The Decoy 2

Sea monster?  What sea monster?

9.75x15 inches, watercolor.  Available at Daily Paintworks.

Jettisoning Ballast

In an earlier post, I advocated the use of a load of hay to improve the weight characteristics of a gasser pickup, improving grip in the quarter mile. After the race, you don't really need to carry that load around, so...

9x18 inches, painted in watercolor.

Narrow Escape

I don't remember sea monsters being mentioned in the travel brochure.



The first version of this piece had the Squire running away from a volcano.  As it happens sometimes, it just wasn't coming together very well, and I scrapped it.  Starting over, I swapped out the volcano for a trio of tentacles, and changed the paper as well.

10x18 inches, painted in watercolor.

Surf Weirdos #22 - The Super Six

The inspiring story of a girl, her car, and a complete and utter disregard for the laws of physics.

 I tried this originally in oil, and if that piece had worked out, it would have been Surf Weirdos #6, hence the 6 on the mismatched door.

10x10 inches (roughly), painted in watercolor.  Available soon, at Daily Paintworks.

Deep Sea Repair

Assessing the damage after a day at the racetrack.  With a little help.

11x13.75 inches, painted in watercolor.  Available for purchase at Daily Paintworks.

Outrun The Monster

Messing around with different color schemes, and putting a damsel in harm's way while doing it.  That's art.

10.75x10.75 inches, painted in watercolor.  Available at DPW.

Jackpot

What with all those walking monkeys surfing their cars and trucks, it's inevitable that, occasionally, one will wipeout and their ride will wind up at the bottom of the sea.  At that point, it's finders keepers.


10x14 inches, painted in watercolor.

The A Stands For Aquarium

I hope the suspension can handle the weight.  That's a lot of seawater in the cab.

8x18 inches, painted in watercolor.  Available at Daily Paintworks.

Bad Dog 5

They're so adorable when they're little.  Once they grow up...

I don't think Mrs. Woodhouse is going to be much help here.


10x14 inches, painted in watercolor.  Available here.

Surf Weirdos 15

"There goes the neighborhood."

10x16 inches, painted in watercolor.  Available at Daily Paintworks.

Surf Weirdos #10

The only valid reason to get the undercoating option.


10x10 inches, painted in watercolor.  Available at Daily Paintworks.

Surf Weirdos 11

When I'm done with a painting, I usually set it aside for a week or so, hidden out of sight.  Then I dig it out and look at it with fresh eyes and do final adjustments as needed.  Usually, these adjustments don't amount to much; a little detail here, a color tweak there.  For example, in this piece I repainted the wave on the left to make it more imposing and added some sea spray around the car.  I also darkened the red of the car below the waterline.  Maybe I'll go back again and make that wave bigger yet, or save that for the next piece.

Here's the previous version for comparison.

8x21 inches, painted in watercolor.  Available for purchase at Daily Paintworks.

And now...

My artwork is being featured in the current issue of Traditional Rod n Kulture Illustrated magazine,  one of the finest hot rod mags around.  It's so cool it comes with two front covers!  The good folks at R&K have managed to make me seem like a moderately coherent member of society, which all by itself would be worth the price of admission.  Production values are top notch, from the writing and photography to the print quality.  Even the advertising is cool, and that's just impossible.  So go pick up a copy, and gain some insight on the evolution of these paintings, and then stick around for the gassers, rods, customs, and pinups.

But wait...

There's more.  After you've read the magazine cover to cover, go on over to Set to Stun Productions and look up the Friction in the Static podcast, episode 172.  Yes, that's right, you can hear me ramble on about my work, the evolution of the Weirdos, and melting all my crayons.  And thanks to the miracle of post production, I sound like a perfectly ordinary human (mostly).  Then, after you've listened to me butcher the English language, you still have at least 171 other Friction podcasts to enjoy.

Hand Drawn T Shirts

This is something I've been dabbling with for about a year now.  I draw the image on a t shirt using a squeeze bottle filled with screenprinting ink, and then use a piece of cardboard to move it around to create grays and patina.  The ink is a water based textile ink which softens a bit after being washed, so the image has a sort of "lived in" look.

They're fun to do, as I get to be a bit messy, and I can draw the same thing multiple times and never wind up with two identical images.  For instance, the next time I draw Truck Monster, maybe there's someone behind the wheel, or perhaps I chop the truck.  They also finish quickly, as it's supremely difficult to be fiddly when you're essentially drawing with a glue bottle and a spatula.  You have to go with the flow, which can make for some interesting results.


I've put a few of these drawn shirts up on ebay.  The shirts are all Hanes Beefy T in classic white, different sizes.  Quantities are, naturally, limited, though I do plan to add more designs as time marches on.

Unleashed

Fear Me!  Fear Me and My Unstoppable Engine of Destruction!  Soil yourselves in Terror as we Lay Waste to (dammit, there goes the back tire again.  Stupid cheap lug nuts.)!

FEAR MEEEEE!!!!!!!!

14x19 inches, painted in watercolor.  Available at Daily Paintworks.

Truck Monster 3

Or, Attack of the 5 Foot Woman.

I find white painted trim, like grilles and bumpers, a little more difficult to render than chrome trim.  For chrome, you just paint the sky in the upper surfaces, and the ground in the lower surfaces. (This is a gross oversimplification, but it gets the point across.)  But white bumpers and trim require a subtler approach.  you have to balance the need to convey depth against the color of the bumper.  Go too far with the light reflection from the sand and you'll wind up with a yellow bumper.  Use too much blue from the sky over that yellow, and you've got some ugly green color.  Over rendering can lead to fuzzy edges, which are not so good for representing a glossy painted surface.

How-ever, I believe older trucks, like this Ford, look more truck-like with the trim painted.  There's a utilitarian feel to painted trim that chrome lacks.  Chrome is fine for the car, which, for some people, serves as a badge of status and identity.  It's basically bling, or a silk tie.  Trucks, on the other hand, were traditionally built and bought to do work, and chrome does not enhance payload capacity or stump pulling power.

Don't misunderstand me, I love chrome.  The lack of chrome on modern cars is partly why they're mostly boring to look at.   But if you want to emphasize the working side of a vehicle,  less chrome does the job nicely.

10x16 inches, painted in watercolor.  Available at Daily Paintworks.

Oh, No You DON'T!

"Interstellar relations got off to a shaky start today when space aliens tried to swipe Veronica Maeus's car from her driveway.  Ms. Maeus apparently utilized a baseball bat during the ensuing 'negotiations', successfully persuading the visitors to return her roadster.  The aliens were reported to have said 'Ow!' before flying off."

Painted in watercolor, 10x14 inches.  Available for purchase here.

Sea Monster Repair

"Not everyone who owns and operates a sea monster is a mad scientist or super villain. A growing number of ordinary people have taken up sea monstering as a hobby. Since most of these enthusiasts are building their briny beasts on a budget, they generally start with a derelict vehicle bought for cheap, and save their cash for the tentacle drives and cyborg brainpans, which are difficult to scratchbuild with found parts. The results can be interesting, if not exactly pants-wettingly terrifying. Most hobbyists don't mind the lack of a fear factor, and say they're not in it to take over the world."



We'll see.

 6.5x9 inches, painted in watercolor.  Available here.

Artie's Day Off

Artie likes to unwind after a hard week, and nothing relaxes him more than risking life and tentacle in his hopped up Phaeton.

I did this small watercolor as a bit of fun for a friend's art project, and I'm thinking I should do more of them.  "Watercolor Weirdos" has a certain ring to it, I think.

7x12 inches, watercolor on Arches cold press.

The original painting is sold.  Prints are available at ebay.

Meditation

"It's awful quiet around here.  Too quiet.  I can hear myself think.  Gonna have to do something about that.  I think I'll give that killer whale a call for starters, have him bring his band."

Messing around with color a bit here.  I wanted something less than the usual bright blue summer sky I typically throw into a scene.   So I added some transparent red iron oxide to my sunny sky mix of pthalo blue, white, and a trace of Naples yellow.  I think it worked out well.  It has a sort of vaguely gloomy underwater quality, like the pregnant moment before a storm, when all hell breaks loose.  Which I guarantee will happen once that killer whale gets here.  That whale ROCKS!

6x9 inches, oil on panel.  Available for purchase here.

Joyriders From Outer Space #6

"Yeeeeee-Haaaaaaawwwwww!!!"

6x10 inches, oil on panel.  Available for purchase here.