the art of ruddell
Some Jaguar Designers: Where do you start? The help, encouragement and advice of these Jaguar designers was instrumental in establishing my drawing style.Doug Thorpe:
This type of crayon and gouache drawing style was my first exposure to automotive rendering from Doug Thorpe. I created several renderings in this style mainly on black cartridge paper in the early 70s, all of which I gave away, so if you've got one let me know!!
Roger Zrimec:
Roger Zrimec had already returned to the USA when I joined Jaguar Styling in 1978 but I had managed discuss techniques with him a couple of years previously when he showed me the basic steps of marker rendering.
His sketches were amazing, fast and effortless, and he introduced me to the idea of using varying shades of grey marker to build up the tone of the picture. 
His work was always neat and precise and he was able to resolve his designs into full size models as can be seen from this drawing. . . 
which became a full size XJ40 clay model design proposal in the mid 70s. Discussing the clay in the background are Bob Knight, George Thomson and Doug Thorpe.
Time saving trick for showing design detail alternatives . . using a dye line print and adding the detail variation in crayon and gouache . . Zrimec produced dramatic images with just a few quick lines!! George Thomson:
George’s work was the benchmark that I aspired to. He combined the marker techniques of Zrimec and the crayon style of Doug Thorpe but added pastel for shading, which really brought his drawings to life!
A very nice page of George's renderings in one of the XJ40 launch brochures in 1986Geoff Lawson:
in 1984 Geoff Lawson encouraged a fresh output of concept sketches, demonstrating his own techniques for us to learn from . . .
his sketches were incredibly fast, and I loved the way he defined form, often without drawing the shapes: it was just implied!!
Steve Lewis:
Steve Lewis was a design graduate who later went on to head up studios at Seat and Audi. His career has proved that he has a great feeling for form . . but his sketching was pretty good as well!!
although Steve was the new-comer amongst us I was soon studying his techniques carefully to try and understand the way he used his materials to produce such beautiful and dramatic renderings . . . 
especially in his "spy" proposals that were published in Auto Express at the time
the most memorable sketch for me was his version of the new Opel Manta (Calibra) of 1989 . . When launched on 10 June 1989, the Calibra was the most aerodynamic production car in the world, with a drag coefficient (Cd) of 0.26David Hunt:
David Hunt was an incredible artist who could produce marker renderings with the best of them but could also turn his hand to acrylic paintings such as these portraits of Jaguar directors Sir William, Bob Knight and Bill Heynes; and test driver Norman Dewis.
He introduced me to the use of masking fluid, which he used here for the Jaguar’s head in the background.
His compositions, with their great story telling and dramatic focal points, have been a key inspiration for my racing car prints.
In his lunchbreak he used to produce pastel and watercolour landscapes just for something different . . a lot of my watercolours of buildings are striving to capture the magic that was always present in Dave Hunt's paintings . .
Stuart Spencer:
Stuart’s amazing airbrush style was a real eye opener to me as I watched him create this Jaguar XJ40 cutaway from start to finish. 
The methodology of his pictures is similar to my own work, establishing the desired perspective view, getting the detail of the parts correct and using masking film to isolate areas for airbrushing.
