Classic car photos. Car faces

Recently, I've been obsessed with trying to achieve the perfect crop. Last weekend, I stopped by the Spring Grove Cemetery Car Show / Cruise-In. It was pretty much the last big show of the season, so I knew I needed to get down there for my fix of corner crops before the long winter season.

All five of these could be possible candidates for future illustrations.

1966 Pontiac Bonneville

This vector illustration was a long time in the making. It's a little more personal than the rest, because this is an illustration of my car. The headlights were worked over and over again to try to balance style with realism. Plus, since this is such a dramatic crop in comparison with the others, it was important to spend a lot of time on the chrome on the bumper and the headlight bezels. The Bonneville is over 18 feet long. The long horizontal format pays homage to a very fine land yacht.

Nova SuperSport Illustration

I've decided to continue with this style. I really like it, and I haven't seen anybody else doing this. Automotive art only seems to have a few distinct styles, and I don't really care for any of them.

This was composed in Adobe Illustrator. It's all vector art, but I started from a photograph. There's still evidence of the auto trace feature in there, but a lot less than you may think. For those of you not "in the know," auto trace isn't a feature you draw autos with. It's a feature in Illustrator that turns a photo into vector art. It may sound a lot like cheating, but I'm not. It takes a lot of fine tuning and retracing to get the look you want. It is a great starting point however.

The plan right now is to start printing these directly onto stainless steel. I think they'll look amazing, and hopefully a few potential buyers will too. A new blog is on it's way, dedicated to selling automotive art. Check back soon!

Nismo Cube

Over on my other blog, I comment on how much distaste I have for the Hello Kitty Nissan Cube. This is a go at it as more of a sporty box to take on the xB. The roof is chopped, it's lowered, and I've taken out the bubble windows. Instead, I've gone with a canopy without visible B, C or D pillars. Maybe it needs more vinyl graphics.

new hobby at splitwheel

My father in law turned me on to a website where they're using a forum to design a car. I think this is called open source, but I could be wrong. The purpose, in short is to design a new car for Caterham, a British car company famous for the Caterham 7. The Caterham 7 is incredibly cool, but impractical without such commodities as a roof, or doors. It's a performance car that may spend a considerable amount of time on the track, but must be a true road car.

Here's my first go at it. More to come. Check out www.splitwheel.com for details.

a porsche sketch

I posted my distaste for the Porsche Panamera a little while back. Naturally, I thought I should sketch my thoughts on a four door Porsche. I started this on the back of a receipt at dinner and decided to take it home and try it a bit larger. This version has a more retro flair to it than the original. It's missing the fender flares that it would take to really make this a Porsche. Maybe I'll revisit this drawing again soon.

two tone el truck

for those of you who don't speak spanish, "el truck" is spanish for "the truck"

actually, i just don't know if it's a truck or an el camino.

Super Sport is...Super

This sketch was a long time in the making. It started out as a Cadillac coupe and just kept getting reworked and reworked until it wasn't a Cadillac anymore. Now it's a Chevrolet. I can't seem to stop drawing Chevys.

chevys are square

This sketch was hiding out. Notice the date. This was my last sketch in 2008. I like square cars in case you haven't noticed. I'll go into this a little deeper in my other blog, but to sum it up; a square can never go out of style, because it was never in style.

I think this looks like it could be a little brother to the Camaro. It keeps the idea of a wide mouth grille like the Camaro, but has thin vertical headlights. I'm sure some color would really help you figure out what's going on in the front. Maybe I'll have to revisit this one because I really like what's going on in the rear 3/4 panel.

Trans-Am Sketch

I was showing my father-in-law how cool my tablet PC is tonight and got a little carried away. I thought it might be cool to draw a Firebird / Trans-Am concept based on the new Camaro. Imagine it in black with a huge firebird on the hood. Smokey and the Bandit anyone?

'51 Merc

illustrator

This is the first in a series of rat rod illustrations. This isn't exactly what I had in mind for my tablet PC because the only thing in this illustration that's freehand is my signature. Still, it was fun. I like the style because the result is more pop art than automotive illustration. This is 100% Adobe Illustrator. This will soon be printed, matted and framed.

Chevy Sketch

photoshop

december doodle

enjoying the wacom tablet today during lunch. just thought i'd throw this up here.

Cobra - circa 2004

Illustrator

This is my dad's dream car. So it kinda became one of mine as well. This is when I was learning Illustrator as an illustration tool rather than just for graphic design. So I worked on this in my spare time, and finished it in time to print it on metallic paper, frame it, and give it to my dad for Christmas. I like the contrast in this rendering. I like how the tires disappear into the shadow on the ground. This blurs the line between illustration and iconography. I plan to dance on that line in the future.

Supra - circa 2002

Photoshop and Illustrator

This was my first successful rendering using both Photoshop and Illustrator. The line work is done with Illustrator, while the color was finished in Photoshop. If I learned anything during this project, it was that you can never have too many layers.

Hot Wheels Art

I love Hot Wheels. Even in my 30s. I think I'll have to call my parents and have them bring down my Hot Wheels collection when they come visit for Thanksgiving. This isn't an original idea. I was inspired by another artist, and if I can find him again, I'll post a link to his Flickr page. here

enjoy!

Welcome to my "Art Blog"

I have loved cars for as long as I can remember. My dad taught me how to draw cars when i was old enough to stay in the lines. I've got notebooks full of sketches that will never see the light of day again, but with my new tablet PC, I've been motivated to draw more, and do something fun with my doodles. Stop by frequently.