Glynn Kerr

Composition of magazine sketches from 1999.

"Artist's impression" commissioned by Motor Cycle News (UK) in 2004 after reports that British sportscar manufacturer TVR could be looking to produce motorcycles (by coincidence, I was once in charge of design at TVR - my first job after graduating in 1981). Styling cues were taken from the TVR Sagaris and general in-house design features. This was one of the last magazine illustrations produced due to widespread theft, which meant more time was spent chasing down the perpetrators with legal threats than producing the actual artwork.

A naked bike was also part of the MCN commission.

Yamaha FZX 1000 "artist's impression" commissioned by Moto Revue magazine in 2003. This was Yamaha's answer to a full-bore, naked R1.

Cut-away drawing of a fictitious 2-stroke engine inside a fictitious Yamaha TZR750, published in MCN in 1996. The "Yamaha" lettering was done with Letraset, and the rest by hand, on a single sheet of A3-size marker paper. This was before you could just press "undo" if you screwed things up when you were nearly finished.

Something different - action sketch done for Motor Cycle News (UK) back in 1994, guessing what the then-rumoured BMW 650 G/S might look like. All marker and pencil.

'Artist's impression' of the replacement for the MV Agusta F4, which still continues pretty much unchanged ten years after this sketch was made for MCN (UK). Much copied by students - I've seen this same sketch appear in different forms in several portfolios. This one also marked a transition from hand-drawn sketches, being the last sketch done entirely on paper with the old manual airbrush. The only exception was the lettering, which was applied via Photoshop after scanning. This was fine until an art collector wanted to buy the original, and I had to try to recreate the same graphics with a two-hair paintbrush and a magnifying glass.

More old magazine sketches. This vision of a future air-head Harley was completed for Cycle World (US) in 1998, and also appeared in Tod Rafferty's centennial book on Harley-Davidson.

Illustration for a new H-D Sportster, commissioned by Cafe Racer magazine, France. The magazine went bankrupt the following week and never paid for the bloody thing, although it continued seamlessly under new ownership as if nothing happened. So, if you want to order stuff without ever having to pay for it, and to rid yourself of all your debt in an instant, it seems all you have to do is declare bankruptcy. One week of my life for nothing.

A sketch of the Hornet 1100, which the journalists thought would be similar to the 600, only with twin cans and a half-fairing.

Here's my take on how I thought the Benelli Tornado might look ahead of its launch. Information was variable from the magazines, from detailed technical information to "no idea - just make it up". There was usually very little info about the styling. The sketches were intended as a caricature of typical features from a particular manufacturer to illustrate the story. An actual design proposal for the same manufacturer would have been very different. This one is from MCN (UK). The technical spec was spot on, but there was nothing to go on for the styling. Needless to say, Adrian Morton's actual design was infinitely better.

An 850cc version of the Africa Twin following information from Motor Cycle News - which of course became the Varadero in reality.

Suzuki 400 DRX - a four-stroke dirt-bike, to compete with Yamaha's YZ 400F. (February 1998)

Kawasaki ZZR 1200 This hi-tech sports tourer was again inspired by Kawasaki France, and featured single-sided front suspension, similar to Yamaha's GTS. In reality, the 1200cc bike became the sportier ZX-12, while the spiritual successor to this sketch morphed into the ZZR1400.

Honda Blackbird "Ram-air". An up-rated version of the Blackbird, this model was to be visually similar with subtle styling changes to allow additional intakes for the "ram-air" system. (December 1996)

Honda CBR900 RR "Ram-air" Rumoured to be under development for the following model-year, the up-dated Fireblade was expected to retain much of the previous model's mechanical and body parts, but was to feature a "ram-air" intake system. (December 1996)

Perspective view of the same bike.

Bimota SB-9 R (January 1999) Bimota was expected to make use of the Suzuki Hayabusa's immensely powerful 1300cc four-cylinder engine, tuned for even greater power, to produce the world's ultimate exclusive superbike.

Honda CBR 1000 RR FireBlade Working from an engineering drawing leaked from one of Honda's suppliers, this sketch shows one interpretation of how the 2000 model-year FireBlade could have looked. (March 1999)

Big heavyweight tourers are not really my scene, but you've got to draw what people pay you for. Kawasaki was thought to be developing a rival model to Honda's Gold Wing using a development of the ZX-12 engine. In the end, the Concours 14/1400GTR turned out to be more sporty, but MCN (UK) who commissioned the sketch wanted a full dress tourer. Even so, I tried to find some typical 1990's Kawasaki features to set this bike apart from the 'Wing.

Trying to double-guess the replacement Gold Wing. I went with some of the styling features from the X-Wing show bike, which turned out to be wrong. Still, the sketch was popular enough to be stolen a few times.

This sketch tries to predict the 2000 model Ninja ZX9R. It was all still marker and airbrush, although the lettering here was retouched on Photoshop at a later date.

Aprilia V-Mille Roadster Naked Roadster based on the 1000 V-Mille sports bike but with all-new body parts, to compete with the Cagiva Raptor and Ducati Monster. (June 1999)

Aprilia Pegaso Mille (December 1999) Finally revealed at the Munich Intermot as the "Caponord", this guess at how the big Aprilia trailie might look wasn't too far off the mark, although the triple headlamps used on other V-twin Aprilias didn't make an appearance.

Honda VTR 1000 S Firestorm After a gap of over two years where no "artist's impressions" were produced, a trio of Hondas was commissioned by the French magazine "Moto Revue", predicting models that were expected to appear at the Paris and Milan shows later that year. The long-running VTR 1000 was the first model expected to get a revamp, although to date, no new Firestorm has appeared. (May 2003)

More magazine sketches from the 'drawn by hand' era. This Harley 'Supertracker' design predated the production XS, although MCN's information that the bike would use a smaller version of the V-Rod's water-cooled powerplant proved to be misguided.

Suzuki GSX-R 1000 Commissioned by the French magazine "Moto Revue", the rumoured big GSX-R was probably going to look identical to the smaller 750 as has been Suzuki's trademark for many years. However, to justify four days of work in producing the illustration, I allowed the liberty of modifying the front air intakes and rear seat hump, whilst retaining the body shut lines to match the existing panels. But sure enough, the final thing was pretty identical to the 750. (June 2000)

This is the 600cc version of the GSX-R, completed right after the profile sketch of the 1000. The bigger bike was drawn directly on the computer, but for this one I went back to paper. Paradoxically, there's something about the imperfections in a hand-drawn sketch that makes them look more tangible than when it's all drawn via a graphics tablet. Same with airbrush, which is why I did as much as possible with pen, pencil and marker, and just used the airbrush to create the larger gradated surfaces

It was around 20 years ago that I took a bunch of long-dead motorcycle brands, and redesigned them to look up-to-date (well, for 1992). Funny how many came true.

Another collage from the "Back to the Future" series produced in 1991-2. There were six German models in total, the sketches being first published in 'Motorrad' magazine. Although the cutaway drawing took 6 weeks to produce, the NSU Sportma...x (bottom left) was omitted for some reason. The design was entirely fictitious, and featured a narrow-vee engine, with three camshafts, the middle one working both intake and exhaust valves. Then last year, Horex reappeared (another famous long-dead German brand), with - you've guessed it - a narrow-vee engine, with three camshafts, the middle one working both intake and exhaust valves. And one of the company's technical advisers? A journalist who was working for Motorrad magazine at the time of my article. Coincidence?

A selection of 'artist's impressions' commissioned by motorcycle magazines in 1997.

A selection of 'artist's impressions' commissioned by motorcycle magazines in 1998.