Uses for coffee: morning pick-me-up; excuse to buy a cappuccino machine; painting classic cars. Welcome to the unorthodox work of Adrian Mitu.
[Not a valid template]Coffee is a requirement first thing in the morning. If you’re like me and about as far removed from a morning person as it’s physically possible to be, then your eyelids will only be prised open by a large dose of caffeine. Turns out though that I’ve been using my morning pick-me-up incorrectly all this time. If I were anything like Romanian artist Adrian Mitu, I would be painting with it.
Originally Adrian – who goes by the name Aquarelief on his Facebook page – was a promising architect, studying the discipline in Bucharest. A few years ago however, the Romanian chucked one dream for another and began painting classic cars with watercolours.
His style is an interesting one, for although each image is almost insanely detailed, the process involved is quite simple. After forming a rough sketch of his subject with pencil, Adrian adds in details with coffee as an artist would with watercolours, though an occasional dash of ink is included for greater depth of colour.
[Not a valid template]Dedication to a craft though will only get you so far, and it turns out the secret to true skill is good old-fashioned idleness. Struck with inspiration one day yet too lazy to get his standard paints, Adrian instead dipped his brush into the cold coffee he had lying nearby, and never looked back. A keen petrolhead, his works also include a number of bikes and planes.
With each piece, the Romanian looks for the essential character of any subject, and the various bodylines and features that define it. To give you an idea just how seriously Adrian takes this approach, one of his favourite automotive designers is Chris Bangle, he of controversial BMW 7 Series fame. We doubt that Mr Bangle started work on the luxury German saloon with a cup of coffee, but as it turns out, he may have been missing a trick.
– Shots courtesy of Aquarelief
