Painting a Triumph Spitfire

Yesterday the parking lot at the shopping mall was turned into a race track, and—you guessed it—I brought along my watercolor book.

....and my video camera. (video link)

Jeanette and I set up our sketching chairs next to the modified Triumph, owned by Mark Vandecarr of M&M Automotive, who has been fixing our old cars for 30 years. 

Mark said "Put a helmet on, and I'll take you for a ride." It was a thrilling experience--I've never been in a car that maneuvered so fast. Despite lugging around my dead weight, he set a lap record. 

Triumph Spitfire, by James Gurney, watercolor and gouache, 5 x 8 inches.

Here's the sequence, which applies to any subject, really:

1. Line drawing in water-soluble colored pencils, carefully measuring units of distance.

2. Large general areas painted with transparent watercolor using a half inch flat brush.

3. Gouache for the details of the roll bars and decals.

4. In all, the painting took about an hour and a half. The drivers had just left for lunch when I started, so I had a feeling the car would only stay parked for that long.

Using a brown pencil on its side gives a quick ground texture. This technique is well suited to a subject like this because it's quite forgiving, and well suited to small detail work.

Watercolor sketchbook
Watercolor pencils
Watercolors 
Gouache
Round and flat brushes
Waterman fountain pen