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This is the first of a series of larger car paintings on wood. Measuring 50 x 70cm, it’s an acrylic painting on 10mm plywood panel. The lovely Fiat 500 was designed by Dante Giacosa in around 1955, and replaced the earlier tiny Fiat “Topolino” (nicknamed in Italian after Mickey Mouse). Fiat produced the 500 from 1957 until 1975 and sold nearly four million all over the world. It was replaced by the Fiat 126; a very similar car but, with its much more squared-off design, the 126 figures far less in the popular imagination.
NOTE for FIAT 500 PURISTS: I’ve just read that the 500L, (1968-72) with its extra chrome over-bumpers, is not actually supposed to have a white steering wheel….so I’ll change it to black before varnishing the painting…..(Oh what a fool I was…..!)
The first stage: Blocking in the overall shape of the car using several layers of gesso. This gives a smooth surface for the following layers of paint. It would be very difficult to paint directly on the wood: The wood would just absorb the paint. In addition, the wood grain would end up being a very dominant feature in the texture of the artwork. The next photo shows how the gesso creates a surface which is very different from the horizontally-grained wood panel.
The paint lays nicely on top of the gesso, and the wood grain is barely evident. This is the technique used by traditional icon painters to prepare the wood panel. More serious icon painters would make the gesso compound themselves, possibly including traditional rabbit-skin glue…….(Definitely need to read up on that, and maybe get some rabbits for next time…..). In the meantime I use a very good acrylic gesso by Schmincke.
Next is adding an initial layer of the blue bodywork colour, with a suggestion of shadow and highlights to evoke the modelling of the surface.
This shows the painting at about the halfway stage, with the main body coloured, but lots of details yet to add.
This studio photo shows two car paintings: The Fiat 500 is compared to the smaller-size Jensen Interceptor MkII (framed).