Personal Car Art

[Zeke]

I've built plenty of customized cars. Most were bolt on stuff but as you know, I've dabbled in fiberglass starting with VW flairs in '68. I've got slides and Polaroids and a few prints of everything. I always wanted to hire a sketch artist to draw all my cars in the view I thought was best. I may not actually have that exact shot, but with what I have a competent artist could do justice.

Thing is, I never found that person and if I did I likely could not have afforded the drawings. They should be color, too.

So over the years I've seen CAD programs that rotate and indeed walk you through a prospective new build on the inside. I'm sure auto stylists have been doing this for a couple decades but I can hardly do Sketch Up, much less compound curves in CAD.

With the AI now writing about whatever you want, I see that there are programs that will draw, possibly from uploads of images. So, I want a simple gallery of my cars, all the same frames, format, etc. From a Heinz 57 of images that I have and ones I can clip. Of course I'd like to have a little texture like they were done in pencil, or water color at the least. I don't want photo look alikes.

Recommendations? Anyone do this? Can you show me an AI 'painting'?

Google wasn't much help.

[rfuerst911sc]

Milt I would love to see some renderings of your car with " those bumpers " . To this day I have a little bit of guilt selling my SC with those bumpers . They should have gone to a museum . Sorry to side track your post . I hope you find someone to help you out .

[Zeke]

An Olds Super 88 with less chrome than the 98. Mine was Garnett Red (a deep candy red) with a black top, zip in window like a Targa, Buick Riviera Rims (wider) with raised letter and painted black wall Firestones. Red interior so the theme was all 2 colors.

This is the best angle for these cars:



This was my 5th or 6th car. I didn't have those rims, something simple and racy. I'll have to do some thinking. I was not a fan of red line tires.



I'm getting to around 8 with this. It was white though.



This was my first car. I had black steelies and BW tires. I should have left it alone.



My 3rd car before it was finished:



Yes, those are Halibrands.

[Zeke]

Can't forget the Ragamuffin. IDK what number this would be. Over 30.



One thing a rendering would do is fix the camera lens error. The bumpers did not droop.

[Zeke]

Here's another. It's still here. This was 20 years ago. SBC under the hood.



I had this but bad luck was its name:



Lotsa pics must be in another computer.

[pavulon]

Originally Posted by Zeke

This was my first car. I had black steelies and BW tires. I should have left it alone.

I think the (subtle) restomod movement was born of this sentiment and is a big reason for it working well.

[Zeke]

Originally Posted by pavulon

I think the (subtle) restomod movement was born of this sentiment and is a big reason for it working well.

Well, I doubt that. I owned the car in 1963.

I'm surprised that no one has any insight on this. Maybe if I wait another year it will be easy to accomplish.

Another car, or truck (I've had a Chevy truck of one sort or another continuously since 1965). This is not it. Mine was lowered (like this one, but level), had Penske style flush faced 5-hole Indy car rims and ground effect skirts down the sides. The front dam was extended down using a 2nd dam upside down under the stock one. The back end had no bumper, just a rolled valance with louvers. Mirrors were replaced with aero mini's. The white and red theme on this truck is correct. No badges.

[blucille]

I'm not completely sure this is what you are asking, but I'm a fan of pinstripe chris on insta, his website is here

https://www.artofchrisdunlop.com

[Zeke]

@blucille, that is beautiful and $1400! IDT my cars pics are worth anything to anyone but me. I'd just like to have simple gallery before I die. I'd probably end up with 10 of my best.

I had hoped that AI could generate likenesses given some uploads to go on. This is not one of them but I used it to run all over CA in my mid 20's. It DID NOT look this good.



We were doing donuts in a dirt field and peeled the right side tires off the rim seats. Drove it out of there on flat tires before the cops came. Junked it right after that.

You got a day? I've got car stories. OH, and motorcycles too. Lots of midnight MC stories. That's when the streets were empty in the 70's. Doing wheelies up and down PCH in LB from light to light. Now, you'd wonder why I'd even stop at a light back then. But I did.

I was on the Ventura Freeway one day and a guy with a side car on his bike went flying by with the SC tire 3 feet off the ground leaning nearly 45º. He continued like that until he disappeared in traffic.

I saw this car in person on Sunset Blvd near Brentwood. I'm dead serious. He gave me a poster just like this that I still have. It's B&W though.

[OK-944]

...looks like Oscar Meyer got a little off track with their first interpretation!

[Zeke]

It's on a TR-3 chassis. It was photo'd for a Steppenwolf album, IIRC. There's quite a bit about it on the net if you grab the code from the image and go down the rabbit hole. It's real. The creator was one Steven Paige.

BTW, I posted a pic of this in 2010 on PPOT and it was removed. Let's see what happens this time. I mean for chrissake look at Michelangelo statues. It's art, not porn.

[fred cook]

Try Dan McCrary in North Carolina. I had him do a pen and ink color rendering of two Alfa Romeos years ago. I ran across his website recently and swapped a couple of emails for old times sake. He does great work, but I don't know what his price level is these days. Good luck!

[fred cook]

Here is a photo of the rendering he did for me way back in 1978 or 79.

[Zeke]

^ Fantastic. I won't be able to pay for that kind of talent. Has to be AI.

[Bob Kontak]

He's good. Wow.

https://www.dmccraryart.com/originals

[fred cook]

Originally Posted by fred cook

Here is a photo of the rendering he did for me way back in 1978 or 79.

When the Alfa drawing was done (45 yrs ago) it was the first time he put two different cars on one sheet. He was just getting started in the art business and I think he charged me the princely sum of $75 for it! My wife had it framed for a birthday present and the framing cost more than the drawing! The cars are two of the Pocher 1/8 scale models with thousands of parts! It took me about 1 1/2 years to build the two models. Each wire wheel has about 150 parts! The kits normally sold for about $3-$4oo each but I found these at a Kmart for about $25-$30 each!

[unclebilly]

George Trosley would be my first choice…

https://georgetrosley.com/home

[Zeke]

Unclebilly, that's neat but Rat Fink influenced. There is a place for comic car art, but not my goal.

As I've repeatedly said, I can't afford the actual talent these guys (gals) have and they need to be paid well for the hours it takes.

I did do a pencil sketch of the '89 truck and it looks OK, but I don't have the ability to do what I want. Full color, highlights, shadows, the works. But not looking for comic art.

I have a poster similar to this on the wall. It's a direct side view but the photography is excellent as is this if not better. Not my car. I'd never expect to have anything quite that nice, but frameable, yes.

[rfuerst911sc]

Milt I have to think there are car shows and craft shows near you . Around here there usually is a sketch artist or a few setup displaying their work . Might be a way to meet and chat to see if they can produce the vision you have .

[911 Rod]

A graphic artist that worked for me drew this from a picture on his laptop.