Classic celica engine painting

Left- My 1976 Celica and I on the last day before she retired  Right- My finished artwork of my engine and I.

Left- The original hand drawn image from a 1975 Toyota repair manual for my engine and the finished painted artwork.

I began this artwork to celebrate my first car - a 1976 Toyota Celica RA23. I had to retire the car after having driven it for 8 years as parts were becoming hard to source which meant she was often out of action due to small issues. Currently she is garaged somewhere safe until one day I have a double garage and can keep her as a Sunday drive.

The idea for the artwork came from a 1975 engine manual for the car I was given. There were beautiful cut through images of the engine (an engine I got to know well due to a few home rebuilds with dad) that were originally hand drawn. The black and white images were so intricate I had to do something with them!

I scanned the image and blocked in colours using Photoshop and then painted the design on to a large canvas using acrylic paint. The job took an incredibly long time, so long in fact it became a bit of a joke as to whether I'd ever finish. But just as I never and will never give up on the car, I didn't give up on it's artwork!

I posted twice before about the idea and progress of the artwork here and here respectively.

Small details from the painting

It felt amazing to hang it on the wall for the first time today. Anyone that knows me is well aware that tears come to my eyes just talking about this car, so it's a strangely personal one for me.

It will warm my silly sentimental heart to have my car's heart there too!