ORIGINAL ‘JOEY’ Dunlop

The 5th of my Northern Irish Legend Portraits is Northern Ireland Born, Road Racing Legend Joey Dunlop OBE. 

“William Joseph "Joey" Dunlop, O.B.E., M.B.E. (February 25th 1952 - July 2nd 2000), was a world champion motorcycle racer from Ballymoney in Northern Ireland, best known for road racing. Best known throughout the sport as "Joey" or "Yer Maun", his achievements include three hat-tricks at the Isle of Man TT races (1985, 1988 and 2000), where he won a record of 26 races in total. During Joey's career he won the Ulster Grand Prix 24 times and the North West 200 13 times. In 1986 Joey won a fifth consecutive TT Formula One world title. In 2005 he was voted the fifth greatest motorcycling icon ever by Motorcycle News."

~ www.joeydunlop.co.uk

‘JOEY’, measuring 122cm x 81cm this piece was really inspiring to make. My Dad used to road race himself and as a child I was brought up with the sport, with my Dad even competing in some races with Joey. I watched the documentary ROAD and immediately felt a connection to do this piece proud.

Joey Dunlop and his family dynasty are a major part of Northern Ireland’s sporting History, with Michael Dunlop carrying on the name and talent today. I started with a reference pic from the era I remember Joey, greying messy hair with a pleasant smirk on his face. No doubt after winning yet another race. As usual when the pen outline went down I knew it was going to be a good one. Next up was the base-coat which is always fun but shows the piece at its worst. I quickly sorted it by adding the outline back on to the canvas. I particularly loved working on the helmut and his racing leathers. The proved to be a challenge with all the different textures. The final outcome is unreal.

Make sure to watch the ‘Making of’ video below, but to sum it up, it was as follows:

Chose a cool reference picture

Roughly whitewashed a board

Threw down some guidelines

Applied my 1st coat of Tin awesomeness

Brought the detail back through with acrylic pen

Applied the ‘Darkness’ 😵‍💫

Brought The LEGEND to life 😉

You’re welcome

The ORIGINAL- Hand Delivered to you by Jossiepops (UK & Ireland only). Supplied with his signature Modern Deep Set Black Frame and Pink Slip.

ORIGINAL size is 141cm x 100cm framed.

Overseas interest please drop me a message to discuss shipping.

I loved drawing it, you’ll love viewing it.

Thanks for the order.