of the things I saw as I drew.
Then I experimented with gouache marks to represent the different parts on the smaller sketch.

And this is where the project has led me so far - utilising lots of my mixed media tricks!

The collage elements were drawn from life on scraps of scrapbook paper on one of my many trips to the music store with my partner - another of his hobbies that I find inspiring.  I already had them stuck to the sketchbook page, so I drew the brake parts straight over top.  Selected areas of gouache to pick out details and splattered watercolour for the years of mud and grime!

Shelley (May 2019)

Zen and the art of motorcycles

Sometimes it is nice to borrow the enthusiasm of others for inspiration.
Recently my partner has embarked on a dirt bike restoration (a Yamaha WR450f for those in the know) which has provided excellent opportunity for documentary sketching and studying mechanical details.  It doesn't hurt to be under cover in the garage during the variable autumn weather either....

Here I enjoyed creating a 'collage' of sketches to convey the process of deconstruction and cleaning the motorbike, using different media and colour to create layers of focus.  I can't help myself when it comes to watercolour splatters, but they seemed appropriate in the messy workshop environment.

It is also fun to draw mechanical details that you don't necessarily understand but are familiar to those in the know once the sketch is finished.  Adding the human element with people sketching is a more recent exploration for me.

I also took the opportunity to draw the prior project bike before it was sold (Yamaha TTR250).  I sat on a low chair, getting more of an action angle on the parked bike and playing with splatters and mixing media to add some of the dirt bike energy.

Looking back through my sketchbooks I have found inspiration in the bikes many times in the past...

2019

2019

 2016

I look forward to documenting the restoration as it progresses through the repair, replacement and reconstruction phases too. 

The bike was in pieces before I had a chance to sketch it as a whole, so watch out for the final reveal!

Shelley

(Autumn/May 2019)

The Bullet - made like a gun

I started out drawing New Plymouth's 1 million dollar tree, the gnarly 150 year old Ombu tree, one of only three in New Zealand when an Indian couple pulled up for a coffee.  I say pulled up, but as you can see there is no pillion, so one was following in the car.  It started to spit so I moved across to the bike and began umbrella sketching.

Royal Enfield was formerly the brand of the British Enfield Cycle Company.  It started in India for the Indian Army when 350cc bikes were imported in kits from the UK and assembled in Chennai (formerly Madras).  After a few years the company started producing the 500cc Bullet.

Intriguingly the Bullet derives its name from the original links with the Royal Small Arms Factory in Enfield, London.

In 2013 a new factory opened in Chennai.  Royal Enfield now sells motorbikes out of India to more than 50 countries and surpassed Harley-Davidson in global sales in 2015.

Turbo

Here's a sketch from a Classic Motorcycle Show. Although there were some very old and rare bikes here, I chose some from the early 80's. These three bikes all have 'Turbo' decals at least once on the outside. Of course, this is short for the Turbocharged engines that they had. This term is a bit spoiled to me and seems slightly kitsch now. Back in the 80's, there were so many things that were said to be 'Turbo'. Bicycles, Gobots, washing machines and pretty much any other home appliance at the time.
I also liked how one of the bikes had Turbo written in reverse on the front... as if someone has good enough eyesight to look in their rear-view mirror and can read that while driving.

Record Breaking Cafe Display

I visited an interesting motorbike workshop/cafe yesterday. Carbon Garage in Newmarket is full of interesting motorbikes and serves a nice lunch too. This an EMC Puch 'twingle' (2 pistons fitted inside one chamber) that broke the NZ speed record at the Cemetery circuit in the 50's.