The Pin up Trucks

"Lucky Ladies"


This series of Pinups were rendered on the side panels of three tow trucks for a trucking company out of San Jose. The owner wanted his fleet of trucks to have the look of bomber planes from WWII. The three trucks were based out in a gray silver and then cleared and cut then sent my way. With the help of Taylor Shultz the trucks were airbrushed with rivets accented with water stains and a little rust for character. This gave the appearance of aircraft paneling.
With some reference material from Al Buell and Gil Elvgren (two of my favorite pinup artists) and the guidelines from the owner that there be a blond, brunette and a redhead, I went to work on painting the pinups. I started out by lightly sketching out the figure on transferite paper and the gently cut out the basic outline of the pinup. I then built up the details in white of the entire image. I then moved into the flesh tones. Starting out with the lightest in tones and working my way to the darkest. I had as many as 10 to 12 different hues in my pallet to build the flesh tones. I used transparent colors so that each successive color would play and build off the last.

After completing the details of the rest of the figure, eyes, lips, hair etc. I back masked the ladies and worked on the dresses. Working in much the same manner I built up the depth of their garb using darker shades then back to light for highlights.

Completed with bombs and titles, these ladies were ready for the road. The images were duplicated to the other side of the truck, a daunting task considering I had to reverse the image. This was a fun and challenging project and I look forward to doing more pinups in the future (nothing like studying the female form).

Batman

"Batman"

Some people really like comic books and some people REALLY like comic books. This client is particularly fond of bat man. So much so that he wanted his entire sport bike themed out in this super hero and his arch nemesis's.

This was a fun one for sure. Comic art can be so under rated, bold lines, abstract perspectives, dramatic lighting all such interesting ways to capture a character.

This bike was based out in black by Taylor Schultz of Shultz Designz. Then handed over to me to layer on whites and grays to build the characters. Then the hole thing was covered with pagan gold kandy and then organic green kandy with an airbrush so as to control the depth of color changes.

Its always good to come a way from a project learning some thing new along with a tutorial on comic style light and shadow I learned of a character I have never heard of before "Harley Quinn". Cute little jester girl. Guess I should read more comics.

Blue Bones

"Blue Bones"

These bones adorn a Harley Davidson V-Rod custom painted with cobalt blue kandy. Over 33 hours of airbrushing went into this set. The bones covered every piece of the bike, fenders, frame, side covers and radiator covers. All the art work was laid out in base white then given depth, detail and shadowing with layers of a custom kandy blue/black. Then a dusting of oriental kandy blue to give a glowing effect.

( a comparison of thenew and old tank cover)

Unfortunately the original Bones V-Rod suffered some damage and the entire paint scheme had to be redone. The owner loved the original paint job so much he wanted it duplicated. This was actually a welcome challenge. As an artist you are always criticizing your work and trying to find ways to improve so this gave me the chance to correct and improve on the original. So another 33 + hours later the new and improved Bones Bike was ready.

Tobias Stucco



Tobias Stucco is an amazing interior wall product developed by a good friend of mine Randy Johnson. Randy started Tobias stucco in his garage and has now grown into a successful company that sales and distributes his interior wall finish stucco all over the States. As Tobias Stucco grew Randy needed a couple of company vehicles for his application crew. Needless to say he needed his company logo adorned across them. He did not want to go with the standard vinyl sign as he felt that the logo of the angelic looking womans face became to granulated and lost its elegance. So Randy asked if I could paint his logos on his fleet for him.

The suburban that Randy uses as his sales vehicle had a factory champagne paint job on it. We needed the logo to "pop" off of the truck so I painted an area of the tailgate and side doors white with a dusting of sno-white pearl for the backdrop. The lettering was stenciled using a spray mask made from a computer, for crisp perfect letters. I then airbrushed the face using rootbeer candy and pagan gold kandy, building the details in glazes. The double pinstripe lines were also from a spray mask to ensure the symmetry.

The vans used by his application team were already factory white so I only had to appply the spray masks and do the airbrushing for those only on a bigger scale. Everything was then clear coated and buffed.

Tobias Stucco appreciated the fact that the logos were hand crafted much in the same way as the product they sell. A sign for the new factory soon followed, crafted all in paint to give that extra touch.

"Warewolf in London"

"Werewolf In London"

This project came to me courtesy of an English ex-patriot now residing here in Sonoma county. He had had his motorcycle custom built and painted by a good friend of his. His friend proved to be a great builder but not as well accomplished painter. The original paint consisted of a dull blue base and a stagnant Union Jack. My "Limey" compatriot wanted to keep the original scheme of the Union Jack but knew that the cool custom was in need of a complementing outer skin.

I started this project by completely striping the old paint off to bare metal. Some of the body work needed to be redone as well to really make the "canvas" perfect for paint. Primed and sealed the bike was ready for its blue base. I chose a really lively and deep blue by Hot Hues to put down the Union Jacks foundation. The pieces were then cleared and cut then taped out for the next two colors, Hot Hues red and base white for the two crosses that complete the flag.

After laying out the rippled flag, complete with shadows and highlights to add dimension, I cleared the pieces again. Now I was ready to start rendering the "lone wolf". I started with the wolfs eyes to establish its character. If I didn't capture the intensity of this carnivorous disposition all of this English lads new American Biker friends would have at him about his cute little puppy on his tank. I worked on the wolfs features with a diluted white and came back over changing out colors several times. I rendered the texture of the fur with multiple layers of dagger strokes. I then tightened the whole piece up with candy black and white highlights.
The Flag was finished with silver pinstripes and the fenders were given a double pinstripe in red and silver to tie the whole project together. The rear fender was also given a red medallion featuring the insignia of this chaps M/C club back home in merry old England.
With the final coat of clear laid down and polished smooth and extra shiny this cool custom finally had the paint it deserved

"Horror Gate"

HORROR GATE

A client approached me to paint his tailgate, though he wasn't exactly sure what he wanted on it. I noticed that he had his arm tattooed with images of characters from the classic horror movies. I asked him about the tattoo and he animatedly begun to explain his obsession for the "classic" horror movie monsters. Needless to say it was clear what we should put on his tailgate. The tailgate was prepped and given a black base by Taylor Shultz of Shultz Pinstripe and Paint, to provide a backdrop for the characters . I gathered some reference material and got to work.
I quickly sketched out some reference points in chalk and started to airbrush in white developing the shapes and textures of the faces. I transitioned into several shades of gray, one darker then the next and built up the lights and shadows. I tightened everything up with a custom mix of candy black and base black and then highlighted again with a couple shades of white.



After about sixteen hours of airbrush work the tailgate was ready to be cleared. Once again Taylor Shultz was called into put on the clear and some pin stripping to frame the monsters in. Then the clear was cut and polished.


Complete with Frankenstein and his Bride, Dracula and his victim, the Mummy and his latest victim (not pictured) and some great pinstripes the tailgate was ready to be shown off on the streets of Sonoma county.