Vroom Vroom - sand sculpture

When Hive finally makes me a millionaire I won't be goin' buying any Lambos. My first and so far only car is a Toyota Yaris from 2001. This is an amazing little machine and all the car I think I will ever need. Fuel efficient and easy to drive. It is like the Tardis in Dr Who and I am still surprised by what I have carried in it, how the hell would I fit an 8ft 2by4 into the back of a sports car? I've even pushed it to 140kmph on a deserted downhill motorway. Also, why would I want a Lambo when my manhood is of generous size and I already got the girl? I know there are those who really love their automobiles but for me, they are just a ride from A to B and if I am honest a mobile shed where I can keep my tools handy.

I appreciate the engineering of cars but have no interest in them as a status symbol of demonstration of power. Car racing is another thing I have no interest in. Sitting and watching others drive their cars around in circles is like watching popcorn pop. Who wins? the car or the driver?

Don't get me wrong I think they are interesting machines with every nut, bolt and body panel designed to perfection. There has to be something said for the most impressive synergy between man and machine but I won't be saying it. I have no interest, I don't care that it cost nearly 15 million to build a car and that their 0 to 230 kph is a few seconds but here I was in Praia do Pedrogão, Portugal being asked to make a sand sculpture of one of the cars. An F1 to be exact. (I think that should be an A and not an An but who am I to argue with Grammarly?).

Formula 7

It was nice to get this invite to a short and very select event by Pedro Mira (Center). There were only a few of us and we had 5 days to produce our piece. The theme was given to us as it had to please the client and I was asked to make the F1 car for some reason. My portfolio has no cars in it but now it does, so, there is that.

The above photo is of my fellow carvers standing around a flexible form we sometimes use to compact the sand into. I used wooden ones because the car would fit better in all its squareness. We first had to compact our own pieces along with the help of some local lads.

Let's put things in perspective

I wanted to make the sculpture more interesting for myself. To just carve a
Model of a car one to one would not have been too enjoyable or challenging so I had this idea of making the whole thing in a bird's eye view forced perspective. At least then I knew my mind would keep on the job and you never know even add that little spark the piece needed.

I picked a point in space and sighted the sculpture from there. First thing was to block out the main form. I used a three-point perspective eyeballed to points on the roof of the tent and the top of the earth's magma. (you'll have to take my word on that one).

Having a little model made the process a bit easier. I have never seen one of these in the flesh.

Let's skip to the end and this is how it turned out. I was pretty happy with it. I am no expert but I think it looks like a car.

Of course, once you left the nodal point, where I carved it to be viewed from the whole thing started to skew and warp.

From most other angles it just looked weird with egg-like wheels and bendy lines but for me, that didn't matter. Carving it from above meant I didn't need to worry about the obvious undercuts I would need under the body and also the overhangy bits of air spoilers. Necessity is the mother of invention, after all.

From some angles, it looked like it was warping with speed and near cartoony in nature.

Pit stop

From the back, it was quite unreadable. I made the plinth at a tilt to give me the right ground plane so from the back it was 70% plinth with just some swirly smoke to give support to the spoiler bit.

That's pretty much that. I had fun making this car, especially with the challenge I had set myself. We all worked really hard to get our pieces finished on time and didn't have much time or energy to enjoy the nightlife of Portugal but to be honest there was none. This was still off-season and everywhere was closed and quite cold when the sun went down.

Portugal seems pretty nice and I although the clients were a bit of a pain to get paid by, most of the locals were really cool.

Ps

Thanks for reading. I use PeakD to document my work as an ephemeral Sculptor of sand, snow and ice, amongst other things. This will hopefully give it a new life on the Hive Blockchain. Below you will find some of my recent posts.