Abandoned Model AA Ford Truck Pen Drawing

 I'm finding I'm enjoying pen drawing more than ever and have completed another one this week.

Most people are not aware of Ford's truck history.  While Ford introduced the Model T in 1908 they didn't introduce a truck version until 1917, called the Model TT.  The Model TT has essentially the same chassis and drivetrain as the Model T except for a worm drive rear axle that was geared lower for more torque and heavier springs to increase the load rating to one ton. Even then Ford didn't supply a full body, just the front fenders and hood.  The buyer had to supply a body himself or send the chassis to a body manufacturer to fit the body type of his choice. Ford did start supplying a full body until 1922, a steel cab with a wood bed.  In 1925 Ford finally offered a light duty pickup body on the Model T chassis.  

By the time the one ton Model AA came out in 1927 Ford offered several body styles.  An abandoned Model AA is the subject of my latest pen drawing.  The truck in my drawing is equipped with a wood bed with removable wood sides, I don't know if this was a bed supplied by Ford.

"Abandoned Model AA Ford Truck" Prints Available

This was a fun drawing to create and I guess you could say I've now got a series of pen drawings of abandoned Ford trucks.

(the original drawing is sold, but prints are available, click on the image)

The Allure of Abandoned Vehicles

 I've mentioned this on this blog before but I love abandoned old vehicles as an art subject but I'm not sure why.  Sure, I love old cars, trucks and tractors.  In my opinion classic and antique vehicles are far more aesthetically pleasing than modern ones.  Sure, modern designers are very limited nowadays because they have to work within a streamlined envelope to minimize fuel consumption at speed, I even acknowledge that modern cars are superior in every way to classics...except in appearance. But that's beside the point. Why are rusty, abandoned wrecks so interesting?  I guess it's the combination of classic design and the aesthetics of imperfection, often referred to as "wabisabi" (ya, I know this is a westernized term for an Asian concept.)  That's my best guess anyway, and is also the subject of the two pieces of art I made this week.

"Abandoned 1959 Ford Fairlane" pen and watercolor, 8" x 10"

This line and wash painting is based on a photograph I took in a wrecking yard nearby that sadly is no longer existing, currently being replaced with housing developments. 

"Abandoned 1965 Ford Pickup" Prints Available

This detailed pen line drawing is based on a couple different photos and my imagination.  The 1965 Ford pickup had a background I did like a lot except for the dying tree, so I pulled a derelict wood barn from another photograph and the background to the right of the truck is from my imagination.

Getting back into Pen Drawing

 I took a sharp turn from the impressionist and abstract acrylic painting and picked up the pen this week. 

"Rural Horse Shed Pen Dwg" Prints available

To warm up my pen drawing skills I started with this small sketchbook drawing of a simple rural landscape.  The drawing is based on a photograph I took in Eden, Utah in Ogden Valley during autumn. The old horse shed appears to be no longer used as there is no path leading up to it and it's somewhat in disrepair.  I modified the composition a bit from the photograph by moving the light colored tree to the left so the shed overlapped it.

"Abandoned 1963 Ford Farm Truck" Prints Available"

For my second drawing this week I chose a more complicated composition and drew it a bit larger.  I don't remember where I took the reference before but it was basically a ready made subject, I changed very little from the photograph.  As usual, I'm never sure what I find appealing about such subjects but these old abandoned trucks just call to me to be painted or drawn, especially when surrounded by such interesting debris. 

More Experimenting With Line and Wash

 I picked up the pens and watercolor brushes again last week.  I decided to try doing things just a bit different, play with different techniques, change the amount of inking vs what I'd normally do.  Here are the results.

Abandoned 1950 Ford Truck, pen and watercolor, 8" X 10"

This is a front view of an abandoned vintage 1950 Ford truck sitting in a field of grass and weeds.  In particular in the foreground I experimented with using salt and drips to creating interesting texture.

Abandoned Chicken Coop, pen and watercolor 8" X 10"

This painting is based on a scene near my home that I often walk by when I walk down to the park.  There are still pockets of horse property in my suburban neighborhood and this is one of them, this disused structure however appears to have been used as a chicken coop, that's my guess anyway.  My experiment on this one is to use only small amounts of line in the foliage, rather than identify all the foliage with pen I let the watercolor paint itself do most of the talking.

Another Abandoned Vehicle

 Yep, I painted another abandoned vehicle, a 1948 Ford classic car this time.  Are you getting tired of my junkyard paintings?  I'll admit they don't seem to be popular but I just can't help myself.

"Abandoned 1948 Ford"
Acrylic, 11" X 14"

In case it's not obvious this one is also painted with palette knives with thick paint generating a very richly textured surface as can be seen in these close up detail images.

 

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Back to the Classic Cars

 I haven't been spending as much time as I should at the easel lately but I'm trying to do better.  I also haven't painted a classic car in a while, I decided to rectify both situations recently, as well as get back into making blog posts.

Blue 1965 Ford Thunderbird
Acrylic, 10" X 20"

Prints Available

We've all heard the line from the Beach Boys song "We'll have fun fun fun until Daddy takes the T-bird away".  I don't know what year of Thunderbird they were singing about but it couldn't have been a 1965 since the song was released in 1964, though the 1964 through 1966 Thunderbirds were almost identical in body style.  So why are Thunderbirds so fun?  Initially introduced as Ford's answer to the Corvette they were really more of a luxury sports car, then in the late 1950's and early 1960's they turned into a four seater and got rather large, still a somewhat sporty car but far from being a sports car.  Then the "Bullet Bird" was introduced.  The 1964-1966 body style was referred to as the "Buller Bird" because it's profile shape was very similar to a bullet. This generation of the Thundered bird took it somewhat back to it's roots, it was downsized while still remaining a four seater and given a much more sporty profile, but still not really a sports car, but definitely much more sporty than the second generation.  I believe this version belonged in the "personal luxury" category.

My painting focuses on the passenger front corner including part of the grill, the top of the corner of the bumper, the headlights, the wheel/tire and part of the hood.  I decided to paint this one mostly with brushes but kept it looks and added some textural touches with the palette knife.

Blue Thunderbird

The Thunderbird was Ford's answer to Chevrolet's Corvette.  For the first three years of production the Thunderbird was a sporty two seater personal luxury car.  In 1958 the Thunderbird grew in all dimensions and gained a back seat but was still considered sporty, personal upscale transportation, while Chevy's Corvette remained a two seater and actually become more of a sports car every year, making 1955 through 1957 the only years the Corvette and the Thunderbird were direct competitors.

So, a little automotive history to give some back story to my latest painting. I'd just be repeating myself for the thousandth time to say I love classic cars, most all of them.  I have some favorites but no brand allegiance per say, so while I love Corvettes, I find Thunderbirds appealing as well.  When it comes to a subject for my art though, the design of the car needs to be appealing as a painting as well.  It's not just about the car, it's about the composition.  I know most people will love an image of their favorite car regardless of composition, but as an artist I have to think beyond the subject. That's why I enjoy doing close crops like this, nearly any classic car has an angle that makes a good composition if closely cropped.

Blue Thunderbird

Click on image to purchase

I chose pastel colors for the whole painting, a popular color palette of the 1950's. Painted in my usual semi-abstract style using mostly knives and thick paint, with very little brushwork.

Close Crops

There are a couple of ways to abstract something yet keep it representational.  You can alter and/or simplify the shapes but not so much they become unrecognizable.  You can obscure the object with abstract marks.  Or you can use unexpected colors, or any combination of the three. A fourth way is to focus on only a portion of the subject rather than include the whole. That's what I chose to do with these two paintings, that and alter/simplify the shapes slightly which is an automatic result of using knives to paint instead of brushes.

Orange Studebaker Champion

Acrylic, 16" X 20" X 3/4" cradled panel

(Click on image to purchase)

The 1950 Studebaker Champion has a very distinctive front end, the center of which is often referred to as a "bullet nose" so of course I composed the painting to focus on this feature.

Tri Power

Acrylic, 18" X 20" X 3/4" cradled panel

(Click on image to purchase)

Subject number two is a Model A Ford coupe modified into a fenderless hot rod equipped with a Chevy V8 engine sporting three, two barrel carburetors, hence the name "Tri Power". I showed more of the car in this one, nearly half, because I felt there was more story to tell.  Obviously that hopped up motor is the focus.

Keeping it Subtle

Click on image to enlarge

"Bygones"

$160

12" X 16", Charcoal and soft pastel on paper

While I do enjoy drawing with charcoal I kind of miss color while doing so.  If you look at my paintings you'll notice I tend to get pretty colorful with them much of the time.  I've added color to charcoal paintings in the last by first applying a watercolor wash and adding a few pastel pencil marks at the end.  I decided to try something a little different this time.  I did start out intending to do just a straight up charcoal drawing but as I went along I couldn't help imagine it with some color.  First I just applied some ochre tinted charcoal to the foreground but that wasn't enough.  So I got out my pastel painting travel box and picked out a few pastels with grayish tones that fit the theme of the drawing.  I was concerned that the Arches hot pressed watercolor paper I was using wouldn't have enough tooth to hold the pastel so I made sure to keep a light touch.  I was pleasantly surprised to see the paper take the pastel quite well, though only light layering is possible.  Just the fact that the pastel was being mixed with charcoal kept the colors on the gray side but I made sure to use colors that would not overpower the drawing.  Bright, saturated colors alongside charcoal just wouldn't look right, at least not with this subject.  I'm pretty happy with how this worked out, I'm sure I'll mix pastel and charcoal more often in the future.

As for the subject, it's an early 1970's Ford heavy truck.  I'm not sure exactly which year or model but it had a gross weight rating sticker on it for 21,000 lbs. so it was pretty heavy duty.  I found it sitting in a field on a ranch or farm in Leamington, Utah.  Leamington is a very small town in west central Utah yet I enjoyed exploring it very much, it had a few abandoned tractors, trucks and cars as well as just having the general appeal of a rural town out in the middle of nowhere surrounded by open space.  I saw very little movement while I was out there and heard even less, the kind of place I think I'd like to retire to.  As for the title, "Bygones" I'm honestly not sure where it came from or how it applies to this drawing.  Sometimes the title for a piece comes to me before I even start working on it, however more often than not I don't come up with a title until I'm finished and need to post it online, that's what happened to me with this one.  While I was uploading the file the title just kind of popped into my head, I'm not sure what it means but for some reason it seems perfect.

Adding Some Color

Back in October 2017 I started to participate in Inktober, the annual social media event that encourages artists to produce one piece of art per day using ink. I only made it about two weeks before I abandoned it but that was better than previous years.  Since then I've had these pen sketches laying about and I decided recently to add some color to a couple of them.

Click on image to enlarge

"Abandoned Ford Flatbed Truck"

Pen and watercolor on paper, 6" X 7"
Original - $35

This first one is a 1935 Ford flatbed truck left to rot out in a field in the high desert of northern Utah, you know, one of my favorite subjects.  The sketch is based on a photo I took on a ranch in Wallsburg, Utah.

Click on image to enlarge

"The Old Red Farmall"

Pen and watercolor on paper, 2 1/2" X 3 1/2"

Sold

This second sketch is a late 1960's vintage red Farmall tractor.  It's based on a photo I took somewhere along a rural back road in northern Utah but I don't remember exactly where.  It was in very good condition for it's age so I assume it's been restored, probably only does parade duty now.  This sketch is in a size referred to as an ACEO, (Art Card Editions and Originals) that same size as hobby collector cards so that makes it especially collectible, right?

Hemi Hot Rod

I like my hot rods "old school", which means I like the traditional styling from the late 40's into the early 60's.  To me that era was the epitome of cool in the hot rod and custom car world.  It can be hard to find a car around here built strictly to that style, many come close but then install modern street radials which often kill the look.  I admire a car owner that keeps true to the old school aesthetic, it isn't exactly easy and you have to give up a bit of comfort and drivability, to me the look is worth it.

"Hemi Hot Rod"

12" X 16" Acrylic on panel

The hot rod depicted in this painting is one of those cars that gets it right.  The early hemi engine makes this ride even sweeter.  The Chrysler corporation hemispherical engines were in the thick of the early overhead valve engine displacement wars of the early 1950's and so were a prime candidate for an engine swap into a Model A Ford or '32 Ford hot rod like this one.  This is one of my favorite local cars, I love it.

I feel this is one of my most successful abstraction attempts to date, as abstract as the engine is I think anybody that's into vintage cars will recognize it as an early hemi...one hot rodded with four single barrel carbs and lakester headers.

A Variety of Charcoal Studies

I'm still very much focused on charcoal.  I find working with charcoal to be both fun and educational.  Charcoal sketches are a good way to test ideas for compositions before committing to paint, but they are works of art in their own right.  The last two weeks (yes, I missed last week) I've experimented with a variety of subjects.

"Roots II"

12" X 9", Charcoal on Paper

This is the second in my series of roots studies.  Not only was it a study in roots and nature it was an experiment in charcoal technique.  I wanted to do a better job of getting rid of the little white specks of paper showing through so I did a lot more blending and used more powdered charcoal.

"Barn Study I"

9" X 12", Charcoal on Paper

Another series begins, hopefully.  Well, as much as I love old, wood barns and rural landscapes I'm pretty confident I'll do more.  While "Roots II" was pretty good I felt maybe it was a little overworked so my goal with "Barn Study I" was to dial that back and bit and still have the same effect.  I treated this one in a more sketchy way, working faster and not so deliberate about shapes and details, I think it worked pretty well.  I discovered my finger makes a great blender for large areas.  I've formed a new basic technique.  First I go over an area with the woodless charcoal pencil creating the general tones I'm after.  Then I use a Q-tip to apply powdered charcoal over the area blending it as I go then I do further blending with my finger.

"Truck Study I"

8" X 10", Charcoal on paper

And finally we have an abandoned old truck, a 1946 Ford to be more exact.  This was drawing practice as much as charcoal and composition practice.  This scene is partially from a photo reference taken in a small rural Utah town and partially from my imagination.  The truck in the photo didn't have a bed and the tree was farther back and didn't overlap the truck.  The rest is pretty much my invention.  Since this one required more exact drawing it took longer but I still tried to keep it fairly sketchy. 

Stay tuned, I'm sure there will be more to come.

More Things With Wheels

I went back to playing with the pastels again, I decided to try a vehicle painting.

"Glory Passed"

Pastel on paper 9" X 12"

The truck is a 1946 Ford flatbed abandoned on desert ranch.  It's kind of sad to think of the current state of this old workhorse.  Just think of all the useful work it did for some farmer or rancher back in it's glory days.

I also recently did this mixed media sketch of an abandoned car;

"Has Potential"

Mixed media on paper, 5.25" X 10.5"

This poor 1939 Mercury tudor sedan certainly has seen better days, but what a project it would make for a restoration or a cool custom car.  The sketch started with watercolor washes for some subtle underlying color.  Once the washes were dry everything was sketched out in charcoal and then some colorful touches were added with pastel pencils.

The Surprising Twists and Turns of a Painting

I've been on a bit of a break from the easel, either not doing much of anything or drawing or experimenting with sketches in other mediums.  I finally returned to the easel this week determined to paint a new painting start to finish, no breaks to work on something else, no drawing, no sketching, just focus on this one painting.  My intention was to paint a simple landscape but in a square format.  My reference was an autumn photo I took in Murray Park in which a brilliantly colored Chinese Elm tree featured. The rest of the photo didn't really interest me, just that tree, I figured I could make up the rest of the landscape from my imagination.  An hour into the first session I knew I was in trouble but I persisted.  After another hour I had to give it up for the night and I was thinking I might end up abandoning the painting altogether.
The next day while mulling the problem of the painting over in my mind this thought suddenly occurred to me, "What would an abandoned car look like in that scene?".  Of course the first thing I did when I got home was look through my photos of abandoned cars and I found three that I thought might work, out of the three I selected a 1960 Ford Fairlane Club Sedan that I photographed in a salvage yard in Nephi, Utah. The only thing I didn't like about the car is that it was white, but I'm a painter, I can make the car any color I want.  I loosely blocked in the car and decided I liked the new direction and continued. 
By the end of the second session I decided the addition of the car just might salvage the painting, however it still wasn't quite right, the landscape was still a little dull.  When I came home from work on the third day I looked through some of my landscape photos that featured wild ground cover such as grass, bushes and weeds for some possible ideas.  I didn't print anything out, just filed some ideas into my brain.  In the third session I refined the car some more and added some bushes, adjusted the tree a bit, and adjusted the background.  Now I thought I was pretty much done but something was still nagging me.  I studied the painting on the 4th day and finally it hit me.  I had created several parallel bands of space in what should be a pretty wild and disorganized space.  Our minds like to create order out of chaos and that is one of the enemies of a good landscape painting, too much order and a landscape will look unnatural.  In my case I had created a band of red bushes, then yellow grass, then car, then yellow grass and then another line of red bushes.  I altered the shapes of the two groups of red bushes to break up those bands, in particular I made sure they connected to the car.  Finally I decided to call it done.

"Under the Chinese Elm Tree"

Acrylic on panel, 12" X 12"

So, to recap: This painting started out as a portrait of a Chinese Elm tree in a simple landscape consisting of a field and a path...boring.  I then added an abandoned car to make a more interesting composition....landscape areas still too plain.  I then added bushes and modified the background, much better but too organized.  Finally on the last session I broke up the bands to make the scene appear more natural.

I'm sorry I didn't take progress photos, I didn't expect the process on this painting to take so many twists and turns.  There is still one question about this painting and it will just have to remain.  Is this a portrait of a tree or a junked car?  Both I guess but I'll live with that even though it breaks the "rules".



All Caught up on the Ten Minute Sketches

This post will catch you up on all my ten minute sketches, that's partly because it's been a few days since I've made a new one, I've been a bit obsessed lately over a medium I haven't used in quite some time so I've neglect the TMS', my next post will have details.  As in the last post these are all pen.

This one was a test for a minimalist landscape design.  It came out with kind of a graphical feel, I kind of like it for it's simplicity and boldness.

This is a vintage gas station scene based on a photo I took in Wallsburg, Utah. I may make a drawing of this.

A 1932 Ford tudor hot rod sedan, just for the sake of sharpening my drawing skills.

This one is based on a photo I took in Lynndyl, Utah.  I move some things around a bit and added the truck.  I think it came out a bit busy so if I do a drawing or painting of it I'll have to cut some clutter.

And finally my last TMS, a barn and trees based on a photo I took in Midway, Utah.  This subject will make an appearance in my next post.

More Ten Minute Sketches

I've been slacking off on posting my ten minute sketches so I'll catch up in this post.  These are all done in pen.  I think pen is the ideal medium for these exercises, there's no temptation to erase and the lines are automatically dark, you have no choice but to be bold and expressive.

Another rusty old Ford truck, this one with a wheel misplaced and backed by a chicken coop, I took the reference photo in Lynndyl, Utah.

This one was to test an idea for a painting. Luckily I did this before starting a painting.  The shed is too centered, if I make a painting I'll move the apple tree and shed quite a bit closer to the right edge, I'll also replace the tractor with something that doesn't look so awkward, probably with a more straight on view.

Just a simple rural scene based loosely on a photo I took in Morgan County.

A vintage country store with gas pumps based on a photo I took in Boulder City, Utah.

This scene is semi-fictitious. The building exists in Eureka, Utah, I added the visible gas pump and antique car. I really like the feel of this design.  I think I'll make a pen drawing based on this sketch some day.

Turns out I'm farther behind than I thought, so to keep this blog post at a reasonable length I'll catch up some more in a day or two.



Back to the Acrylics

Okay, I've had my diversions for a while, I think I'm ready to return to painting with acrylics.  I just finished this small painting based on a photo I took of an abandoned 1941 Ford heavy truck sitting on a ranch rotting away, and missing a couple teeth from it's grill.

"Missing Teeth"

Acrylic on 1/8" panel, 8" X 10"

Original - SOLD

Hopefully I can focus now.  I really do enjoy painting loosely and impressionistically with acrylics, both in the studio and "en plein air" and I enjoy the finished art so why do I keep letting myself get distracted?  The occasional distraction isn't a bad thing, but I've been taking it way too far, I'll try to do better in the future.

Sketching the Afternoon Away

Today was a perfect spring day.  I touch cool in the morning but nothing too uncomfortable.  I decided to travel to Grantsville, do a little exploring for reference material and attend the first outdoor car show of the year. After a quick lunch I headed a short distance east to Erda and spent the afternoon sketching there.  The first sketch is an old cinderblock barn in serious disrepair, it's looks like it haven't been used or maintained in decades.

This appears to be a fairly large, solidly built and elaborate barn, I wonder what would have caused the owner to abandon it.  The corral in the background also appears to have not been used for quite some time.

Just a couple miles down the road from the barn was this neat old Ford truck.

I really appreciate it when the owners of these cool old vehicles put them on display at the front of their property so I can enjoy sitting on the shoulder of the road sketching them.  The truck shares it's resting spot with a couple horses who were pretty curious about the odd guy sitting there on the other side of the fence.





More Rust

Another small painting of a rusty subject.  This time a late 30's Ford heavy duty truck, at least what's left of it.  The reference photo was also taken at the Antique Power Show.  There were a couple other trucks in similar condition in a row with this one as well as other junk piled around. I left out the other trucks and junk and abstracted the background somewhat and this is what I ended up with.

"Ford on the Range"

5" X 7", Acrylic on panel

Original - SOLD

Old Green Ford

This post makes four days in a row, I think that is a record for me.  I really am trying to paint and post more often, hopefully I can keep it up.  This is the second day in a row for a new painting even, I  think that's a record too!

"Old Green Ford"

Acrylic on 1/8" thick panel, 5" X 7"

Original - SOLD

This painting was experimental in two ways.  First I tried to keep it looser than I've painted vehicles in the past, I think I pretty much succeeded.  It was also much more enjoyable to paint this way rather than cause neck strain trying to capture every single little detail.  Also, I tried the "selective start" method again like I did with the "Keep Out" painting but with a modification.  I still did not lay the painting out with pencil or paint first, but rather than paint each shape to completion before moving to the next shape I only blocked it in, then I'd block in the shape next to that one and so on until the whole painting was blocked in accurately.  Sorry, I didn't take any progress photos on this one, but in this case I started with the wheel, just painted the whole thing in one solid rusty color.  Then I painted the tire, then the fender, then the hood side, hood top and so on. This allowed me to make some adjustments along they way before I spent too much time on the details.  Since the block in was accurate and complete I then only needed to fill in all the smaller shapes and details inside the larger blocked in shapes.