by Wallace Wyss –

Maybe they aren’t “new” as “new on the scene” but, as a fine artist myself, I perceive tastes are changing in automotive art–the term has now expanded to include some of these sub-categories, some of which I list here:

CUTAWAYS

These are usually line drawings with no color though some have sections of body panels (see X-ray view below). The idea is to show the hidden understructure of a car, the “bones” to speak. I don’t think the artists of old had a machine to see through the car so some cutaways were done by dismantling an actual car and drawing each “layer” to speak. Among the best are those race car drawings by James Allington, some featured in Shell Oil ads and handed out as posters. America’s most famous cutaway artist is C.O. La Tourette.

Ford GT40 Cutaway Drawing

Lamborghini Espada Cutaway

X-RAY VIEWS

Like cutaways but with more bodywork on the car, unmasking the innards of only selected parts of the car, as in “let’s see an x-ray view of the engine compartment.”

BLUEPRINT DRAWING

The least satisfying, in my view, are the blueprint drawings, the ones with front view, rear view, direct side, even top of the car. Yet these are invaluable in trying to think of refitting another body, or just how things look from a strictly mechanical point of view. Some cars believe it or not, are beautiful even in a blueprint drawing!

Lamborghini Blueprint

DESIGN RENDERINGS

In the pre-computer days Detroit automakers would periodically take thousands of proposed drawings for, say, the ’67 Eldorado, and haul them to the dumpster once that model is in production. Very few drawings were secreted out, and now that we are in the age of computers, designers are forbidden to print out their own work. With the result that old time design renderings are now collectible.

Pontiac Solstice Concept

Among the most prized are drawings of exotic cars done by now famous designers like Guigaro. Recent auctions of the contents of the bankrupt Bertone Carrozzeria has put a fresh batch of original drawings onto the collector market.

Iso Rivolta GT – Art by Giorgetto Giugiaro

Modern automakers sometimes hand out drawings of a new car at its preview, I remember getting drawings of the Ferrari Enzo right from the artist’s hands at a major auto show. But most of the time automakers are justifiably wary about promoting one artist above the others, leads to jealousy in the ranks (the last time I remember an American automaker promoting one was Camilo Pardo, designer of the ’05-’06 Ford GT).

MANUFACTURER’S SCALE MODELS

I don’t know if they still make them but in the Fifties I saw several scale models, painted like a real car except the windows on roofed cars were blacked out. I would think one from an automaker that went on to be produced as a real car would be a real collector’s item.

Bertone Fiat Dino

Let us know what you think in the Comments. What is your favorite type of automotive art?

 
 
 
 
 
THE AUTHOR: Wallace Wyss specializes in creating portraits in oil of collector cars. He can be reached at mendoart7@gmail.com

 
 
 
 

Ford GT Art by Camilo Pardo

Bizzarrini Manta – Art by Giorgetto Giugiaro

Summary

Article Name

Stretching The Boundaries of Automotive Art

Description

Among the most prized are drawings of exotic cars done by now famous designers like Giorgetto Giugiaro.

Author

Wallace Wyss