Not a problem for the previous owner.

I knows. haha

Painting update!
The photo above shows where we left off, things are starting to take shape now but are still quite roughly conceived.

I started the next sitting by working on the car again, this time refining the colours of the rust, and adding around two decades worth of dust, dirt and mildew to the car.

Once I had done that I painted in the front wheel with it's chrome hub cap, keeping the tones muted to keep the wheel in shadow. As the chrome hubcap is reflective I added the colours of the surrounding objects including a small touch of yellow that would be the reflection from the old oil can. All the reflections are kept dull to indicate the hub cap has dust on it, sharper reflections and colours would look like polished chrome.

While I was working on the wheel I decided to fit a flat tyre to it for no other reason than I thought it might have one. All the time I'm painting I'm trying to think what items to include to make this imaginary scene more plausible, and it seemed fair to assume the tyres might be flat at this stage. I also got to wondering how this car has got so rusty inside a barn? I concluded that the roof must leak, so I added some water under the car which runs out and forms a puddle on the floor in front.

While doing the puddle I worked some more on the dirt floor, adding a few stones and debris, at the same time I refined the sunlit area to better portray the fall of light.
The oil drum on the right was given some colour now, it will need further work but it has enough on there for now in order to define it and allow it to take shape.

In the beginning stages of this painting I told how it was my practice to paint from dark to light and from dull greyish tones to brighter coloured ones, well around about now is when that all starts to happen. I have had to keep the painting deliberately dark in order to allow the sort of light effect that I envisaged when I began, but dark dull paintings look awful in the early stages. There is the temptation to brighten them up, but in doing so you will loose the final illusion, so dark and dull it has had to be. What I did next was to brighten the tree and clouds outside the window, before adding the streaming light that comes through that window, again it isn't perfect as it isn't finished, but gives an indication of where I'm going.

If you remember earlier in the painting I was insistent on a particular blue for this car, well this is the stage that I had in mind when painting it, as I needed to be sure that my shafts of light which are also blue would stand away from the colour of the car. A red or green car would have been much more simple, but I wanted blue!

The final addition for this sitting was a bit of bling on the front paperclip as the sun hits it. It sparkles like a diamond, perhaps an allusion to this car being, despite appearances - a little gem? Although there doesn't seem much has changed from the original photo above these later stages are more about refinement, and those seemingly small changes still took around three hours to complete. The next sitting should see the painting finished, there are still things that I'd like to add followed by further refinement until I'm done. Until then, the photo below is of the painting as it is now, compared it with the one above.

This really is a superb work of art, I know it's some way off finished, but I'm in awe of your skills sir. I possess none, zero, zilch Very much looking forward to it's completion, and your next I2F Assignment

They say that a painting is only finished when the artist stops painting, satisfied that he can take the work no further, and while that's not the case here it has reached the stage where I'll call it finished for the purpose of this demonstration.

I began the final sitting by adding a couple more shafts of light and taking notice of where they would strike. As they travel from the window they hit the car here and there, notably on the drip channel in front of the door and the top corner of the roof, which shows as spots of brighter paint (or rust). having passed the car the streams of light also just catch the top of the oil can, and then the oil drum on the right lighting them up too.

Those that have followed this from the beginning will remember that I put in the brass candlestick on the roof very early on, but now I thought it looked a little odd just standing there alone as it did. There was 'something' missing, and my conclusion was that it was cobwebs! After all, which old barn hasn't a few of those heavy dust laden cobwebs in there? As the scene portrays a car that has lain undisturbed for years I added a few cobwebs, one to the candlestick, and another to the oil can on the floor, while the final one hangs from the front bumper, it's occupant long dead presumably.

I painted in the oil drum quickly, and although the perspective is also out on the rings I leave it as is, because who knows, maybe the drum is squashed? Notice also how the shadows on the background wall make the wonky perspective seem ambiguous, the image now just 'works', without the need of all that mathematics and geometry.

There wasn't much left to do now but I still wasn't happy with the bottom left corner of the painting, I decided to extend the puddle of water thus making it run down the picture plane. Because of this I made more work for myself as I then had to put the reflections of the paperclip and the end of the bumper in the water.

Still not happy, I paint in an old galvanised watering can in the bottom left corner, I kept it mostly in shadow with just a hint of light striking the rim. This is a device that helps close off that corner, and allows the eye to enter the picture through the gap just as we would in reality.

Finally, I had been thinking about an earlier comment by someone (Russ?) who mentioned Terence Cuneo. For those who don't know him, Terence Cuneo was a painter of Railways and steam engines who had the unusual quirk of painting a small mouse in every one of his paintings. Sometimes it is to be found up a telegraph pole, or running alongside the engine, sometimes you can't seem to find it at all - but it will be there somewhere!

To finish the painting then, and with a nod to Terence Cuneo, I paint in a little mouse.... can you find him?

HE'S ON THE BIG BARREL! JUST THERE!! SEE?!!!

(Ejaculates contents of mouth over screen... )

Excellent ...... I like the "Cuneo touch"

T.

Time for a blog update to follow on from the rebuild of my old 2cv. So what have I to report?

Well, not a lot actually, the car continues to start, run, and drive like a good 'un, and is currently in daily use as my sole mode of transport - as was always intended.

Apart from having to refit the drivers door handle a couple of months ago, nothing has broken, and nothing has fallen off or malfunctioned in any other way, in fact as a reliable and economical form of transport a 2cv serves as well today as it has for the past sixty years plus.

The car is shown above the day after completing a 250 mile round trip, much of which had been during a heavy storm so black it turned day into night. Once again it performed faultlessly. I have now covered around 3k miles since the rebuild with nothing other than the regular greasing of the king pins and one oil change.

I do inspect the tightness of the various nuts and bolts from time to time also - just in case, but find that on the whole nothing needs attention. One thing that does need attention occasionally is the under-bonnet soundproofing which is held on (or not) by spray glue which keeps detaching itself in places.



I have to keep applying more glue every now and again to keep it in place, but it's no big deal I suppose and I do have some very good permanent glue to stick it with when I get around to it.

Another couple of jobs that I'm looking to do before winter is to fit a second horn to give a louder dual-tone effect, and the fitting of a high level brake light which, while not in keeping with the car will at least help prevent the numpty's behind me crumpling the back end.

The last thing is to fit halogen bulbs which will require a relay, but I do like the yellow bulbs that are currently fitted regardless of them providing poor illumination... hmmm.... wonder if they do yellow halogens?

they do make yellow halogens, i think neil had some on the acad. as regards to a horn, i have a nautilus stieble airhorn. it puts out 120db and is quite compact, i think they are popular with motorcyclists for that reason.
The car looks great!

I had the same problem with the under bonnet soundproofing.

Somebody recommended this stuff to me:

http://www.thegluepeople.co.uk/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=6_7&products_id=9

Never had any trouble since.