If you know me at all, you know I love cars, motorcycles, engines, and anything related. I love the feel of a powerful engine, the unique sound of an unusual engine, the special quirks of rare mechanical and the function of a well engineered machine. I love the art, the style, the engineering, the mechanics, and the the dirty details. I work on them, caress them, listen to them, admire them, and covet them. From Ducati to Norton, Bugatti to Edsel I love good design and quality work.
This past week my husband and I, who is a fellow admirer went to the Houston Fine Arts Museum to visit an exhibit of Art Deco cars. These were taken with my Fire phone, not the good camera from work.
Another new direction today. the female form is the basis of this piece. I have been contemplating this one for a while, I got the image off Facebook but to be honest I am unsure who she is. I will try to look into it, it was on the tattooed females page. With that foundation, I took a shot of an old Honda Superhawk engine open and clean. My husband is building one right now, so I keep seeing great things in it to work with. I used that as a beginning for the female steampunk cyborg. The background is completly changed from original.
As promised, here is the other Passport Steampunk mod I was thinking about yesterday. This one is a c70 Passport. I began with a very simple black and white image and built up all of it. The basic form is I think a 60s model, they really haven’t changed much so I am unsure. I am trying techniques and ideas in GIMP this week to improve my skill with the program and my ability to transfer ideas to the image. I am getting faster with the program also, for things that took much longer previously I can now focus on trying things or details of the image.
Steampunk Passport
This one reminds me of the really early single person cars and bullet cars. The lines really fit the period and hint at hidden things in the bike. Swooping levers and curves are so rarely seen now, it is a detail and style out of the past.
We bought a moped for me to take to work today. A Honda c70 Passport, also known as the Cub in other countries. In commemoration of that, I did a mod of a cub today. The image is actually a c50 from a Hell For Leather Magazine article. I am thinking I need to contact the Moped Army local chapter now 🙂
At any rate, I quite like the steampunk mod for this one and I have another planned with a very different panel style. I tried something new and turned the shadow into a reflective pool. Getting it to do that without messing up the motor was a challenge, but I’m fairly pleased with it.
Another Steampunk Ducati, very different vintage model and Steampunk styling. Obviously, I like motorcycles and supercars, Ducati is a favorite – that and most vintage European bikes.
I find cars much easier on the computer and bikes by hand or when actually working on one. The Ducati frame gives me a particular challenge in getting the texture and color right without losing the depth. that and the seats. I will have to consider a few options on my days off and try some things, maybe I can fix that. I love their frame design, it was one of the things that first drew my attention years ago, but it’s a beast in GIMP and Photoshop. Nice for drawings though. I want to paint some, but too big and detailed for a one day project, that will have to wait. I also find it interesting that most of my added gearing and linkage just blended into the design and is hardly noticeable now.
Just a rendition of today’s piece, as I have taken to making.
I want to redo this and some of my others when I have a way of making good rivets that allow functioning gears and precise placement. However, I like this one using a Triumph pin my husband gave me when I had my Bonneville some years ago. The magnifying glass is free enough to be used on things if needed and focuses on the Coin. It swings a bit more than I would like, I would fix that if I redid this one with the riveting. All connections are copper, as is the back gear. The others are brass and bronze. The pin is silver. Not sure what the stone is. I also like triumph cars, so the gear on the left serves duel purposes for me. Setting the gears so they fit together and spin was a challenge lacking the rivets, they are held motionless for the picture.
Steampunk, Motorcycle pin with influences of Chinese and Alice.
Brass, wood, and leather drink automaton drawn in pencil and colored in GIMP.
Steampunk Drink Automaton
Having a lot of time to think when training dogs or walking them around the lakes, I have a lot to discuss. However, extreme lack of sleep is beginning to tell on me and I am not certain I could be truly coherent. Tomorrow will most likely be a repeat of same automaton nature of my brain. I will briefly say I was thinking of people I have known and their diets through part of the day. Both lifestyle diets and those frequently on one diet or another. a trend is apparent showing two basic approaches to diet, regardless of details. One, is the deprivation, denial, and restriction approach. The other is a fulfillment of need, desire, or an attempt of similar.
Deprivation eating restricts some portion and often most of a persons eating, often to excess. Observation says this often leads to drastic deviations from restrictions and shortage of a sort that must be corrected by other means such as drinks or vitamins. This however, is not my point. My thought was how quite unhealthy this seems; not merely from a physical standpoint but from a mental and emotional standpoint. How does this constant focus of restriction, deprivation, and avoiding the things you crave or are interested in impact your other portions of self?
Personally, I do not diet. I have eaten fairly restricted dies, such as vegetarian, at times. But for me it is not a matter of restricting my intake, it is a result of paying attention to my system, my body, my activity, my environment, and my health to know what I need and what cravings are indicating. A craving for sugar is quite specific if you have learned to pay attention to the differences. Is it ice cream, soda, sweet tea, fruit, candy, what are you craving. What is going on in your life or system that is causing this. Now you should know what you really need. For me those particular cravings usually indicate a need for potassium, calcium, C, or a couple other things. Environment and local climate alters cravings and needs.
Anyway…back to the matter at hand. I drew a steampunk drink automaton in pencil very old using motorcycle parts as a base. I then uploaded into GIMP and added color. I made a decision to leave it partially shaded to highlight the feel of the drawing and the sketch quality. I hope you enjoy. I am also uploading a slightly different version of my color work. He runs on leather tracks set in wood and brass fittings and has an extendable, bi-rotational tray arm to maintain balance of drink tray.
Brass, wood, and leather drink automaton drawn in pencil and colored in GIMP.
Today I downloaded the GIMP program. I used it a lot years ago, but am ridiculously out of practice.
Steampunk GIMP Benelli motorcycle with a lot of practice parts.
I’m not actually thrilled with the results, but got a lot done in setting up GIMP and remembering how to use it. This is definitely a skill I will be working on over this year to improve. But it is a start, and I have the program ready to use now.
I have been reading 365: A Daily Creativity Journal (http://amzn.com/B00BQ1RF3W) as I mentioned yesterday. This project started from the day 2 suggestion, though not everyone would readily see that. It is for a favorite animal 🙂 we have cats and motorcycles at our house, one current restoration project is a 1967 Benelli. I wanted to do a Steampunk design for it. I’ll try again later. I may actually hand draw it, or I’ll use it as another learning day for GIMP.
There are a couple of fonts used in the image today. I don’t have the names on me but will before I use them again.
This piece took much longer than I expected, I could have done it faster by hand and probably liked it better. But, it is good practice. It has some elements I really like. Tell me what you think and what your suggestions are.
Writing, art, Business, and practice, any medium is fair game.
Art's Folly 