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When me, my brother and two sisters were pre-schoolers, my father had a convertible, which we referred to as, "The Nosiy Green Car". I later learned it was a '32 Model A convertible, a highly desired ride for Hot Rodders. I suspect that my Mom may have had something to do with it's disappearance, since it wasn't practical for a family of six. For Christmas, I'm giving Dad a T-shirt to celebrate his wheels. I sketched it on the shirt lightly in pencil and filled it in with...what else?...GREEN.
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I'm copying a picture I got off the internet. Using the same shade of green, I darken the shadowed areas and leave the highlights untouched, since white is a color I always have trouble getting good coverage with.
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I darken the running boards and grille, using shading grey. Notice how it looks black when applied heavily, but it reveals shadows better than black would.
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I did the headlights next. Despite the fact that I'm aware of how lightly I have to go, they still came out too dark. I'll have to put multiple layers of white on top to try and lighten them, so they look more metalic.
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I add a touch of blue to my white, hoping that it will make it more opaque. It doesn'tappear to have worked.
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I now do the seat, but I mark the windshield frame first, so the dark doesn't bury the posts.
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Now I lay down the seat pleats. I also ran a set of louvers on the engine cover, but they don't make a very striking impression.
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Now the seat is filled in. The reference photo I found has the top up, but I'm lowering it, just to make it clear that I didn't completely steal the idea.
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I add some of my light blue to the windshield, just to separate it a bit. I also added the folded top behind the seat. Since the car has been gone for ages, I don't recall how the top folded down, so this is an prime example of where "Artistic License" comes in handy.
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Now it's time to add the wheels. I always like to do the tires first. I sketched them in and filled in the space. It would be easy to just make them black, but anyone with a sharp eye would notice it didn't look right.
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Here you can see the shading that gives them some dimension.
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I fill in the shadows under the car, add the bumper and the drivers' side tire.
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I add some details to the bumper. It has ridges in the photo I got off the net, so I put just a hint of grey on it to keep it from looking flat.
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I hit some of the areas that're too dark with white, to give it some sparkle.
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I don't think my Dad was a hot rodder, so I'm going to give it some of the factory wheels known as "steelies" and not the custom rims in the photo.
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It's starting to look less like a flat image, a clue that I'm getting close to my goal.
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I go over some of the green where it's a bit blotchy. I also fixed the headlights from being as dark as I had made them earlier.
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Lettering is a task that I dislike, so I made a design with my Print Shop program which I'll cut out and use as a stencil.
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This could turn into a real project, but I'm going to "rough it in" so I'm not devoting a lot of time on getting it exactly the same.
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After cutting it out, I use a hole puncher to give me some places to masking tape over, so it'll hold down when I spray it. I put it face down and give it a coating of spray repositionable adhesive. It's essentially rubber cement from an aerosol can.
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Once it's tacky, I position it on the shirt and tape it down. It will move a bit, but shirts are more forgiving than non-porous surfaces.
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I sprayed it misty on top and heavier near the bottom. This is what it looks like. The lettering I chose had some shadows that were in multi stages. I'm just going to freehand in some shadowing, to keep this from turning into a marathon.
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Well the white where I tried to fix some boo-boos is clearly visible in this picture. I tend to step on my hoses while I'm working, which often has unfavorable results. Hopefully after a few washings the shirt will mellow with age. My Dad has a lot of nerve having a birthday so close to Christmas, so hopefully it won't ruin what he's expecting Santa to bring him. He used to do carpentry, and one day he was coming home for lunch after painting a nearby house. He ran out of gas at the bottom of the long hill we lived at the top of, so he dumped paint thinnner in the tank and drove the rest of the way home on turpentine.
"Hey Tonetti:
Nice work ..."
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I wonder what ever became of The Noisy Green Car?
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