Sideways Stratos
Original release: March 19th 2023
About the car
The legendary Lancia Stratos HF. What can be said about this successful car that hasn’t been said already? World Rally Championship winner three times in a row (1974, 1975 and 1976) and race car winner at 1974 Targa Florio, five times winner of the Tour de France Automobile and three editions of Giro d'Italia automobilistico.
On top of that, the iconic wedge design from the pen of Marcello Gandini at Bertone is just a joy to look at. Add to it some classic pop-up headlights, and you have every car enthusiast ingredient to love or at least hold this car to a high appreciation level.
About the artwork
I always like to explore new things when doing my illustrations, and this is no different. There are two things here in place: painterly look (with vectors!) and playing with negative space as a way to create visuals.
Negative space
I was inspired to do this piece years ago (literally, it was 2021) by my good friend Luis Ferrera and his Stratos piece that you can see here.
Of course I wasn’t going to copy it (unless I was doing a study), but the inspiration is strong. I created a new reference with my usual method (video game photo mode, Forza Horizon 4 in this case) and you can see it here:
Rear wheel spinning and lifting mud
A bit of the interior, front left fender and wing of the car can be seen in more detail.
I hope you enjoyed the artwork!
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