Vette Week Begins!

Let's start it off with the grand debut of the C2ZR1 this past weekend at Corvettes at Carlisle. Just about ten months ago, Jeff over at Heartland Customs gave me a shout, and we threw ideas around for a car that we had both almost left for dead. (Rewind to the previous Summer, and there were rumblings afoot for a project that merged then-upcoming ZR1 running gear with a second-generation Vette, and Jeff had a notebook loaded with ideas and visions... and then, as happens with these things, life intervened, and the project fell dormant...) Back to last October... The project was back on, and Jeff was seeking the right client, and I was given the go-light to start drawing. Stoked? Oh heck yeah... With his attention to detail, this would be killer.

A few phone calls and emails later, I had created some artwork:

With literally dozens of subtle (and a few not-so-subtle) mods, the car went from timeless, iconic Chevrolet design statement to nasty, yet eerily-refined evil bruiser in a few short days:

Aside from the obvious technological advancements bein thrown at the car, it just had to have that over-the-top WOW-factor... and speaking of top, it was decided early on that this '64 was going to have a carbon fiber roof, no if's, and's or but's.

It's fiber-licious:

We'll show more on the car very soon... but wanted to throw a sneak peek at the incredible work of Jeff and his crew, and at the same time, give them a huge pat on the back for yet another job so well done, it just kinda makes us all giddy thinking of where they'll be in a few years. I've had the incredible honor of watching them turn out some amazing iron (and 'glass... this being our second 'Vette project together), and when you think about the excitement that their work brings... well... imagine it from my perspective. Front row seats are cool... but getting to add some color commentary? Better still.

Keep looking in this week for not only more on this great car, but for some exciting new Corvette reading material! Yup... we got some new books in, and will serve up some toasty-hot reviews and ordering info, too. Stay up-to-date on our site at www.problemchildkustoms.com

Some whipped cream and salsa

Salsa?!

I like looking at things from a decidedly different angle, and am often inspired to seek out the inspiration behind a trend, or a particular style... I'm a fan of mixing and matching themes, styles, whatever...and an even bigger fan of just having fun with whatever I'm doing, and often seek out things that reflect this attitude. Whether in friends, books, movies, or music. Occasionally, this leads me to seek out stuff that's a bit off the beaten path. Such was the case here in the studio once again.

Anyway, I got to thinking, of all things, about Herb Alpert (not Marv Albert. That'd be weird.), and gave a listen to "Whipped Cream and Other Delights"... A far cry from what I was listening to a week ago, to say the least.... and by far much stranger cover art (if not quite risque', considering its 1965 release date):

Granted, this album was released before my time, but man... how cool were these cats? If you're not familiar with the Tijuana Brass, here's a quick history lesson:

Herb Alpert was a trumpet player who developed a unique sound that was a mix of south-of-the-border, mariachi and distinctly lounge-y sounds, probably best described as "Ameriachi" (as I learned from a few sources). If you're really lost here, think of the theme from the TV show The Dating Game, called "Spanish Flea", which was a Herb Alpert/Tijuana Brass tune, and you'll have an idea... or their version of "The Lonely Bull".

Anyway, the 'Brass cranked out a few albums in the '60's (even a cool Christmas album! Find a copy, and mambo your way through a Christmas Wonderland...)until Alpert called it quits, and took his (and business partner Jerry Moss') record label A&M, and signed some heavy talent, releasing a few albums of his own along the way (out-selling Michael Jackson in the late-'70's! Says a lot for that era, I guess), before selling the company to PolyGram in the late 1980's.

So what's this got to do with cars? Think traditional lowriders. Bellflower custom style(named after the city in LA county where the look spawned). A mix of the lowrider and custom car, and you'll see where I'm headed.

Consider Watson's Caddy:

It is the embodiment of the Bellflower look... the low stance, simple (if often ANY) body mod's, the bold, yet somehow understated paint technique (much like his T-Bird that came before), and those killer pipes. The East LA style, mixing elements from two cultures (like the Tijuana Brass did!), and coming out the other end with a clean, cool style. It's all about class, luxury, and style. Just like a lowrider, but with custom roots.

Lowriders embodied Mexican tradition. Crusing in a decked-out ride to impress the ladies, and show off your skills was more than just about the cars. Cruising may be traced back to the "paseo", where singles would walk around in the central plaza of the village, basically checking one another out. The idea here was to impress. Put these kids in cars, and it sure looks a lot like cruising... Which brings us forward a few years to the end of the second world war. Hot rodding was booming as young men returned from military service, eager to make creative use of their new mechanical skills. On the other end of the spectrum, the Mexican immigrants were making their cars look luxurious. It was style over speed... lowered stance, different hubcaps, an accessories like spotlights, skirts, pipes... many items shared in traditional customizing.

Fast-forward a few more years, and combine this look with the growing custom scene, and well, you got some clean, mild cars that made the most of the new styling coming from the factory... Apply it to a luxury car, and you're well on your way to a crossover look beyond compare. Imagine in late 1957 (coincidentally, the same year Bellflower was incorporated as a city), a young Larry Watson crusing into the Clock Drive-In in his panel-painted T-Bird...

I have a soft spot for this look... A couple years back, I sketched up a modern take on the look, combining it with the pro-touring look -- note pinstripe whitewalls on a 5-spoke as a nod to the classsic "Supremes and pinners" look (OK, and a mild chop, extended quarters, relocated and shortened trim...):

The idea behind the Bellflower look is clean lines, cool, vibrant and rich colors mixed with just enough chrome to keep your eyes happy...Make use of some 'flake or pearl, some striping... In other words, think mild custom, but dressed a notch higher. It's a fun style, to be sure, much like Herb's band of session musicians belting out "Ameriachi" cover versions. Take one thing, and spice it up with another influence, and man, you can't help but feel the vibe, and nod your head approvingly as you smile.

And that's how my mind works: From whipped cream to salsa, stopping in between for some quick history, and leaving you to consider mixing up some styles on your project... More hot rod and custom car design talk as always at www.problemchildkustoms.com

Adopting the Gonzo Approach

Many years ago, I was introduced to the work of a writer named Hunter S. Thompson. Bear in mind that this "introduction" came at a pivotal point in my creative career, and I was completely drawn to his style of not only writing, but his almost renegade technique of forming a story. Here was a journalist who not only covered the news at hand, but worked in a personal angle, often thrusting himself so deeply into the event he was covering so as to alter its outcome! "Absolute brilliance", I thought! Not mere "coverage" or "reporting", but LIVING it!

This was just too much... This guy GOT it! To a student of Fine art, this was the epitome of "creating" anything: Living it! Thompson's style of news came to be known as "Gonzo Journalism", and the name packs the energy rightfully reserved for this all-out, sensory attack, in which the writer himself becomes an integral part of the story. Somewhere between the facts, self-interjection and commentary, the truth lay in wait. This was the sort of writing I had done since I could first form sentences... I had found someone who had paved the way before me, and man, I was digging this. Taking something that has always been deemed as objective, and beating it into something much cooler and entertainingly subjective... showing that a subject or event could have an effect on the writer, and then, at times becoming a part of that story was just simple logic to me... After all, how interesting is just blowing some facts all over a sheet of paper (or a monitor!)? Stirring in (or up!) some emotion is key to creating compelling content. Anyone can say "gee, Stan... there was this one guy, and he said this, and the other guy said that. Then they shook hands." Wow. Not sure about you, but I'M drained from that story. What a cathartic experience... or NOT. Thompson would become the center of his work, very often blurring the line between "reporting" facts and "influencing" a story. He interjected opinion, an energy, and most of all, an experience.

That said, I began to look at this field of automotive art that I work in, and feel a bit depressed. It's gone from the fun, energetic industry to a machine full of photo-real, computer-generated imagery lately. The landscape is littered with 3-D models and tracings of the same-old, same-old.

Doesn't anyone just DRAW anymore?!

The creative projects... the REALLY wild customs and out-of-the-box hot rods are the ones that inspire and push the hobby to that next level... they've become fewer and further between. It's become... well, "safe". We're flooded with near stock-looking blah-mobiles drawn with a lack of personality, often with the actual car being just the same bland cookie-cutter crap over and over again. Wow... a photo-real 3D model of a '69 Camaro on aftermarket wheels... just like those other ones! What the hell happened?! It was as though Henry L. Mencken's "bathtub hoax" had brought some new lease on life in the car community. As though someone started the rumor that renderings needed to be sterile, lackluster depictions of some uniform style, and by golly, the whole group jumped the bandwagon, eating up the words and carrying it right into the common belief system they'd developed. Worse yet, I saw it start to occur in my own work as well from time to time, and it made me take a step back, and in doing that, I had a moment of absolute clarity.

I took the past couple of months and began heading back to what made this whole automotive illustration gig so appealing to me at the start: The ENERGY!! I pondered just what makes a rendering so valuable to a project, and beyond the financial (sponsor opportunities, press, etc) and communication (illustrating the modifications) value, it all boils down to CREATING EXCITEMENT! Simply looking at a photograph of a car can be cool, sure, but you're seeing something COMPLETE, FINISHED... and it removes the emotional response, the natural impulse to IMAGINE. To look at the idea SUBJECTIVELY!! By leaving just enough to the imagination, just enough room to interpret something, some part as YOUR OWN, you don't just LOOK at the work, you EXPERIENCE it!!

This is why I leave some loose lines among the tightened concepts, some free-form areas to chance... I'm not nailing down parts, bit by bit from some "rule book" ("18's and 19's? Check. Suspension lowered exactly like every other car on that forum? Check. Billet parts here, here and here? Check. Correct valve covers so as to avoid the wrath of the Traditional Police? Check, check!"), I'm inventing a concept to be shared, interpreted... EXPERIENCED by not only the owner or builder of the car, but anyone who happens upon it. Anyone (and I repeat ANYONE... you, your kids, your neighbor's Grandmother) with access to a 3D model, or some tracing paper and a few pencils and markers, or worse yet, Photoshop, Google and some time can bash out a lifeless, non-creative turd, and have it celebrated by the easily duped masses... but the ones who can hammer down a concept, and show some life in the lines, some ENERGY... man... those are the pieces that stand up to time, and drop their pants at the lesser crap. Compare a Stanford rendering to some Photohack from a guy in a forum. Name your three favorite Jimmy Smith renderings, or Steve Stanford concepts, or Larry Wood designs. Easy, right? Now try to do the same for three photochops or 3D models. That's a pretty tough one, huh? And do you like those pieces you named because the artist kissed your ass on some online forum, or because the work stood out, elicited a RESPONSE in you?

Pretty creepy realization, huh?

I'm not about to fall victim to this absolute "dumbing-down" of the hot rod and custom car industry... Rather, I'm adopting the "Gonzo" style, and going at it with the passion that brought me here to begin with. What's great is that I've never really fit in to begin with, so if anyone takes offense or has their feelings hurt by my shift in priorities, I certainly don't have to hear the whining, or fear some drop in the number of cards sent my way over the Holidays. It's just me, my art, and the drive to push it until the son of a bitch breaks from the altitude. I'm not about to fall victim to trends... to having the need to be accepted because I'm doing the same thing fifteen other guys are currently latching onto.

Our pal Hunter (from the start of this whole mess) stated that "he that is taught only by himself has a fool for a master". Grand advice... and a central theme here in the Studio. Draw inspiration from as many sources as possible! I'm often looking to objects or art forms so removed from cars that even I begin to wonder how they'll apply... and it's a blast! I'll look at a painting and consider the brush strokes, and experiment, seeing how they might work in a current or future piece. Perhaps there's a rhythm in a song that just makes sense when laying down the lines on some graphics... It can come from almost anywhere. The key here, though, is KNOWING YOUR SUBJECT.

INTIMATELY.

Simply hacking a few photos together, or painting some digital model or tracing a picture doesn't grant you any more knowledge of designing a hot rod or custom car than does accidentally bumping a car in the parking lot with your shopping cart. When you take time to know the car, to understand the parts and pieces that make the whole... to look into the designer's mind and grasp where he was going and WHY, well, you're starting to grasp the idea. You're in no position to modify that car until you understand it. Going back to Dr. Thompson for a second (after all, he's the reason we got rolling on this anyway), he once wrote that "Fiction is based on reality. Unless you're a fairy-tale artist, you have to get your knowledge of life from somewhere. You have to know the material you're writing about before you alter it. " Incredibly wise indeed, and the big "why" that so many of these sterile, cold "renderings" lack that "punch"... the thrill, the excitement of a GREAT piece... the ones that make you take a step backward and yell "BITCHIN', MAN"!!

With all of that strewn on the table, I'm going to go back into the Studio and tear the next project a new one. I challenge you to go and do the same in the shop, and wow the snot out of everyone who experiences your Gonzo build.

Artist Feature... and FREE WHEELS!

I have an upcoming artist feature in the relatively new Benchrace Magazine, an online publication geared toward the hot rod community, and loaded with absolutely killer feature articles each month, and I'm pretty stoked, as this is really the first online 'zine to include my work.


Weighing in at nine issues (when the new one hits, anyway), the magazine has already nailed some killer content, including stuff from guys like Jim "Jake" Jacobs, Tom Fritz, our good pal Jimmy Smith, Dan Picasso and more! Hell, it's even had the great Reverend Billy Gibbons on the pages! Good times indeed!

Suffice to say, it was cool when Robert threw the idea out there to feature my art... I'm always stoked when anyone takes notice of my stuff, and it was a good experience! As part of the fun, I was asked to offer up a print as part of his monthly prizedrawing, and I've obliged, offering up on of my signed/numbered and limited-edition pieces, the Mahi Mah-T:

Add to that (by golly, it just gets better and better, huh?) the chance to win a free set of wheels, compliments of Real Rodders Wheels, just for subscribing (it's FREE, by the way), and the icing is on the cake:

If you get a chance, check it out... I think you'll enjoy it.

Red and random...

Got to playing with a series of works lately, all based on a monochrome theme, and thought I'd show one off for a Friday morning:


Suffice to say, it's a rather colorful series, with an interesting mix of contrasting and complementing cars and styles, each coupled with a color chosen in the same way... Hope you dig it.

Surf Cube Concept

After the last post, I got to work, and completed one of the concept sketches...


Naturally, I began sketching ideas for these Cube's as soon as I laid eyes on them, and the above idea kept knocking on my brain... It just HAD to be drawn first!

The "Surfite" of one Ed Roth has always ranked as a top ten custom car in my book, not only because it's so damn original, but it's also surf-oriented, and as you know, I love me some surf ANYTHING. And man... the little Cube not only calls out for a "lifestyle vehicle" treatment, but as a surf wagon??! Oh YES! Taking cues from Mr. Roth's lilliputian land rover, I plugged in classic hot rod and So-Cal VW styling cues, and attempted to honor the master "hisself" (as he'd say) with a modern take on the little Surfite. Pop-out side glass? Check. Asymmetrical tail light treatment? Check. Aggressive stance? Checkity-check. Custom trim and mild re-work all over? Double checkity-check. Take a very unusual car and make it even more personal/unique? Check, check, checkity-check check! It's useful, like the swing-out rear glass and flip-up side windows, to the small step built into the rear fascia, and, well... it just looks COOL.

I dig it, and hope you do, too... And if so, holler at me, and I'll continue finishing what I've started in the sketch book, and show off an entire series, perhaps.

I'm In a Book!

Go figure…

The Hot Rod Art Book: Masters of Chicken Scratch

As a wide-eyed kid, I’d flip open the latest car magazines and drool over the works of my hot rod design heroes… Guys like Charlie Smith, Thom Taylor and Steve Stanford were (and still are!) the guys I looked up to, hoping to one day at least meet these giants among men. They, and other artists like them were my inspiration to head out and do what I love. Never did I dream that I’d be able to make a career of it, but the world works in an odd way… That, along with long days and longer nights paid off in allowing me to do something I love for a living.

Along the way, I have been beyond fortunate to have made great friends, and meet guys I read about in books as a kid, and all have played a great role in making those Math class dreams a reality. One such friend has been the immensely talented Dwayne Vance, a guy who cranks out work that continually makes my head spin, and who has contributed hours of enlightening and entertaining conversation over the years. When Dwayne called and asked for some samples of my work for a book project, I was floored… When he mentioned the names to appear in it, I was speechless… He rounded up Randy Ricklefs, John Bell, James Owens, Eric Brockmeyer, Michael Miernik, Max Grundy, Jimmy Smith, Justin Chin, Thom Taylor, Larry Wood and Steve Stanford! A veritable Who’s Who in our industry… and he had asked me to be a part of this… Amazing. Just amazing! To walk amongst giants like this, well… I still have no idea what to say, except “thank you, man”. Absolutely priceless.

A peek inside!

…and speaking of priceless, the book will be packaged with an instructional CD by Dwayne to accompany the outstanding look into how he does what he does! Hopefully it finds a spot on bookshelves all over the world, and becomes just what it should be: A valuable resource for countless wide-eyed kids drawing hot rods on folders in classrooms everywhere, gearing up for the day when we “old timers” can read THEIR incredible books.

The book is available HERE… Thanks for checking it out.