Sketchbook Wednesday #4

 I've been busy lately, haven't been sketching every day but really that's no excuse. A sketch doesn't have to take long, even a ten minute sketch is worth doing if that's all the time you have. I did manage to get a couple of sketches done.

The first sketch was an experiment in using alcohol markers.  Previously I had only ever used Tombow ABT markers which are water based. From videos I've seen it seems there are primarily two advantages to alcohol markers, they blend more easily and you can apply acrylic paint pens on top since the acrylic paint pens won't activate the alcohol marker marks like they do to water based marker marks. Based on that info I decided I wanted to try them but not really being a marker guy I didn't want to spend nearly $6 each for Copics. Based on videos it appears Touchnew brand markers are comparable in performance and a lot cheaper so I tried to buy some, but I wasn't paying close attention and ended up with a set by Dabo Shobo. These markers didn't seem to blend well at all, also I didn't really like the chisel tip, I much prefer a brush tip. I also still struggled to get the acrylic paint pen to cover well.  Whether these issues are due to poor pen quality or my lack of skill with markers I can't really say since I have been unable to find a good review of these pens by someone with more experience.  The subject is a custom car circa 1950 Chevy old school taildragger style.

"Custom 1948 Ford"
Pen and watercolor, 6" X 11"
Click to purchase

The second sketch is a line and wash (watercolor) sketch of a 1948 Ford coupe also in a traditional taildragger style. I used watercolor instead of markers for coloring the body, something I'm a little more comfortable with and probably would be better for sketching live at car shows since you don't need a big case full of colors, instead a small palette can hold them all, (assuming you are competent at color mixing).  The line work was done with a Tombow soft tip Fudenosuke pen.  I love this little pen because it makes it easy to create loose thin and thick line work. I also used a couple Tombow ABT brush pens for some shading and color accents. I made this sketch in a book with tear out perforations so I've decided to make it available for purchase, click on the image to go to the ebay listing.

Sketchbook Wednesday #3

 These week I'm sharing a couple pages out of my daily sketchbook.  I've been developing a habit of sketching first thing in the morning.  This week I decided to do multiple small sketches on each page based on photographs from a magazine consisting of custom cars and hot rods.  

These sketches are only for my own practice and to add to my visual library.  I start each sketch with a fine black pen with no lay-in, just straight to it.  I pick a shape, draw it and then start drawing and adjacent line or shape until I've sketched the whole car, then I shade the sketch using gray brush pens.

Colorful and Sketchy

 I've been creating a new series of artwork lately, I call it "Colorful Sketchy".  It's an all automotive series, consisting of classic cars, vintage trucks, hot rods, custom cars, abandoned vehicles and more.  They are all "line and wash" sketches, which means I use pens and watercolor.  My goal is not realism, rather I purposely try to make the drawing and washes of color loose and give the subject extra character. I have been doing as many as five of these a week for a couple months now.  Below are a few of my favorites so far, but you can see all that are currently available in my Etsy store here" Colorful Sketchy 

"Blue Hot Rod Ford Pickup" pen and watercolor 8" X 10"

"Yellow Hot Rod Ford Pickup Sketch" pen and watercolor 8" X 10"

"Green 1946 International Farm Truck" pen and watercolor 8" X 10"

"Orange Ford T-bucket Hot Rod" pen and watercolor 8" X 10"

"Purple Custom 1956 Mercury Hardtop" pen and watercolor 8" X 10"

Painting for Charity

 Kulture Krash is one of the coolest and largest annual automotive events in Northern Utah.  I won't call it just a car show, it's much more than that.  Art is as big a part of Kulture Krash as the cars.  There are many artist booths, most with Ed Roth Rat Fink and monster style art or pin striping, in other words "Kulture" with a "K".   There was also a Hot Wheels swap meet, of which I participated along with having some of my art for sale. This show is for charity for the Angel's Hands Foundation. One of the events to raise money was a custom Hot Wheels silent auction, I donated two of my customs and they did well.  

The big event that ends the show however and one of the main attractions is the live art auction, also to benefit the charity, in fact it is the primary source of the funds raised for the charity at the show.   I decided to paint something specifically for the art auction.

"Custom Blue 1940 Ford Coupe"
Prints Available

I started with a 12" X 24" cradled panel, painted the edges black and toned the surface with burnt orange. After laying out the composition I painted it all using brushes but fairly thinly.  Then I painted over it again with thick paint, adding details and refining it.  The last layer was to apply extra thick paint selectively using knives and even an old credit card to add interest and texture.  The result is a side view of a lowered old school custom blue 1940 Ford coupe with a chopped to and fender skirts against an abstract yellow/orange background.

Painting A Custom Car

Not much to say about this one, it's a painting based on a photo I took of a custom 1950 Chevy at a car show.  The actual car was painted flat black, other than that I painted it pretty much how it was.

Blue 1950 Chevy Custom

To purchase click on image.

If you have 20 minutes to spare why not enjoy this video of me making this painting?