Tony Matthews
Artist Bio
Tony Matthews was born in Ipswich, Suffolk, East Anglia, England on October 4, 1943, growing up in Hemel Hempstead, and later in Hitchin, Hertfordshire, England, where his father worked as a Consultant Pathologist at West Herts Hospital. In his mid-teens, Tony’s fascination with technical illustration began with drawing simple cutaways and exploded drawings of artillery shells, from cross-sections found in an old set of Encyclopedia Brittanica. During his final year at Hitchin Boy’s Grammar School, Tony was introduced to the James A. Allington (the legendary automotive illustrator), by his Careers Master who knew of his artistic abilities and technical drawing skills.
Tony recounts the day he met Allington at his studio: “I went home with my brain trying to cope with all I’d seen in his studio, took out a Mills 75 engine and did a cutaway of it. I took it to him the next day after school and he said “Yep, pretty good, but you’ve drawn all your elipses wrong.” He then did a little sketch to show me that you have a major and minor axis, and that was it – I was on my way! But it was years of doing small illustrations before I could contemplate anything large and complicated. Small illustrations are just as valid as big ones, and can be great fun to do.”
Tony Matthews on Master Automotive Illustrators
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This post was mentioned on Twitter by heniadis: RT @escapeintolife: Fascinating Technical #Drawings by Tony Matthews http://bit.ly/99Om6G < Wow….
Are these free-hand drawings?
They sure are all free hand.
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Hi is this the same Tony Matthews that drew limited editions of drawings of businesses in Covent Garden back in 1972?
Tony is the absolute master and a super nice guy as well. His color work is unparalleled. He is one of the very few people I looked up to as a young student and still marvel at his work to this day.
Tony – Nice feature on you in Road & Track this month. Your work is amazing, and that is coming from an architect. The 917/10 is a fantastic cutaway. I look at it and try to imagine the sequence of doing a drawing like this. I am guessing you maybe start with an outline and work in from there. Cornell architecture school had us doing a lot of pen work in the late 1970’s, but you are way above what we did. Congrats on a great career and keep up the nice work!
Preston Quirk, nashville, TN.