A Pair of Chevys.

Two new illustrations in the works as of tonight. A '72 Chevy Blazer, and a '56 Chevy Nomad. Lots of body mods, but nothing really that extreme. A long way to go with each one yet, of course. In the case of the Nomad, I just really needed to do some sketching tonight, and I decided to try the one tri-five Chevrolet that I've never drawn before.

So that's 28 pics for the book done, and 9 more in progress.

Oh, and the calendar is selling nicely. My thanks to all who've bought one so far.

Dawn Patrol.

I bought three of these yesterday (the 24x36-inch ones). My cousin is commissioning a massive painted version of my old Dawn Patrol piece from a few years back:

This'll be the biggest (in every sense of the word) commission I've done yet - mounted together, the panels will be 3 ft. x 6ft. I just laid the panels together on the floor and I'm finally getting a sense of how huge this will be when it's done. The panels themselves are extremely high-quality pieces. Everything is very solid, and they're braced well on the backs. You could park a truck on one of them, I swear.

Can't wait to get started on building the background textures, but first there's a bunch of surface prep to be done. I keep telling myself to be patient. So far it's working...

This Art Thing Might Actually Work.

It's been an interesting month or so. I think I'm finally building up a decent body of work for sale, and forming a bigger, better network of friends and potential clients (do I dare say "fans"? It seems a mite pretentious).

I've sold a few calendars, prints from the Imagekind store, and I'm working on 4 commissions at the moment. This has easily been my best year yet - by the time the year's out, I'll probably have sold three times as much as I have in any previous year. Hard to believe - especially in this economy - but this art thing might actually work.

I know, I know. I'm still kind of in shock myself.

And I really should say a word or two of thanks for all the support - financial and otherwise - I've gotten in recent years. I really couldn't have done it without you folks. Thank you.

Bret

Hot Rods Calendar.

It's done:

Calendar Cover.

Been messing around today, choosing cars for the calendar, investigating RedBubble's print specs and such, and designing the cover. Sounds like I might be able to drum up some real interest in this project.

Here's a first draft of the cover design:

Thoughts?

Up to Date.

Hey. For those kindhearted souls still frequenting this blog, I've got something on my mind. I mentioned recently that half of the hot rod book is done, but at the rate I'm going, I'm probably a good 8 months away from the big finish. And people have indicated they're interesting in buying some of the new art now.

The other day it occurred to me that a hot rod calendar might well be the answer. Poked around the internet today to look at my options, and I've settled on RedBubble. Which leaves me in a bit of a quandary - should the calendar be a standalone piece, or could it overlap some with the book, in terms of content? I certainly don't wanna stop doing the automotive art anytime soon, but at the same time, if I have to do 12 more cars on top of the 50 in the book, then the book release will be that much farther away.

I'm also looking into magazine options from Magcloud. Maybe take the same cars that are in the calendar/book and show a bit more of the creative process - initial sketches, maybe some discussion of the different directions a piece might've gone in.

I dunno, a lot to think about here. I'll have to make a decision fairly soon to cash in on the Christmas market, but some feedback would come in handy at this juncture. While you're thinking about it, feast your eyes on some eye candy:

What say you?

Red or Gold.

Brothers and sisters, once again I come to you with a colour question. In this case... well, you can see for yourself:

So what's it gonna be? Red, or gold?

Halfway There.

Just a quick note - finished the 25th car this afternoon, so the book is half done. This is the milestone car right here:

(There are 6 more well underway, too.)

This calls for bourbon.

Panther Pink vs. Plum Crazy.

So I'm workin' on yet another car - a 33 Dodge coupe customized with elements from a 70s-era Dodge Challenger. Those of you who remember those Challengers will likely remember all the wild colour options they had - Hemi Orange, Sublime Green, and so on. I'm still trying to choose between Panther Pink and Plum Crazy:

What do you guys think?

Tip #001.

So I was just thinking it might be helpful to throw out the occasional art tip in the blog. Okay, that's a lie - I've actually been considering it for a long time, but it's only now that I came up with something I thought would be helpful. I wouldn't want to just regurgitate advice from other artists, after all.

Now, where I was again?

Riiiight, tips. I use spraypaint in my work from time to time, and the stuff I like the best is Montana Gold. Great selection of colours, plus they've got a system of interchangeable caps in several different sizes. My one beef is that the caps can gum up pretty easily, depending on how you use 'em. I'm a big fan of spatter, and that seems to exacerbate the gumming-up issue. The other day I busted out a can of Red Orange (#2090) and found the cap on it was completely blocked.

Undaunted, I tried a couple other caps and found them clogged, too. But fear not - eventually I found a few that were still functional. So I got to work laying down some orange shading on my latest car illustration (more on that later), and when I was done, I put on my thinking cap and started pondering the whole clog issue.

The "aha" moment came when I remembered I have a compressed-air gun that I use to blow dust and crap out of my keyboard:

Just a cheap little accessory from Staples. I think it cost 20 bucks. I just inserted the nozzle into the bottom of the cap I'd just used, and blew all the residual paint out of it:

It was just that simple. Now, I haven't sat down with my abacus and crunched any numbers yet, so I couldn't give you any kind of cost-effectiveness breakdown, but I can tell you the caps cost something like 75 cents, and a pack of 4 CO2 refills retails for 20 bucks. Considering I've had caps that were ruined after one use, I think this'll eventually work out for the better.

Oh, and the car I was talking about? Here it is: