I enjoy studying those old hot rod cutaways... When you mention Norwell, my mind went straight to his old profile name here on the HAMB: Brush.
Got a couple of the featured examples up on the wall. Absolutely love them and have been obsessed with them since before I even cared about cars. Great post
Don’t they just get under your skin? I could spend a whole bunch of time looking at these. Ryan, was that 60’s digger done by Steve Swaja? (I was always impressed by his works). Great topic, Thanks!!
So cool! As a sucker for old race cars, I love the Mk IV cutaway. Be really cool if ol’ Dan was drawn into the driver seat with his helmet perfectly placed underneath the “roof bump” with his namesake. That GeeBee above is pretty rad too!
Ahh yes. the Tech drawing..... Thanks for the kind words. I was trained in this field and graduated in 1986... Love a good Phantom,Cut away, instructional piece of art... from the lowly Light switch install drawing to a full blown Merlin aircraft cutaway. Unfortunately ... today, it's a labour of Love..... incredibly time consuming and little market. Way back I did work in it for a year,... but tired of rendering door locks, and X-Ray machine parts. There are some giants in the world.Rex Burnett, Tom West Dave Kimble ,etc ,etc... At one time it was a very reputable and concise craft... but like everything I love..... I am 70 years too late. As a young grad... I was drawing stuff I had a keen interest in.. WWI/WWII Tanks and equipment ..euro sports cars...etc etc. There was that one time I got in major Kaa Kaa for bringing a 1911 and doing an exploded drawing in college..on campus.... I have no idea where that project is.i assume buried in a ton of old vellum drawings somewhere in the house. I have scaled that work way back. just because of the time involved and hours to produce.. hard to find that will pay for that today.... But I do certainly love that craft.
I guess I shouldn't say that the exploded/cut away tech drawings don't exist.. they do... tool companies and electrical companies... They certainly do... At one time Model car/Airplane/etc etc used them for every instruction sheet.. which as a kid.. I was blown away. And of course the car companies used them for selling tools. as well instructional. Guys like Dan Webb. do the cutaways on real parts and make art.... I love that. a cutaway of a hemi or rear drive line all color coded in each area.... Ok.I will stop..I got shit to draw today...
My Mom took me to a Monet Exhibit as a kid once.. "What did you think of those wonderful Paintings Jeff?" "yea... their ok..... But can he do a exploded of a fuelie injected Stingray?" She gave up.
I am always amazed, at the cool illustrations that were in the old Motors manual's. This old Harley Davidson poster was cool as well.
As a kid back in the fifties ! I would read Eagle comic books out of the UK. There was always a cut away drawing on the centre page. Cars, planes, trains, and boats; even factories and refieries. All were well drawn, and full colour. calculating rewards poin
It's truly an art, I have a friend that's an Industrial Designer and I remember looking at his and others projects during college. I didn't know what is was called when I was a kid but I loved it, later I was taking classes in drafting and architecture.....it wasn't the same. The lowly light switch ......
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