GRAFTERS:
Classic artwork With a fine eye for detail, Chris Dugan is creating some superb illustrations.
Artist, Chris Dugan wields a brush rather than a welder, regularly turning out some of the finest classic Ford-based illustrations we’ve seen.
Car brochures and illustrations go hand in hand. Way back when photography wasn’t the preferred medium, exquisite drawings of a manufacturer’s wares were the norm; producing lovely dream-like brochures that were exquisite pieces of art. All were painstakingly drawn by very clever commercial artists and then coloured by hand. And, although photography took over, the practice never really went away — in fact, many current publicity materials are illustrations, done these days with the stroke of a mouse and CGI, but it’s illustration none-the-less.
And it’s easy to see why — creating photographs of exactly what you want can be very costly, not to mention, darn near impossible. Again computer trickery plays its part, but it’s all seriously time consuming and, expensive. With so much dependent on the computer, it’s easy to think that people with enormous amounts of talent have been made redundant, but as you can see from the images in front of you, the art of commercial illustration is alive and well thanks to people like Chris Dugan.
Glance at his work and you’d swear it’s a photograph — the way he captures the light reflecting off the bodywork represents ridiculous attention to detail which all enhances the deception of the eye, making you believe it’s real. Chris specialises in producing images of cars — particularly those of the ’50 and ’60s — with a heavy draw towards motorsport. He knows who his heroes are — some still with us, others alas long departed, but they live on thanks to the strokes of Chris’ pencil and brush.
Make no mistake though, there’s no CGI in Chris’ work, he is very much an artist of the old-school. And you can’t deny the incredible talent, vision and training he has. His illustrations will grip you — and that’s the beauty of the medium because you can virtually make up the composition you like rather than physically creating it with a photograph. Each illustration is painstakingly drawn by hand — often taking a whole week from start to finish — and Chris does the lot from his small studio at home near Portsmouth, usually starting with a photograph.
It is a fascinating world, miles away from the type of Grafter we’re used to — someone slogging away in the garage with talent in different areas. Chris’ work then, needs some explaining not least on how he does it, and we wanted to find out more.