One artist, one bike frame, both without limits

In a unique collaboration, Factor bikes asked artist Karl Kopinski to take a Factor ViSTA and use it as a canvas for his art. The result was a one-off piece of cycling art that demonstrates Kopinski’s incredible talent as an illustrator.

Kopinski is a passionate cyclist and has created paintings for Bradley Wiggins, Mark Cavendish and Sir Paul Smith. The project took the artist over a month to complete.

Interview – The Kopinski ViSTA:

What was it like to use a bike as your canvas?

It was tough at first I had to concentrate on the scale of the drawings and make sure I used the right media, it got easier as I worked around the frame.

What materials did you use for the drawing and what was the process?

I used acrylic paint pens. It was pretty simple as it had a nice base coat applied first. I just had to avoid getting oil from my fingers onto it and occasionally sand down areas a little to give it some tooth.

What is the concept behind the design?

I wanted to do something that had symbology but was still recognisable as my work. The dragons represent the terrain, the warriors are the rider and the weapon is the ViSTA slaying all-terrain.

There are a few zombie figures trying to chain it down, representing convention and how the bike breaks it. I think people tried to categorise the ViSTA and you can’t, it’s just a really fast machine!

There are birds on there which represent the feeling and freedom riding a bike gives me.

You can ride the ViSTA wherever you want, it’s so much fun and frighteningly fast. I’d go so far as to say it’s an anomaly, totally unique and I really wanted my art to reflect that.

It was a work of art before my pen even touched it.