Here is a quick update on that dragster artwork that I posted about earlier. Overall most of the line art and coloring is done, now I’m just working on a few minor tweaks.
Blog
The Big Wheel All Grown Up
I remember the Big Wheel coming out when I was growing up. I never had one but always thought they were cool.
Now check out the SS Trike. Its like the grown up version of the Big Wheel, but with a V-twin engine and a 24 inch front wheel.
Oh yeah!!!
Better JPEG Optimization
If you are like me and use Photoshop to save images for your website, then you have seen Photoshop’s jpeg quality settings.
The basic idea with these setting is that the higher the setting, the better the image quality and the lower the setting the lower the quality. Along with the image quality is the file size. The higher the setting also means a larger file size and lower the setting means a smaller file size.
The balance is to have the best image quality with the lowest possible file size.
So a common practice, and one I have used over the years, was to go with a middle-of-the-road setting of 50. That way you got good image quality without having a file that was large and made your site load slow.
I recently came across this great article from Sergey Chikuyonok that I wanted to share called “Clever JPEG Optimization Techniques“.
The thing that stood out for me in this article was when Sergey wrote that when you save an image in Photoshop under 50, it uses an additional optimization algorithm, so if you are saving an image that has small, high-contrast details it is better to set the quality setting to at least 51.
In the article, there are some images to show you the difference between that 50 and 51 quality setting. You will be surprised at the difference.
1962 Thunderbird Tail Light Artwork Added
The 1962 Thunderbird Tail Light artwork has now been added to my art gallery. Prints are available in 11×14 and 18×24 sizes.
Free Poster Winner for June 2009
The winner of the free poster giveaway for June 2009 comes from Karachi, Pakistan. The artwork they picked to win is the 1969 Camaro Pace Car.
Win some Horsepower to put on your walls! I give away a free 11 x 14 poster every month, so enter my free poster giveaway today!!
Track-T Hot Wheels
I am just getting around to posting pictures of these cool Track-T Hot Wheels I got a while back. It was great finding three different color versions, with flames, of the same car in one store.
The Get Well Greg Experience
I was reading on AutomotiveArtists.com’s forum, a post by Lemorris called “The Get Well Greg Experience”.
The “Get Well Experience” is about Greg Tedder. Greg is a artist who’s work in the automotive industry is legendary. I have always been impressed with all the reflections he puts into his artwork.
As it turns out, Greg has been in the hospital going through some not so fun surgeries. To help cheer Greg up while he goes through his hospital stay, artists have been asked to come up with drawings showing Greg’s car, known as “Frogger”.
The idea is to draw his car in any style you wish and it’s not about who can draw his car the best but about the automotive community coming together to show support for Greg during this time.
I chose to draw Greg and his car “Frogger” in the cartoon monster style.
I first looked at the reference images posted in the forum.
I chose the side view to do and using Photoshop, I shorten the car some and made the back wheels of his car look like they were burning rubber.
After getting the car shaped the way I wanted, I brought the image into illustrator and started drawing it in vector line art.
Once the car was finished I then needed to sketch out Greg as a cartoon monster. I printed the car artwork out on an ink-jet printer and then using a pencil I started sketching.
I looked at the images posted and then found another image of him on a site wearing a white hat. Greg has certain distinguishing features like glasses and a beard that help when drawing in this style. I used a digital camera to get the sketch back into the computer so I could start drawing over it with Illustrator.
Everything came together quickly at this point. I used layers in Illustrator to move certain elements around such as putting his arm is on a different layer so that I could draw the shadow of his arm on top of the car.
At the last minute I decided to add a drop shadow behind the whole design to help give it a “decal” type of look. All-in-all I like how the final art turned out and I hope Greg does too! Get well Greg!!!!
The Munster Koach and the Drag-u-la
The Munster Koach and the Drag-u-la were created by George Barris for the TV show called The Munsters.
Both of these custom cars can be seen together in the episode titled “Hot Rod Herman”. “Hot Rod Herman” is one of my favorite “Munsters” episodes, below is a clip.
The engine for the Koach was a 300-horsepower 289 Ford Cobra V-8 and the Drag-u-la has a 289 with 350-horsepower.
Free Poster Winner for May 2009
The May contest winner comes from Humble, Tx. They chose to win the “1970 Chevelle SS” artwork.
Enter today for your chance to win some horsepower for your walls!
New artwork in progress – Dragster
This is a sample of the new artwork that I am working on. It is still in the line art stage. I have about half of the line art done. I will post more as it comes together.