New artwork!

[SRD art]

Sounds good and thanks for the compliment!

Only fish I've drawn so far was a 70 Cuda! I think I drew Nemo for my kid once too. ;)

But man, that Cu-pedo would look great as a small cartoon on the side of a car or a sticker in a 1/4 window. Foose did something like that with the Terra Cuda. Sort of like this little guy I'll be putting in the rear lower corner of my wagon's side windows...

[Kenova]

Reminds me of a girl I knew a lifetime ago.

Ken

[SRD art]

Sounds like that was an ideal relationship!

[Kenova]

Sounds like that was an ideal relationship!

She had Jeckle and Hyde mood swings that made PMS look like a joyfull walk on a sunny afternoon.
There isn't a month goes by that I don't thank my lucky stars that I didn't get any closer.
Live an' learn, eh!?

Ken

[SRD art]

Because I'm a fan of long backs as are lots of folks on here are, here are a few...

Did this one as a Street Rod Designs business delivery vehicle.



Took the same car and added a little Polynesian flair with ghosted tribal tattoos.



Ever see a woodie Nova wagon? Me neither, so I put this together.



And for the Ford boys, a 428 Cobra Jet Torino wagon.

[Mr.VENGEANCE]

nice work man!

[SRD art]

Thanks!

[SS PUNISHER]

You sure do some killer work! I'd like to what a good rendering goes for now a days. I have some ideas floating around in my head for each of my vehicles and would like to see them on paper....

[SRD art]

Thanks SS.
I'm surprised more projects don't have renderings done before they really get going. I've done renderings for every car I've owned, that's how I got started doing this- planning my friends' and my own projects and it really helped us see first before we spent all the money on the build.

About what a good rendering goes for these day- Good question. A rendering is usually a bit of an investment and some folks get a little sticker shock when they find out it costs in the neighborhood of $300-$500. A couple things to keep in mind- Most of the guys that are really good at this have attended some sort of college and have spent countless hours getting our skills to where we are. Nobody pops out of the cradle and automatically turns out a nice rendering with a set of crayolas. In rubbing shoulders with other artists it seems pretty average that a rendering usually takes upwards of 20+ hours to do. That often doesn't include the phone calls, emails, research, etc. it takes to communicate and put together something really nice. Compare that to a shop working on your car at $65 or so per hour. Really a rendering is a huge bargain for what you're getting.

On the other side of the fence we artists actually can save you a boat load of money and the embarrassment of a poorly designed car in the end. Spending a few bucks on a nice rendering is a lot better than having to re-do a $10,000 paint job because the colors don't quite work, or those fantastic stripes the client dreamed up actually look a little doofy when seen on the car, or your builder saw something totally different in his mind than what you asked for. Notice most of the well known shops regularly use renderings? They get spared the headache of having to change things several times along the way because the customer doesn't see the vision of (know) what he wants. With a rendering the customer can visually approve the design before the builder ever touches the car. A rendering is literally a road map to successfully get your car from point A to point B. It also fits easier in the living room that the car itself.

I think most of the mainstream guys you see like Hermance, Hickman, Rushforth, myself and others are probably fairly close in costs. The older well known guys like my heroes Taylor and Stanford are more spendy but they have earned the right to be. If I were on your side of the fence I would look at the artist's style and skills, ability of the art to be easily reproduced for future printing, communication between artist and client, and ability of the artist to deliver in a timely manner. If you feel comfortable with all that in a particular artist then pricing is probably not so much an issue.

To be fair to other artists that post here I'm trying to keep my thread a way to share my artwork (and the cars that would be in my garage if I could afford them) without turning it into a pitch for business so I won't post my pricing info here. Feel free to contact me through pms or email at [email protected] though.

Now, how's that for a long answer to a short question? Lol!

Thanks again for the compliment!

[tonykim]

I absolutely love the Opel Kadett Rallye PT concept. I happen to have one of these cars and have contemplated what direction I want to take with it. My car is pretty heavily modified as I bought it. It did a lot of SCCA and other track racing back in the 80s and early 90s and then like lots of cars...got parked when the owner had medical issues and then eventually was sold to me 15 years later. It's not a 10 sec ride by any means but around 200 hp in an 1800 lb car isn't too bad. Still I've considered doing a powertrain swap and I think the Buick 3.8T is too long. The ticket seems to be a Ford SVO or t-bird turbo coupe engine with forged internals, heavily ported head, cam, and about 20 lbs of boost gets you over 450 hp and in a manageable package size. plus a built T-5 works easily and so forth. Here's a pic of my car (with me doing some very rough 16" wheel cut and paste).

My car is lowered 3 inches in front now, has twin 2 barrel webbers, built 2L engine, etc etc...old school setup so I still have to figure out if PT or old school resto is in the cards.

[nowukno]

Very Nice !!!!!

[SRD art]

I absolutely love the Opel Kadett Rallye PT concept. I happen to have one...

Thanks tonykim and nowukno! If I could get my hands on one I'd be hard pressed to not tear into it and make it work, even if the firewall had to be set back. The Ford drive train sounds cool. I've heard that a GN motor is not terribly hard to pull 450 hp and 650+ ft lbs. and it sort of is the same manufacturer as the Opel, at least they were sold by Buick back in the day, so that's why I made that choice. Either way any sort of power in such a small car would be fun to drive. A little power and some fat tires would be just nuts.

[tonykim]

well I am captivated by the turbo GN idea. I just happen to have a good friend a few states away with a 20k original mile '87 GN so I think some good measurements and pictures would be a good start. the opel kadetts had an unusual front suspension setup with a transverse leaf spring and the engine actually mounts to the suspension not directly to the car. with enough cut and paste a lot of stuff will fit. LOL

[SRD art]

Wow! I had no idea about the funky suspension. If I were doing this project I'd just build a new square tube frame, for ease and "smallality" I'd use a Mustang II front with coil overs and a custom maybe 3 link for the rear. Then it'd mostly just be a matter of shaping the firewall around the motor and installing the rear tubs to make the body fit on the frame. My Mini-Vette concept would most likely be the same type of deal.

[astroracer]

Great looking stuff. I need to get some ideas for Bad Ast.

[SRD art]

Been busy with school and work so it's been a while since I posted. This time I thought I'd share some from the lighter side of what I do. Most of these have been done for local club member's cars, we usually display the cartoons when we get club space together at car shows. These are based on hand drawings that I usually color in photoshop, some are vector Illustrator art.

Lots of F-bodies in the club, so here's a few...

Monty's is a mostly stock IROC.

FunkyBird's (Screen name) is a pretty quick one.

"Haggis" is a butcher that had some cool plans for this Camaro, unfortunately it got banged up in an accident shortly after the art. He was o.k. but the car was trashed.

And a limited edition T/A.

[SRD art]

A couple oldies and a couple late models. A 59 Biscayne with burnt orange paint and 17" TT's. IIRC this one is 409 W powered. Nate's 56 is minitubbed and sports an 8-71 topped 540" BBC. It's low stance and primered paint with the injector scoop sticking out makes a pretty mean looking ride. Nate also drove an LS7 powered Caddy. A really nice 'Stang with a low stance and big meats wraps it up.

[SRD art]

Did this one for my vendor booth...

[SRD art]

Back to some more serious art, a couple A bodies-

Did this one for a client at Hill Air Force Base here in Utah, a 72 non SS Chevelle. He wanted something that was near stock looking yet different. We decided to play with the stripe design and came up with this. With the different stripes, shaved emblems, blue and silver high metallic paint colors and the Coy's wheels surrounding some mild suspension upgrades, it should be a nice clean ride when done.



Next is a rendering I just wrapped up for SShep71, here's his thread on the forum- New-project-VOODOO-CHILD It's a 69 GTO with a serious attitude. Notice the spear tipped stripes, dark grey with "blood red" accents, matte black wheels with red accents, and low stance. This will be a really mean looking ride backed by blown Poncho power when done. I'm really looking forward to it all coming together and was really excited to be a part of the design of this one. Go Shep!

[chevyhector]

Hey Ben,

What can you do with this pic? And my Camaro's name is Medusa.

Thanks brother