wagonized

Seven years later

I started this blog seven years ago to the day.  Since then, I bought a house, got married and have become a mom, I have met and sketched with some of the most talented artists I dreamt of meeting, I continued learning to draw, and now I am putting it all in a book which is due to be published...  well stay tuned for the actual date because I would be lying if I told you I had any inkling.  I don't know what comes after a book.  More drawings, and hopefully more opportunities to draw alongside the people I admire.  Thank you for your visits and your e-mails.  

I am still very much enamored with the design of the Volvo 240 wagons.  In other words, still wagonized.  I made that 7 look like a 2 on that door, didn't I.

A legendary Russian lady

The Lada Niva, y'all.  I might have taken a bit of artistic liberty by coloring it orange, since this model came (at least when my uncle bought one, in the early nineties) only in two colors: red or white.  I've always loved the design of that 4x4 and how unapologetically huge it looked on the roads in France when I was a kid.  Still love it.  Wonder if it comes with bluetooth now. 

Pigma Micron 08 (which kept leaking) and watercolor in my new watercolor Moleskine.  

 

Old French lady

I have been drawing so much lately, but keeping everything under wraps until it gets published in a few months as part of the book I have been working on.  In the meantime, I am posting my iPad doodles and an occasional... lady: a Renault 12, probably mid-seventies, the kind I used to see in my childhood.  I used to think it was so damn ugly, and now I marvel at its coolness.

Pigma Micron 08 after a first draft in pencil + watercolor in watercolor Moleskine.  

Grand

I came close to buying my own 1983 Jeep Grand Wagoneer over a decade ago -- then, as with the 1985 Saab 900 (years later), I chickened out.  It figures.  Pigma Micron 08 and watercolor in watercolor Moleskine.  

 

Diesel love

The 1984 Volkswagen Rabbit.  This is the car I learned to drive on, the very first car I've ever owned, with which I drove to my first teaching job, then got rear-ended on some back road in Pennsylvania.  The diesel wouldn't start in the winter, and friends of mine were kind enough to lend me an old American sedan to get to work, but I still loved this car.  I loved that the shift knob proudly announced "E" -- for "Economic" -- instead of 4th gear.  The gas mileage was amazing but it suffered a complete lack of oomph.  It was light metallic blue, but I really wish it had been orange.  Pigma Micron 08 and watercolor in watercolor Moleskine.

Three-o-four

I know Peugeot is now coming out with the new, oh-so-sexy RCZ.  But there's also the sweet little 1970s Peugeot 304 coupe -- which never came out in lime green, but I thought I would try.  I should have used blue.  Pigma Micron 08 and watercolor in Moleskine.  

Lime

It took me a few days because of a few interruptions, but I've finally managed to draw my new ride.  I wish it was green, but did you notice that one would be hard pressed to find a car manufacturer that makes a car in green anymore.  Most brands offer two or three shades of grey, a black, a white, a red, and a couple of blues.  So I got mine in black -- because that was the only 5-speed manual around.  Hooray for Chevy for making a fun and practical car.  

Pigma Micron 08 and watercolor in watercolor Moleskine.

Ninety-nine blues

One of the best looking Saabs ever made :-)

After a photo by Saab connoisseur (and multiple Saab owner!) Jeff from Grenoble.  

Pigma Micron and watercolor in watercolor  Moleskine -- the one that is full of colorful ladies.  

Seventy four ninety nine

I had not drawn a lady in a while.  The Saab 99s and 900s are still my favorite of them all.  

Pigma Micron and watercolor in sketchbook.

The grandmother

The Volkswagen 1600 "Squareback" is becoming one of my favorite wagon-ish looking cars. Love the little fins in the rear for the engine and the tank hatch in the front. Fierce.
Pigma Micron and watercolor in Moleskine.