Gone Fishin’ | Custom Art Feature

The Client:

Bert and his 1970 C10 step side truck.

Bert has become a faithful collector of my artwork over the last couple years. This time, he had an idea for a custom piece of large art that would immortalize the unique and quirky back story of his 1970 C10 truck.  When he sent me a photo of his truck for a drawing reference, I was enamored with the patina paint job and glossy white rims. However, he asked me to take notice of a very odd trailer ball hitch that was poking out of the front bumper. This is where the inspiration for a painting all began.

Bert told me that the original owner was an older gentlemen who enjoyed spending his weekends cruising down to the lake to go fishing with his little boat. As the man got older, he was less and less capable of easily backing up his trailer with his fishing boat down the boat ramp. So, one day, the old man decided, on a whim, to bolt a trailer hitch directly to the front bumper of his truck. This gave him the ability to push his trailer and boat into the lake from the boat ramp, safely driving forward rather than backing up. Pretty ingenious, if you ask me! And the best part is that Bert has embraced this part of the truck to honor this old man’s ingenuity, by only restoring the engine and chassis of the truck to make it more of a daily driver.

The Project:

To illustrate this funny story, Bert had an awesome idea to use a vintage mechanics creeper as a canvas for the custom art. He shopped around eBay, and I shopped around local antique stores until we found just the right retro wood mechanic’s creeper to match the era of the truck.

The Process:

The creeper arrived from an eBay seller on my door step within a few days. Although well packaged, it was covered in dirt and cobwebs. I cleaned up the wood veneer, and after some light sanding, I brushed on a clear coat of paint to seal the entire vintage creeper. I drew the design out on paper. Bert and I worked through a couple different rough draft ideas in pencil before I transferred the final line drawing to the creeper with Saral paper. I painted the entire design with Alpha 6 Corp. enamels and Mack brushes.

 

I’m excited to announce that a detailed step-by-step article on this painting will be published in issue #14 of in the new magazine, Artist The Magazine. This publication is a sister publication of Airbrush the Magazine produced by Don Johnson. The article I’ve written will walk readers through nine detailed steps of how I created this piece. I share how I transfer my designs, how I shade shapes to look 3D with Alpha 6 enamels, and what specific brushes I use in hopes to help you create your own pinstripe illustration art piece. I will announce the release of this new magazine and my step-by step article to my newsletter subscribers first. You can sign up for that here!  You may purchase this magazine and past Airbrush The Magazine issues HERE!

The Final:

My first thought when I heard Bert explain the reasoning behind the trailer hitch on his C10 was how special it was going to be to illustrate the story of a man who didn’t let the obstacles of old age stand in the way of doing what he loved. I admired Bert for not only maintaining/restoring the truck but also for highlighting the original elements such as the paint and hitch. I had so much fun designing this imaginary lake scene around the painted rendering of Bert’s step side c10.

I’m thankful for the creative freedom he granted me. I caught myself smiling while painting the pink fishing worm and the little old man. If you look closely at the pinstriping design that frames the lake scene, you’ll see subtle outline of a fish which is part of the many elements I wanted to incorporate in hopes to tell a story that made the viewer also crack a little smile. With each piece of art, I receive the special honor to create something that will hopefully be passed down through generations to highlight a car or a human story that made a small but important impact on the world.