A Couple More Illustrations for You!

'62 Fairlane Illustration

Getting some interest in my illustration of Mator, so I thought it best I practice some more, and I illustrated the '62 Fairlane I use to own. This one had a little bit more details in different areas which made it a little bit more fun to build. All in all I think it turned out pretty well, and don't worry, I won't be illustrating my Subaru any time soon.

I was also undecided if I should add some sort of a backdrop to the image, and after playing around for a bit I decided that I wanted the car to stand on its own, so here you go.

New Mator Illustration, and Update

It was a pretty big weekend for my shop truck, Mator, I actually have the cab mounted to the frame, it is so exciting to take this step, it's proof the project is really moving forward. Rob came down and helped me with some welding. We welded the motor mount perches to the frame so that we can mount the engine and transmission. I also did a little bit more cutting on the firewall and then painted it. A very good weekend of progress though.


Additionally I have spent that last week working on this new illustration of Mator. It's my end goal, at least that is where I'm hoping to go with it. I'm pretty pleased with how it turned out, and it may has already lead to a new freelance job. Keep your fingers crossed.

Mator Update!

Oh boy, what fun we're having now. With the Camaro clip in and the holidays past, we've got the motor placed and aligned in the frame and will be welding in the new motor mounts to the frame this weekend, and what comes next is something I can hardly believe. I'll be mounting the cab to the frame! Wow, I've had the cab mounts since I got the truck, close to two years ago, and will now actually use them. Plus with the cab being mounted to the frame, it seems like things will finally move forward. I'll attach the doors and we'll line up the front fenders and hood so that we can fabricate the mounts for the radiator support. Once that is in, it's mostly hooking the necessities of the truck up to get her driving. Brakes, steering, electrical... Now we're moving!

Johnny Robot - Episode 4 - Henry Robot

Happy New Years all! Had a great weekend down in San Diego with my wife and kids with my sister-in-laws. We spent time celebrating the new year, time at the beach and eating some fine food and beers. On New Years Day me and my brother-in-law decided to go across the bay to a new car show they had running at the convention center. It was a pretty good show, had all of the new cars you wanted to look at. Would’ve been nice if they had more concept cars, but it’s not like the San Diego Car Show is one of the big ones in the nation.

As we are making our way through the show however, we come across a booth that has a quite a few old classic cars, plus some automotive related sculptures, well once piece that particularly caught my eye was a robot sculpture made from old Ford truck parts and other various pieces of metal standing approximately 24” tall. After taking a quick photo, I start to examine it more closely, even reaching out to touch a piece of it as I couldn’t tell the material. Well as soon as my hand touches it, the little guy comes to life and swats my hand telling me, “can’t you read, ‘don’t touch the artwork’!”

I jump back pulling my hand back as fast as I can, “wow, you’re alive.” He tells me, of course he’s alive. I tell him I thought he was just a sculpture, and he tells me that’s no reason to touch him, after all, the sign does say not to touch anything. I apologise to him and tell him that I think he’s a great looking robot and ask if he has a name. “Henry” he says, which really makes sense, since he is made from old Ford parts. So I ask him if he has an owner and what his purpose is, and he tells me the owner of these cars owns him, and he is a mechanic and keeps the cars running in tip-top shape as well as keeping the cars showroom clean. I tell him I think that’s great, and that I use to have a robot to, but I haven’t seen him in many years.

Henry then asks me about his robot, that he has met a few robots over the years through various robot groups and run-in’s. I tell him, “I dunno, last time I saw Johnny Robot was in 1975, and he had a way of finding trouble so I don’t think he’s running any longer.” Henry looks at me and says, “Johnny Robot?” So I tell him yep, that was his name and then I give him a brief history of the robot I built when I was seven.

Henry looks at me and says, “yeah, I think I know that robot, I think I met him several years ago, and you’re right, he is trouble.” “Really?” I say, and I ask him to tell me what he knows. So the as Henry tells me, this is how the story goes.

In 2006, Henry and his maker were in Los Angeles prepping cars for the Los Angeles Car Show. Well they had several cars parked in an alley behind the convention center doing final touch up waiting for the go ahead to pull their cars into the center. Henry is just minding his own business, when he sees a man, who looks like a common criminal come running into the alley and he has a purse in one hand. Well right behind him comes this robot chasing the man, and the thing he that really made him stand out, was that instead of two arms, one arm is an old revolver.

“That’s him, that’s Johnny Robot!” I spurt out in excitement.

Henry continues, Well, Johnny Robot starts shooting that gun of his, and apparently it just shoots yellow rubber bullets now, and Johnny Robot starts firing at the bad guy while calling for him to stop running and turn himself in. The criminal doesn’t listen, he just keeps running, but he is now being fired at with these rubber bullets, but since they are rubber, though I’m sure the stung, they bounce off of the criminal. As the criminal passes by the cars that Henry is prepping, the rubber bullets start bouncing off of the criminal and hitting his fine automobiles, leaving marks on the paint.

Henry can’t have this, they’re about to show these cars, so he sticks his leg out and trips Johnny Robot as he is running by and the criminal continues on around the corner and out of sight. Johnny Robot get’s up and looks at Henry, and asks, “What were you thinking? I almost had him” Henry Robot then tells Johnny Robot that he was damaging his cars, pointing at the marks on the car next to him, and that Johnny Robot needs to fix this, the show is about to start.

Johnny Robot doesn’t like this, he then points his magnum at Henry Robot and fires a couple of rounds, leaving yellow marks across his domed head. “What are you doing?” Henry Robot asks, then knocking Johnny Over with his wrench arms, “Am I going to have to disassemble you?” putting one of his wrenches on Johnny’s magnum. Quickly Johnny uses his projector eye and starts showing a home movie from the early 70’s of kids playing in a sprinkler in their front yard. Henry watches the movie, not sure what to make of it, but at the same time unable to take his eyes off of the movie.

As Henry Robot stares at the movie, Johnny Robot fires a few more rounds of yellow rubber bullets at Henry Robot, knocking him down and Johnny Robot takes off running down the alley, the way the criminal had run. Henry Robot stands up and watches Johnny Robot run away just shaking his head.

I stand there, listening to his story in utter disbelief. Johnny Robot is still alive and living in LA. I then ask Henry Robot if he’s seem him since and Henry Robot tells me “no, that was it” and I stand there wearing a smile on my face knowing that Johnny Robot is still around, and apparently he uses my family home videos to mesmerize people, wow, this is all just so cool and funny.

Back to reality, my brother-in-law wants to move on, so I give Henry Robot my home address and ask him, that if he were to meet up with Johnny Robot again, that if he could tell him about me, maybe Johnny Robot could come visit me. Henry Robot took the information and promised that he would and I left Henry Robot to his car show.

On a final note, as I told the girls this story, I can not convey the excitement they have over the possibility they have over the thought that they may get to meet Johnny Robot one day. Who knows, maybe...

Simple Ice Hockey Background Tutorial

I needed to back a back drop of an ice hockey surface in Illustrator, and after doing a quick google search not coming up with anything, I decided I’d try it myself. I think it came up convincing enough to throw out this tutorial.

1. Starting with a new document (I’m working on a 4” x 4” document) I change my fill to 10% cyan and apply “none” to stroke. Then I first create a box using the rectangle tool, creating it the same 4” x 4” size as my document.



2. Deselecting the box I just created I then apply white to my fill. Now select the mesh tool and randomly click on your blue feel to add the high-lights to your ice surface.



3. Then switch your while fill with the stroke so that fill is now “none” and stroke is white, and randomly draw lines across your document. To add a little bit more realism to the surface I also used my pen tool and draw a couple of arches as an actual ice surface would have.



There you go, lock your layer and build whatever you need on top of it. Enjoy!

Johnny Robot - Episode 2 - Downward to China

So I’m out back playing with my hot wheels. I have some two by fours laid out on the ground, and I build little ramps out of dirt to get my cars up onto these freeways. Well no point in have a freeway unless I can have a bridge, so I start to dig a hole in the ground so that I can lay one of the two by fours across so that I can have a bridge for my cars. Well being a boy of seven I decided my time might be better spent digging a hole to China, you know to see what is going on down there. So I’m digging and digging and I just keep on digging. Well not far down is a water pipe, but it’s the olden days so it’s made out of metal so I don’t hurt it, I just have to dig around it, which I do. So I’m digging and digging and digging. The pipe is in the way, but it’s no bother, I’m young and dumb.

Well I’m getting tired and have a feeling I’m never going to make it to China, so instead I decide that since there is a embankment behind our house, that I will dig down so far, then out to the embankment so that I can have a fort/cave to call my own. So I’m digging and digging, and the hole is getting kind of deep now, and that water pipe, it’s still there and it’s still in the way. Well to really dig now I have to get down in the hole and dig and dig. So after some time I really start to make progress, enough so that the water pipe is now above my head, but that’s alright, because I’m going to have the coolest fort/cave in the world.

Well I hear my mom calling, it’s lunch time or something, but I can’t get out. I can reach the ground, but the pipe for some reason is impeding my way out, I can’t get out, so I start yelling... “Mooooooom!” So she comes running and so do all of my brothers and sisters, and they’re all looking down at me. So I frantically tell my mom I’m stuck, I can’t get out because of the stupid water pipe and Jim, my oldest brother, is laughing, he thinks this is sooo funny. So My mom tells Jim to lift me out of there, so he reaches down and grabs my hands and tries to pull me up, but that water pipe is still in the way, there’s just no way out, I’m just not fitting now.

Jim then tells me, I’m gonna have to wait til dad gets home (laughing the whole time) and then he’ll get you out, and you’ll be in trouble! My mom tells Jim to quiet down and says it’ll be ok and asks where’s Johnny Robot, maybe he can help. So I tell her he’s around, just call for him. So my mom calls out for Johnny Robot and he comes running up... “Beep, boop, beep, yes mom? beep” So my mom tells Johnny Robot that I’m stuck in the hole because the water pipe is in the way, so without spending a moment to think, Johnny Robot flips his .357 magnum gun down and aims it at the water pipe and fires. BANG! hitting one side of the pipe which then bursts and water starts spraying all over, just showering me with water, and filling up the hole. Well I start to scream because I think I’m going to drown, “Get me out of here!” and Jim tries to pull me up again, but the pipe is still in the way.

With the water up to my knees, Johnny Robot fires again, and off drops the pipe, hits me in the head, cutting me. I’m screaming some more but with the pipe clear, Jim quickly pulls me out as the hole continues to fill with water.

Well we obviously turned off the water, my dad repaired the pipe when he got home, I was grounded for a week and Johnny Robot saved the day. And you know, if the weather is just right, you can still see that scar on my forehead.