About the print
The original ink and watercolor painting from Masaki Okamoto was scanned at 200 lines per inch Heidelberg Hell CG3400 scanner and composed on a G4 PowerMac workstation. The prints were made on a Komari 40-inch Lithrone six-color press, regarded by some in the lithographic printing industry as the finest printing press. The paper used on the print was a premium-quality 80 pound matte cover-weight acid-free paper. Colors were controlled with an ATS Spectrophotometer Densiometer that reads and corrects color densities throughout the run. The Komari Lithrone press also incorporates a blemish removal system that removes blemishes as soon as they appear, ensuring that the printing run is greater than 99 percent blemish free. Light-fast inks were used to provide vibrant colors, and a spot-gloss varnish was applied over all ink areas to further highlight the colors as well as protect the ink from scratching from normal handling. The prints were trimmed to size on a 45-inch Saber computerized cutter. This method of art printing produces prints of exceptional quality, sharpness, and color - in fact, the prints look better than the original. Like all limited edition art prints, the plates were destroyed after the run, ensuring the print's value to collectors.

About the artist
Masaki Okamoto was born on September 5, 1964 in Nigata, Japan. Okamoto-san currently lives in a suburb on the western outskirts of Tokyo. Okamoto took up watercolor painting as a hobby eight years ago and being an avid motorcyclist, motorcycles and roadracing has been the subject of over 600 original watercolor paintings. Okamoto's favorite subject, by a wide margin, is Eddie Lawson. To date Okamoto has painted Eddie Lawson or an Eddie Lawson race bike over 45 times. Okamoto was there in 1980 at the Suzuka 8 Hours when Kawasaki teamed Eddie Lawson with Gregg Hansford, the first FIM world championship race in Japan since the 1960's. Lawson and Hansford finished second to the Yoshimura Suzuki of Wes Cooley and Graeme Crosby. Team Kawasaki might had won, had Lawson not made a decision to stop on course and check on the condition of Honda factory rider Mike Cole, who had crashed immediately in front of Lawson and, with no option by Lawson, was ran over. Like many naturally talented artists, Okamoto has never studied at an art school. In 1998 Okamoto quit his day job - designing floor mats - to focus on painting full time. SuperbikePlanet.com found Okamoto selling small color-Xerox copies of his prints at the 1998 Suzuka 8 Hours, and from that moment SuperbikePlanet.com and Okamoto began developing plans to market Okamoto's product in North America. In that time Yamaha Motor Company in Japan discovered Okamoto, and purchased the rights to Okamoto painted images of the R-7, R-1, XJR1300, V-Max, SR400, RZ350, RZV500R, XS-1, and DT-1 motorcycles. Yamaha sells T-shirts in Japan with these images for a price of roughly $35 each. Okamoto has no plans to sell his original watercolor paintings. Instead, Okamoto has kept his originals, and when the opportunity arises, Okamoto obtains the signature of the subject rider. Okamoto currently has rider-autographed originals featuring Kevin Schwantz, Kenny Roberts, Freddie Spencer, Wayne Rainey, and Wayne Gardner. Okamoto finally met his childhood hero Lawson at the 2000 Daytona Bike Week, where Lawson graciously signed many original art works for Okamoto-san.

Order the print
Enter the quantity you wish to purchase, then press the Order button below to continue the transaction on our secure server.

Prices:

$50.00 per print plus $6.00 for shipping and handling. At this time, we can only ship to US addresses.

Eddie Lawson Print

©Hardscrabble Media - All Rights Reserved