Jumat, 08 September 2017

How To Enhance Your Automotive Hobby Experience By Collecting Car Art

What with the explosive escalation of labor and parts costs to build a collector car or do a proper restoration of a car or truck, collecting automotive art and prints may be a substantial alternative to actually owning a great automotive icon. Artists from around the world are currently selling great works, and you can utilize them in collecting reasonable and provocative car art. You just have to be willing to make the effort to find them. Perhaps this article may prove helpful to you in that pursuit.

It matters little what type of car or truck you love to follow. There are artists who have depicted your favorite vehicle in one form or another, and you can find those artists using the resources suggested here in this article. You may favor restored vehicles, or maybe custom cars, hot rods, muscle cars, pickups, legal classics, vintage racers, drag racing vehicles, vintage antiques, or even foreign sports cars. Trust me.....it has been rendered in oils, water colors, or ink art work by someone somewhere, and you can buy it now. You just have to be able to locate what you want.

Thanks to the wonderment of the internet, typing in just a few key words into your search engine can reveal page after page of resources to review. You don't want to look at just the first page that pops up. You may find that the first five or ten pages reveal hundreds of sources of art work. Take time to look at a lot of these sources. Behind non-descript titles might lay fabulous renderings, many of which have found their way into the leading automotive magazines in America and other countries.

It amazes me how much it costs to get prints of the top art work when that art is done in color by a "name" car artist. Original works can run into the hundreds of dollars or even the thousands of dollars. But there is one way to enjoy it all much more cheaply.......buy the print of the original art. I know of famous painters who sell the actual original for $5000-$40000, but the print may cost only $35-$150 each. And the print may look every bit as stunning when hung on the wall and viewed from ten feet out. Many artists provide 10-20 printed renderings, while others sell up to 40-50 different prints on their website.

The artist who resides overseas from America can give you an exotic take on certain foreign sports cars and legal classics, and I find that particularly attractive if one is to diversify the type of vehicle held in one's collection. Some of the greatest prints or originals of Ferraris, Mercedes Benz, Masserati, Lamborghini, Jaguar and others come from those who reside overseas. Their inspiration probably comes from national heritage or from photography taken at some of the greatest concours competitions held overseas. Of course, many mingle with wealthy car owners and use photography of the cars owned by their friends as inspiration.

Here in America, older cars have always held court in the arena of favorable public opinion, and there seems to be a tremendous surge in custom cars, hot rods, muscle cars, trucks, and drag racing vehicles specifically. It seems everyone is into nostalgia, and what better way to preserve it all than through art prints or originals. Outdoor and indoor shows across the USA are filled with vehicles that look like they stepped right out of the fifties or sixties. The automotive hobby is alive and well, thank you very much.

Ever hear of a "rat rod"? This is a fairly new phenomenon. These are cars and trucks that have been heavily modified, made reliable with late model drivetrains but don't have much in the way of power accessories. And these vehicles are just as likely to be unpainted as painted. Primer finishes seem to prevail. If rat rods give the impression that unfinished is cool, they have succeeded in their message. And the lower you can make the vehicle by top chopping, body sectitioning, and chassis lowering, the better. Rust is the patina of choice, and headers packed with muffling steel wool (because there is no muffler system) is the order of the day. These cars and trucks look pretty obnoxious, and of course you'd be stylin' to the max if you had tattoos up the gazzoo and your lady had a pin-up demeanor about her. Go to any super market or bookstore and you'll see at least three or four publications devoted to rat rods. Be prepared to grin.

What did you drive in high school or slightly beyond? You'll find artists drawing up a storm doing Chevelles, Corvettes, Mustangs, GTOs, Buick Gran Sports, El Caminos, Dodge Chargers, Rivieras, Gran Prixs, old shoebox Fords, early Mercurys, etc. And then there are the incomparable inline six-powered Chevys, Chevy stepside pickups, Ford and Dodge trucks, and the wide range of drag racing cars out there. Top fuelers, funny cars, altereds, gassers, super stocks, and modified street machines were all the rage from about 1957 through 1975 or so.

Where do we find these artists and their works? Well, start by going to your local bookstore and reviewing what is on the newstand featuring the current monthly series of car magazines. There are easily 30-40 different magazines out there, and it seems the editors can't do some articles without help from an artist submitting a rendering or two to emphasize the article or accompanying pictures of particular car or truck types. Then there is the internet, within which you will find lurking all types of art, online magazine issues, and websites of the artists themselves. You'll find great renderings submitted by such artists as Thom Taylor, Dave Bell, Kenny Youndblood, Rick Wilson, Steve Sanford, and dozens of other household names in car art.

Some artists produce books filled with art work by not only the author but by many others in their chosen field of influence. Thom Taylor in particular has some great stuff out there for you to research and view. My personal favorites are Steve Sanford, Dave Bell, Chip Foose, and Darryl Mayabb. Then there are the high end artists who produce iconic art depicting the greats in autodom, artists like Kenny Youngblood. And don't get me started on all the tremendous artists who specialize in cars favored in car auctions and foreign racing cars. The list seems endless.

One of the deterrants to collecting auto art is price. Assuming the original piece is out of the question for you, your next logical step is to buy prints of original artwork. But there are choices here, too. Do you want color, or is line art without color sufficient? Colorization will lead you down a path of print cost ranging from $10 per print to $125 or higher. The problem with this is that everybody seems to regergitate the same subjects presented the way in the same size format. The best prices seem to come in the smaller sized renderings. This can be disappointing, to say the least, if you want a wall hanging to be of decent size and presence.


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