GNRS After Party: Pinups, Hot Rod Art and Music

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My friend Mitzi, pinup and hot rod photographer extrordinaire from Mitziandco.com, has helped out MyRideisMe.com by generously supplying some of the hottest pinup pics found in our pinup model gallery and now is throwing a party!  Saturday night, 1/30/2010, after shooting pinup models wide-open at the Grand National Roadster Show, Mitzi will open her new studio to show her favorite pictures, hot rod art and a special burlesque show!  Everyone’s welcome, so we’ll see you there!  Some more details for you:

Join us for an evening of Art, Music and Burlesque on Saturday January 30th as Mitzi & Co. along with Cherry Martini bring you Fueled The Art Show. An amazing collection of artwork will be on display and for sale from artists Keith Weesner, The Pizz, Max Grundy, George Barris, Mitzi Valenzuela, Dwayne Vance, Tiki Ray and more.

The evening kicks off with live burlesque performances by Miss Rockwell DeVil, Violet Valentine and Betsey Bosen.

Join us for the after party following Grand National Roadster Show on Saturday night.
Only 10 minutes from the Pomona Fairplex at the Mitzi & Co. Photo Studio in San Dimas, CA. (address on the flier below)

Show starts at 8pm and goes till Midnight. Complimentary beer and wine!
See you there!

(click on the flier to see it full size)

If you’re coming to the party, leave a comment! (you don’t have to be a member!)

“Internet Barn Find #11″: Sandy’s Soda Can Hot Rod Masterpieces

This is probably the coolest Barn Find to date.  I’m not gonna talk much on this one, because it will take up too much space where pictures should be.  Please check out this website. 

Looks like each car can be purchased for $2000.  Heck, if you’re crazy enough, you can purchase his drafting plans for $10/ea to build your own.  Good luck though, because you’re going to need serious craftsmanship to build it. 

Here’s the website: Sandy’s Can Cars

You’ll be blown away, I was!

Hechtspeed

Cool Hot Rod Art from 2009

Following in the footsteps of my last post about Cool Pinstriping, a post about cool hot rod art, drawings and paintings is needed for sure.  We’ve shown you some great art this year, here’s just a sample.  We’re going to put together a “Hot Rod Art” picture gallery soon, so we’ll let you know when that’s up and running.  For now, peep these for your viewing pleasure!

Included are links to the stories these pieces of hot rod art came from in 2009.  Don’t forget to click the images for a Full Size view!

First, some digital artistry from our man Brian Stupkski, of PCKStudio fame!  Check out the informative story on “How to Pick a Hot Rod Designer”

I personally have a print of this Ed “Big Daddy” Roth inspired Nissan Cube concept.  Check the story out HERE!

Next up, we have some hot rod sketched art by Alan Brightmore!  These were a couple of my faves from 2009.

There was a time when I serious considered having a 60’s VW Bus custom as my family daily hauler.  This is exactly how I’d want it to look!

This Black Camaro sketch looks so real!  Incredible, no doubt!

Dwayne Vance, author of “The Hot Rod Art Book” Masters of Chicken Scratch” shows off one of his demo pieces that takes you through the many iterations of a sketch, so cool.  Makes it look so easy!  I’m sure its not.

That’s it for now.  Check back as we’re putting together a Hot Rod Art Picture Gallery.

Hechtspeed

Cool Hot Rod Pinstriping From 2009 Part #1

Here’s a look at some of the coolest pinstriping found on MyRideisMe.com during 2009.  I think you’ll agree, pinstriping is alive and well.  So many hours go into practicing and painting, it takes a dedicated person on top of the skill required to lay a great line.  Enough words, these pictures will tell a 1000 of them on their own.  Enjoy!

Please check out the full Pinstriping Gallery to see even more works of art!

Click the pictures to see them Enlarged.

And a few of the stripers who we give much respect to, Charlie, Joel and Andy.

So, there were so many pictures I wanted to share that one post is not enough.  Keep your eyes peeled for more!

Hechtspeed

Pinstriping Animal Style with the One Arm Bandit

I met pinstriper and all around cool cat Charlie Decker online, probably at Myspace, before I met him in person at the Grand National Roadster Show. I hit him up for some samples of his pinstriping and a quick bio so you’d know his style a little more.  For you west-side cruisers, you better make an appointment! Charlie lives in Connecticut, so if you see him, grab him and his striping kit to lay down some crazy flowing lines.

I’ve included some of my favorite pinstriping from the, “One Arm Bandit” as he’s known. These animal creations and artistic forms he’s blended with sweeping stripes blow me away. I’m not sure I could draw that in a hundred tries and he throws it down freehand in paint right from his mind to the brush.  I don’t know if we’ll see this kind of work on hot rods, but if that’s what you want…

Here’s more about Charlie:

I started striping about 14 years ago around the age of 16. I was influenced by the 50’s style hot rod era and the traditionally styled hot rods I first pinstriped after a few years of practice. A lot of people say my striping has an old style feel with a bit of a twist.

In 1999 I started striping and lettering as a part time job and after about 5 or 6 years I was able to do pinstriping full time and I’ve now been doing so now for almost 4 years.

I’ve been playing around with other types of designs with my striping other than just regular old designs. I’ve been striping animal designs like you see here. A guy asked me to stripe a design of a rabbit about 2 years ago and that sparked my imagination. The picture of the tiger within my portfolio here was one of the first animal designs I did. That lead to some interest from other people, so I’ve been dabbling with other designs like that as well.

I enjoy doing stuff like the animals, because its different. I’ve striped everything, all types of things from antique cars to zippo lighters and everything in between. My favorite jobs are the ones that allow me to really put my all into them. This is when the budget for the work doesn’t matter and I can take as long as I’d like. I think it’s always fun to sit down in front of a huge open canvas, like a big decklid thats been de-emblemized and just go nuts on it. 90% of the time my customers leave it all up to me, so I’d have to say I really enjoy what I do.

If you’ve got a car you need striped or an inner animal you need painted on a panel, Charlie can come to you or you can send him stuff via mail to work his magic on.

e mail – onearmbanditstripes @ hotmail.com (remove the spaces) or call: 973-670-5238 or
Also, friend him at: myspace.com/onearmbanditpinstriping

Thanks for the info and great pinstiping pics Charlie. See all of his work in the pinstriping picture gallery at MyRideisMe.com

Custom Pinstriped Christmas Ornaments

If you haven’t seen my buddy Andy’s Pinstriping blog yet, you need to check it out.  He has something in store for you for this Holiday season.  Check out these Christmas ornaments he has pinstriped.  Very creative and especially cool for us car guys!  I’ve got a set coming my way.  He can even do custom stuff like your initials or think outside the Christmas Box, he could stripe your hot rod car club name.    Tell ‘em Hechtspeed sent ya!

Happy Hot Rod Days!

Hechtspeed

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Car Drawings: Pencil Sketch Hot Rod Art

Amazing hot rod art done by Alan Brightmore. People these are NOT black and white photos, they’re hand drawn sketches that amazingly look like older photos when they’re done.  Pictures and text by Alan… Check it out!

First up, this hot rod was done for a customer who saw my VW Bus parked at work! She left a note on my windscreen asking about VW parts and after getting in touch I ended up drawing this 5 window coupe for her father who owns the real thing. Very straight forward really, I enjoyed doing this one!

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Next is a Lotus Sunbeam. My neighbor has a bit of an 80’s car fetish and he owns a number of Sunbeams, one of which is this example which I drew for him. Not my cup of tea to be honest but a nice car all the same and he was very pleased with the finished piece…

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Here’s something I drew quite a while back. It’s called a Hillman Husky, of which I know little to nothing other than the owner dropped a Ford Cosworth engine in this one to make it go faster than it was ever intended!
Oh, and he worked (or owned) a scaffolding company hence the background I put in for him!!

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This last one I did for myself for fun.  It’s a 1954 VW Barn Door Kombi, pretty simple look.  Typical of a custom VW Bus.  This one always reminds me of California…

- Al

See Alan’s other hot rod art stories on MyRideisMe.com, Black Camaro and Various Hot Rod Sketches.

Which one’s your favorite? Let us know in a comment below.

Hot Rod Art: Black Camaro Drawing

It’s been a while since I last drew anything and I really need to get back into it! Full time work gets in the way these days and when I do get time off I end up busy with other stuff so I thought I’d dig out some commissioned drawings I did some time ago to share with you as well as a look at my last piece, the Chevy Camaro Black Concept.

I’ve been a big fan of American Muscle since I was a kid and the past few years has seen a resurgence from the big manufacturers, all of which give a tip of the hat to their original 60s and 70s counterparts,
combined with new aggressive styling, powerful engines, and lots of available mods and options.

The new Chevy Camaro is no exception and does it for me bigtime.  When I saw the first shots of the Camaro Black concept I just had to get it down on paper!
There were 3 or 4 initial reference photos I found available on the internet and decided to go with the side/rear three quarter view which is a little change for me as I tend to go for the front/side but this Camaro just looks great from any angle plus I wanted to add some colour.

Yes, colour for me is a dirty word! I’ve used graphite pencil for years and much prefered it’s blending properties to any other medium but as this only required a little splash of red for the rear lights and a little yellow for the bow-tie, I thought I’d give it a go…

So, if you read my previous story here Car Drawings or Photos? You choose. you will know how I go about my drawing process.  This was no different other than it took a heck of a lot of 9B pencil to lay down all that black that’s in there.
The colour I added at the rear lights was from a standard red felt-tip pen and coloured pencil, I bought a white gel pen to add the small white dots which gives the effect of the reflective lens. Coloured pencil once again was used for the Chevy badge.

I was pretty pleased with this one in the end, I thought the little touch of colour was needed to break up the mass of black involved and it did the trick, a long time was spent on the wheels too which were very detailed and tricky but again well worth it. Now, just need to sell enough artwork to go buy a real one!!

Alan’s MyRideisMe Garage and Art Webpage

Alan Brightmore

Up Close and Personal with 80 “Icons of Speed and Style”

Not all of you ladies and gents can imagine a car being raised to the status of an icon or art form. In fact I haven’t always myself. However, the more I get to work on and see cars, the more enamored I’m becoming. After attending RM Auctions “Icons of Speed and Style” my car love-o-meter has just shot through the roof!

An auction doesn’t sound that exciting you say? What if I told you that all of the 80 iconic cars being sold in this no-reserve auction were available to peruse up close and personal? Yep… you could even touch em’! At most car shows, the best cars are roped off to keep you admiring from a distance. There were no ropes at the Friday preview before RM’s “Icons of Speed and Style” auction at The Peterson Museum in Los Angeles, California.

With nearly seven million dollars being drawn in by the auction, people putting out the money needed to really see what they were paying for. So when I arrived during preview day, I was able to get as close as I wanted to each car. With 80 cars to look at, my head was spinning and I didn’t know what direction to go first! I felt like a little kid in a candy store.

As I walked around trying not to drool, I began taking notice of who else was there. Some people seemed excited, others were strictly business. I overheard many sentimental comments of “Remember when…” or “Remember that car that….” Who has this sort of money and spends it on cars like these? There were businessmen doing the work for someone else, moneyed looking older folks, and of course a few Japanese… they go wild in Tokyo over hot rods! But there were also some regular looking car people. In fact, I met a few guys who had previously owned and restored some of the cars present!

While the theme to the Pink Panther played in the background, my mind wandered to hair-brained heists and I began feeling a little villainous. Looking at Deora, my surprise favorite, I imagined getting inside, swinging the swiveling steering wheel in front of me and driving out the front doors. Could I get away with it? Would anyone notice? I don’t imagine the cops would have too hard of a time finding me driving that masterpiece around LA!

So rather than becoming a felon, I satiated myself with the fact that I could examine all 80 of these cars as much as I wanted to. When else would I get the chance to check out the unique engine set-up of Ed Roth’s “Road Agent” or look underneath at the belly pan of the Khougaz Lakes Roadster?!? I nearly wanted to jump through the window of General Lee and was considering taking a try at the backseat of Elvis’ Lincoln Continental Limo, but I thought better of it.

While not too many folks were around for preview day, I heard auction day was standing room only! Though everyone was betting on Deora to take home top pocket, it was beat out by the surprise bidding on the “Little Red Wagon” of Bill “Maverick” Golden drag racing fame. The pre-sale estimate of this wheel-standing truck was $200,000 to $300,000 but a surprise bidder overshot everyone with a winning $550,000 bid! The Deora did well also at $324,500, making it the second highest grossing sale.

If only you could have been there, for only $132,000 you could have driven home in the 1969 Ford Mustang “Mr. Gasket Gasser.” Since ya weren’t there and I’m guessing you probably don’t have that kinda change lying around, good thing I took a lot of pictures. You can check them all out in the MyRideisMe.com Icons of Speed and Style picture gallery. Hopefully they’ll inspire you to what skill, engineering, and invention can build.

As I took one last glance at all these beauties under one roof, I couldn’t help but imagine all the history and personal stories that went with them. I walked outside, took a seat in my own work-in-progress 1955 Studebaker Champion, and was glad to be rolling down the asphalt in a classic. She may not be as iconic as the 80 that were up for auction – but to me she’s just as special.

You can also see the full auction results at RM Auctions homepage or some high quality pre-auction pictures featured in the  Icons of Speed preview story.

Leave a comment and let us know which one you would’ve like to go home with or what result surprised you the most!

Car Drawings or Photos? You choose.

I’ve been pleasantly surprised by the European hot rodders that have made their way to MyRideisMe.com. This story is about a new member, Alan Brightmore from Manchester, United Kingdom. His member name is Slammed56 cause he’s added an in the weeds 56 Volkswagon Panel Bus. Not long after joining, I found out Alan’s quite an artist, or is he a photographer? Look closely at the image to the left. Is that a picture? No. It’s an amazingly realistic looking pencil drawing!

What follows was written by Alan about his work. Please say hello in Alan’s Garage and add him to your crew.

Ok, brief history first of all and you could say I got into the artwork ’seriously’ kinda by accident. Having always had a natural talent for drawing from an early age (left school at age 16 with a grade A in art/photography) I just drew for fun really and never even entertained the idea that I could actually sell some of my work. Well, years went by and the artwork eventually became secondplace to ‘real’ jobs and spare time didn’t exist anymore.

It wasn’t until a good friend of mine (who got me into VWs) had the idea of drawing a couple of bugs and buses, making prints, and taking them to a show here in the U.K. to see if they would sell. I had seen some cool artwork before around the Volkswagen scene but most were of the ‘toon style which is why I guess mine stood out as something ‘different’ and to my amazement – they sold!!

What a feeling that was to have somebody part with their hard-earned for something I had created. Ok, they were only £5 each at the time but to me that’s the biggest buzz of all, not the cash (although very welcome!) but the compliments, the comments, the looks on peoples faces when they realize that they are pencil drawings and not black and white photographs.

It’s been around 10 years now since those first sales and I have a pretty big portfolio of work, from those early beetles and buses to the cars I loved as a kid – big noisy American muscle. I even tried my hand at something a little different and drew Led Zeppelin’s Jimmy Page for my brother’s birthday last year!
Aside from selling prints of all of my drawings, I do take commissioned work drawing customers own cars which over these last couple of years has helped me improve my technique and given me the opportunity to try out new materials. Although I do charge more for these original pieces as some can take 30+ hours, It’s still the buzz to this day more than the money when a customer calls or emails after they have recieved their drawing and says ‘Wow!’

I have enclosed a couple of work in progress shots on a drawing I did not so long ago. Although not a commission, this one was just something I saw whilst browsing the internet one day. Being a big muscle car fan, it was one of those pics that just stood out and shouted ‘draw me!’ – great looking car, cool angle.

I could look at 100s of photographs but to want to make me draw it, It has to be an interesting angle – no side on shots! different cars have their own ‘best side’ I find, and this for me works for the Mustang. Once I have a good quality photo of the subject I then go about sketching roughly the outline, wheels etc with a light pencil (H), this can take a while gradually getting more and more exacting until it looks spot on. I have my own method for very tricky bits like highly detailed wheels but a magician never gives away his secrets…

Outline done, my first area I tend to start work on is the furthermost left of a drawing, this may seem natural to most anyway but it also serves the purpose of not leaning over what’s already been drawn – keeping the paper clean and tidy. Working on small sections at a time helps not to rush a drawing which can happen, kind of thinking of it as a patchwork quilt being sewn square by square. The darker areas of the drawing which give it depth are created by using soft pencils, I use up to a 9B for the darkest of shadows. An important part of the drawing process I find is actually not drawing, just sitting back and looking at the piece compared to the photo reference helps a heck of a lot. Unlike cartoon style pieces where you have a good degree of artistic license to run wild, realistic, highly detailed drawings need to look like the real thing so spotting mistakes is important.

With the Mustang drawing, I knew what areas would be difficult to reproduce, mainly around the front grill area and radiator, lots of straight lines together are a pain in the ass to draw and looking at it now I think they could have been better. As it took up most of the A4 sized piece of paper, I didn’t want to detract from it by putting in a detailed background so went for a kind of simple sky/distant mountains look which again I think could have been better but that’s the goal for each new drawing, to be better than the last!

I’ve also included a couple of shots of a commission I did finish this year for a guy in the US, he owns a cool early VW bug and although it took me a very long time to draw, he was totally in awe of the finished piece which even I look back at sometimes and think ’shit, I really drew that?!’

Thanks Alan. There’s more work to see at Alan’s Deviant Art gallery, including some photos he’s done. To contact Alan about a commissioned drawing, it’s best to go to his web site Aciautoart.com.

If you dig his work, be sure to share it with a friend and encourage them to join or at least visit, MyRideisMe.com.

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