Wayne Batty - Creating the SentiMETAL artworks

The stunning artworks that are available in this store are exclusively created, from scratch, by a talented gentleman named Wayne Batty. We caught up with him as he was putting the finishing touches on another stunner to be launched soon...

From the first South African car (the Protea), to the Opel Kadett Superboss, Wayne has been the man behind the computer screen creating SentiMETAL's highly-detailed artworks. Each car is recreated digitally in painstaking detail - take our BMW M3 Collection piece, for example - it features around 40 derivatives of the iconic Bimmer! And that's all Wayne...

There are many more to come, and Wayne, now residing in the UK, is busy putting the finishing touches on the Opel Kadett 200ts and Ford Cortina XR6 Interceptor.

Our flagship product is this A1-sized piece featuring around 40 drawn derivatives of the iconic BMW M3.

"When Hannes and I first thought of illustrating this series of South African homologation, production and prototype specials for SentiMETAL, the task seemed easy," says Batty. "Ford Sierra XR8, Opel Kadett Superboss, a trio of BMWs, GSM Dart and Flamingo etc. But the list of relevant cars kept growing. It now stands at 26, and we’re still not done...

"Right from the start I knew visual consistency would be important. Merely digitally painting over cars-in-the-park-style, wide-angle, camera phone pictures would never suffice. That’s why I chose to illustrate the profiles from an isometric viewpoint – almost as if they were rendered blueprints straight from the various manufacturers’ drawing rooms. This has proved tricky. Imagine trying to get hold of accurate technical drawings of the 1957 Protea, the VW Golf-based Caracal prototype, or the almost mythical Spiron Holdings Phoenix!

One of Wayne's latest projects is creating the Opel Kadett 200ts from scratch for a new SentiMETAL artwork.

"Each project has involved collecting as much imagery as possible and extrapolating an isometric side view drawing in the many cases where this was simply not available," Batty explains. "All the images have been created from scratch in Photoshop using paths to draw up the ‘blueprint’ in A2 print resolution. Then, colour is applied layer by layer to each component, starting with the wheels. Blacked-out wheel wells, chassis and exposed cabin items are next, followed by the body colour, glass and details such as headlights, indicators, door handles and side mirrors. Finally, shut lines and highlights are added to complete the artwork.

The SentiMETAL Heritage series includes the Renault R8 Alconi, an almost-forgotten car.

"It has been an absolute joy to relive our South African motoring heritage in this way," Batty concludes.

Remember, we only print 50 of each of these unique artworks, so if you want to secure yours, make it snappy. They make the ideal gift for the petrolhead in your life (or yourself).

The Heritage prints can be found here.