This is a Scammell Pioneer. The few remaining patches of green paint suggest it was built during the war and used for tank towing or heavy recovery. Quite a rare thing apparently - but sadly probably beyond saving.
Thursday, October 10, 2013
Scammell Pioneer - ink
Cathy spotted this wonderful old truck near us. Once I'd seen it I knew I'd have to return to sketch it - which I did this morning. I invited fellow artist Martin Squires along too as I know he likes his commercial and farm machinery.
Monday, October 07, 2013
1913/18 Piccard-Pictet 'Pic Pic'
Such a beautiful car - not just the proportions but also the attention to detail - and of course the wonderful aero-engine too. Previously I've only managed a very quick sketch so it was nice to have a bit of time for something a bit more finished (as finished as my work gets anyway)
White Steamer - 'Whistling Billy'
Whistling Billy is an amazing steam-powered racing car dating from 1905. A large patch of blistered paint suggested that it might recently have been 'On Fire Billy'! I wanted to have another go at this unique car (my previous attempt wasn't up to much)
Ford - Bobtail T
I love the simplicity of these Model T racers - must be a lot of fun to drive - although with the unusual controls it probably takes a fair bit of concentration too!
1904 Oldsmobile Curved-Dash
The wonderful curved-dash Oldsmobile which Joy Rainey drove coast-to-coast across America this year. She was raising money for Cancer Research - find out more - and better still make a donation... joy-across-america.com
Humber 9/20
Visited a small car gathering at an open day of a local car restoration company - Brabazon Motors. Lots of exotic machinery but the simplicity of this Humber attracted me.
Friday, September 27, 2013
Original Sketches for Sale
Just added loads of original sketches of all sizes, prices and subjects (cars, bikes, planes...) for sale on the Etsy store...
Wednesday, September 18, 2013
Model T pickup
Perhaps my favourite car of the day. This model T pickup just 'sat right'. It's a very loose sketch as I was walking alongside as he shuffled forward in the queue for the start.
VHRA Pendine Hot Rod
This hot rod had was just full of interesting details and textures - it really ought to be painted in colour.
Golden Ford
Neil Tuckett's 1911 'Golden Ford'. I'd seen this before at Goodwood and it was great to see it race - and to get a chance to do a quick sketch
Friday, September 06, 2013
Styluses for iPad Sketching - Part 2
Since my last blog article which related my experiences with various iPad drawing implements I’ve been sent several new items to test. Two have the standard rubber tip - but are at opposite ends of the price scale - and two are pressure-sensitive - something I’ve lusted after for a long time.
Here they are, on the left is the Dagi stylus which was my favourite after the last review. Then there’s the Jukestyle, Cross Tech3, Pogo Connect and Hex3 Jaja.
First up, the Jukestyle. At $10 there aren’t many cheaper. The rubber tip is the same as most others and glides nicely over the screen. It can be pulled apart to reveal a biro - and joining the two pieces together makes the otherwise very short stylus a better length - great if like me, you like to hold your pencil quite far from the tip. The ink refill is a short, screw-in type which I’ve not seen before but I dare say a bit of Googling will find a replacement. The slim pen is nice to hold and a decent buy for anyone looking for a cheap and compact solution.
Rather more up market is the Cross Tech3. I’m not sure the pen lives up to the quality of the smart box it comes in - or the price tag (£30-£60). It’s just not very beautiful in my eyes. It is however, nice to have a stylus shaped like a normal pen and also, jolly useful. With the standard rubber stylus tip on one end, twisting the cap reveals a 0.5mm propelling pencil, a black biro and a red biro too. Not only that but the rubber tip can be unscrewed to reveal an eraser. It’s quite weighty and I found the highly polished surface a bit hard to hold on to while sketching - I tend to prefer lighter drawing and writing tools. To sum up, it’s probably better suited to a smart business person rather than a scruffy sketcher like me (who is particularly fussy about his drawing tools!)
On to the pressure-sensitive styluses. I’ve been using Wacom tablets with this feature on desktop machines for years but this is the first I’ve tried on an iPad. Pressure-sensitivity allows you to use pen pressure to vary your line thickness and opacity just as you can with real pens and pencils.
The £55 Pogo Connect is well made, with a brushed aluminium finish which gives good grip without being too heavy. It transmits the pressure information to the tablet using Bluetooth - and for that reason there’s a AAA battery inside it. Theres also a single button with an embedded light.
The Pogo Connect is perhaps one of the best supported of this sort of stylus and was suitable for my favourite drawing apps (currently Procreate and Adobe Ideas) and many more. It has the same rubber tip as those previously but the clever thing here is that it’s held in place magnetically - so should it ever wear through, you can buy replacements. The button can be set to provide a shortcut to the most common tools, like undo, and in most apps the coloured light would change colour to the colour you were using. It’s clearly a well thought out, quality product and I really wanted to like it but I didn’t find it pleasant to draw with for two reasons. Firstly, it took quite a lot of pressure to get the full range of stroke thicknesses and as you pressed more firmly the rubber tip would glide less well. (UPDATE: It seems the latest app update may have cured this - it certainly feels much better now and is nice to draw with. The update hasn't cured the next bit though...) Secondly, there’s a slight bug, which is that if you start to draw on the screen very lightly, using just the weight of the pen, it won’t leave a mark. If however you press a little harder first and then lift off to the very light pressure - it does work! It may be something they can fix but for now it’s the sort of thing that puts me off using it. If I touch a stylus to the screen I want it to make a mark!
The final stylus is the Hex3 Jaja ($90). Unlike the other pens in this review, the tip has a small disk similar in style to the plastic one on the Dagi - but made of teflon. I much prefer these over the rubber tips as they don’t obscure your line and glide better - but do make a small tapping noise on the glass.
Constructed with a mixture of gun metal coloured brushed aluminium, orange plastic and with a rubber grip it looks very high-tech. It’s also the longest stylus I’ve tried - a good thing in my books. Like the Pogo it uses a AAA battery - but not for Bluetooth - apparently it uses inaudible high-pitched sound to transmit the pressure info to the tablet. I can’t tell you if it’s annoying to animals as my cat is deaf. UPDATE: My eleven year old son can hear it from the next room!!!
I really enjoyed drawing with it. The tip glides very well even with quite firm pressure. There are two buttons on the side which can be set to perform useful in-app functions. I haven’t used it long enough to see how long the battery lasts but it’s a pleasure to use - by far the best I’ve tried. The only thing that’s missing for me at the moment is compatibility with Adobe Ideas.
The ability to draw using different line thicknesses without having to go to a menu speeds up the sketching process enormously. Also, the varied strokes that a stylus like this make are usually far more interesting than a drawing where every line has the same thickness. Below are a couple of quick sketches done from life using the Hex3 Jaja and the Procreate app. I’ll let you know how it goes in the long run...
UPDATE: Battery didn't last as long as expected - perhaps 3 or 4 hours of continuous use. I'll try to keep track of how long the next one lasts and perhaps invest in a set of rechargeables. Also, occasionally you'll get a blip where it briefly draws at maximum pressure, perhaps caused by a noise created by the pen on the glass? - but it doesn't happen often enough to put me off using it.
UPDATE: Battery didn't last as long as expected - perhaps 3 or 4 hours of continuous use. I'll try to keep track of how long the next one lasts and perhaps invest in a set of rechargeables. Also, occasionally you'll get a blip where it briefly draws at maximum pressure, perhaps caused by a noise created by the pen on the glass? - but it doesn't happen often enough to put me off using it.
Wednesday, August 21, 2013
Hispano Suiza Alphonso
Had such fun being driven around in this for the week - the perfect camera car. I gave this drawing to Mark to thank him for taking me.
Dieppe church
The French have the best stationery shops. I bought a pack of postcard sized Bristol paper. Quite fun for quick sketches and cheap as chips. Bought some new pens too so this was the result of a quick sit down with my new purchases.
Thursday, August 15, 2013
Ron's FL Sports
Quick ipad sketch. We're off around the Amiens GP circuit today! We'll probably do just a couple of 19 mile laps - rather than 570 miles at an average of 72mph like those 100 years ago!
Hicky fixing his car
There's been a fair bit of fettling and repairing on this year's trip - and some jolly clever fixes to get all the cars to Amiens for the centenary run around the 1913 Grand Prix circuit.
Sketched with Adobe Ideas app on the iPad
Thursday, August 08, 2013
Dieppe Grand Prix Centenary
Just about to set off for France in a 101 year old Hispano Suiza - jolly excited. Hope to come back with lots of sketches, photos and tales of strong cheeses and long breads.
Napier Bentley
The 24 litre W12 of Chris Williams' superb tyre smoking beastie - I'm surprised I haven't sketched it before - though it usually has quite a crowd round it. It's great to see a car like this used with such gusto!
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