This illustration is inspired by a photo of my uncle Jonathan with one of his motorcycles in 1971. I found the photo at my grandmother's house and was immediately reminded of famous images of motorcycles with movie stars like James Dean and Steve McQueen. The picture was started on watercolor paper with brown colored pencil and ink washes. All color was added digitally painted in Photoshop. The final illustration measures 27" x 18" and was completed in August of 2010.
Some in progresses versions of this illustration can be seen here. You can see that the piece originally had a shorter composition but I widened it as it got closer to completion and am much happier with the final composition. This picture is one of those pieces I started a while ago and had to keep putting it on hold for various reasons. However, this piece will be on display at the New York State Fair from August 26th until September 6th, 2010, which was great motivation for finally finishing it off.
Prints of this illustration are now available through my print shop!
