There were only a few lines to finish and a couple of pieces of text to finalise but getting them done took way too long. That said the TT Racer image is now complete and here it is. I’m pretty chuffed with how it turned out.

There are always an awkward few moments upon finishing an image when you have to push yourself to bring your critical eye to bear on it. The euphoria of finishing and regarding your completed work often promotes a kind of inner forgiveness where it’s comfortable to overlook things that perhaps you could have done better. So a good shove is required to jolt us into action. So here goes.

I would probably change the tank shape from the flared form shown to something more rounded to bring some extra lightness to the centre of the image. Tonally the bike and rider could be separated a bit more and while I was at it his face could do with a little less inking. It is a great relief to see the blue washed background giving the image a good degree of punchiness but, a bit more effort to make it less blotchy wouldn’t go amiss. I like text boxes but I’m not yet fully convinced. It will likely turn out that there are times to use them and times when it’s best to leave them out, it all depends. As a first stab at inking over water colour on rough paper I’d say this is something to keep working at for sure.

In that vein here’s a shot of the next one already started. You’ll notice that it is a slightly modified version of a previous drawing done in black and white a couple of weeks ago. I have changed some small details like the riders helmet and some bits on the engine to create some difference. For this one I thought I’d try and be a bit more bold with the colours, as you can see, to try and capture or express some of the more exuberant approaches that custom builders bring to their craft. No one ever said a frame had to be black after all. We’ll see how it goes, it should be fun, and I’ll be trying hard to benefit from all the little lessons learned from the previous drawing above.