Category: Automotive Artwork

Dandy’s Drive-In T-Shirt Design

Dandy’s Drive-In in Bend, Oregon needed some t-shirts for their business and contacted me about a design they had in mind.

Dandy’s has been around since 1968 and their logo includes a certain styled lettering along with a skater-girl. They wanted to add additional elements for the shirt design like a Camaro along with a few adjustments to the skater-girl.

The adjustments they wanted to see to the skater-girl included adding pushed up long sleeves, change the shorts to jean shorts and add more detail to the skates.

When making adjustments like this sometimes I draw directly on screen and in other cases I sketch on paper first. In this case I sketched on paper first and then later scanned the sketch, redrawing it all in illustrator.

Originally designed for black ink on white and/or light colored apparel they also needed a version for black shirts. There are times in which the same artwork can be used but with this design a version for black shirts needed to be created.

This project went as smooth as any project can go! Dandy’s was great to work with, they knew what they wanted and gave me excellent instructions.

Here is a photo of the two of the girls who work at Dandy’s Drive-In wearing the new shirts.

Illuminati Motor Works Concept Car – Seven

illuminati-concept-art

This is artwork of the concept car “Seven” from Illuminati Motor Works.

Illuminati is one of 42 teams left competing for $5 million in the Progressive Automobile X Prize.

The rules for the Progressive Automobile X Prize is that the cars must seat four, have four wheels and have a minimum range of 200 miles. They also have to get the equivalent of 100 miles to the gallon plus be feasible as a consumer product.

The Illuminati Motor Works team members are:
Kevin Smith: Team Leader and Principle Engineer,
Josh Spradlin: Graphic Designer/ Fabricator,
Thomas Pasko: Master Automotive Technician,
George Kennedy: Mechanical Engineer
Nathan Knappenburger: Computer Science and Electronics Engineer.

I have been working with Josh, their graphic designer/fabricator, on creating artwork for the project. Josh does a great job at designing. What I have been doing is taking Josh’s sketches and redrawing them using illustrator.

original-line-work

What makes this project a challenge is that the vehicle is so different from anything we currently see on the road. It not like they can say, “Take an existing model and add this or change that”. So when working on a project like this it is great to have someone like Josh who can direct me on what the final car will look like with his sketches.

Below are links to recent articles about them in The State Journal-Register and the Illinois Times.

The State Journal-Register | Springfield, IL
Local guys driven to win $5M car competition – Illinois Times

X PRIZE team passes the test – Illuminati Motor Works is one of 43 left in international competition

Find out more about Illuminati Motor Works at illuminatimotorworks.org. You can also friend/follow them on Twitter, Facebook and YouTube.

Hot Rod Halloween Shirt Designs

These Hot Rod Halloween shirt designs are from the stencils I designed and posted about earlier. While drawing the pumpkins stencils I got the idea that these would also look great on t-shirts.

model-skully

model-marti

model-frankie

For those of you who are interested, I got the shirt mockup templates from an article called “Huge Collection of T-Shirt Design Mockup Templates”.

Hot Rod Pumpkin Stencils

Hot Rod Halloween

2026 Update: A lot of families discover these hot rod pumpkin stencils while searching for Hot Wheels-style pumpkin designs. These aren’t official Hot Wheels templates, but they’re perfect for kids, gearheads, and anyone who loves car-themed pumpkins. If you want even more automotive Halloween art, check out my full collection of pumpkin-themed designs and other Halloween art in the shop — they’re all grouped together for easy browsing.

These are some kid-friendly Hot Rod Pumpkin stencils I came up with for Halloween.

stencil-sketches

I started sketching these one day while sitting in my car having lunch. Later I scanned them into Illustrator and redrew each in vector line art. In some cases I would draw the flame section only on one side and then copy/flip it to create the other side.

stencil-templates

I haven’t had the chance to do one, but I did mock them up in Photoshop to help give you an idea of what they would look like.

You are welcome to give these pumpkin stencils a try. To print, just click on the pumpkin image or the link below each. This will open up another browser window where you can print it from your browser. Use your printer’s preferences to reduce or enlarge to get the maximum print size to fit your page.

If you complete one, please send me a image and/or video of how it turned out.

Hot Rod Pumpkin Stencil - Drak

Click and Print Hot Rod Pumpkin Stencil – “Drak”

Hot Rod Pumpkin Stencil - Frankie

Click and Print Hot Rod Pumpkin Stencil – “Frankie”

Hot Rod Pumpkin Stencil - Marti

Click and Print Hot Rod Pumpkin Stencil – “Marti”

Hot Rod Pumpkin Stencil - Skully

Click and Print Hot Rod Pumpkin Stencil – “Skully”

Be sure to check out my other post about my pumpkin artwork collection.

Vintage Dragster Artwork

This is my latest artwork titled “Vintage Dragster“.

vintage-dragster-artwork

As far as doing artwork this one rates up there as one of the most challenging ones I have done.

vintage-dragster-engine

What made this one different from the other illustrations was drawing in the details like the spoke wheels, the rail frame, and the exposed engine.

dragster-wheel-line-art

This dragster is owned by John Spradlin. John is no relation, but he does have the same name as my brother. John and I have been emailing back and forth for some time now. Sometimes I would get an email from him about his dragster and at first I would think, “When did my brother get a dragster?” then I would remember it’s from the other John.

Prints of are available in 16×24 size.

vintage-dragster-front-wheel

Below is detail information John sent me about his dragster.

1967 Speed Products Engineering (SPE) chassis by Roy Fjastad. Chevy 355C.I. 4-bolt block, Forged Steel Crank, Engle roller cam, Isky roller lifters & 1.6 ratio rockers, Track 1 aluminum heads (2.080 Int valves & 1.6 Exh valves), M/T aluminum rods, Forged pistons (moly zero gap rings), ‘mini’ starter, Milodon oil pan. PowerGlide trans W/1.76 ratio, Trans Brake, 5000 stall convertor, “Bandit” shifter, Mopar 83/4″ rear axle W/Olds axle ends, 4:10 ratio “PRO” gears, Wilwood disc brakes – .310″ thick discs. Steering box is a P-S, Butterfly steering wheel was a gift from a long time racing friend. Rear wheels are American Racing 5-spoke “Magnesium” 8.5″ width 10.5x30x15″ GoodYear slicks, Front wheels are 17″ dia M/C wire spokes W/2.25×17″ Michelin tires. Body by Tom Hanna. Seat by Tony Nancy.

Thanks, John!!!!