Dyna Wide Glide: back end Modification

Due to a request from my client, I've brought down the back end of the bike and dropped the fender over the back tire about 3 inches (based on the amount of space between the tire and the fender.) So now the fender is just barely hovering over the back tire. The modification is pretty subtle but you can see the difference best if you're looking at the left rear blinker and the chain. This gives the back end a little bit more of a tapering aero-dynamic feeling rather than being so high off of the ground.

Dyna Wide Glide - Process update!

Just wanted to share where I am with the Dyna pin up. Haven't exactly gotten the go-ahead from the t-shirt printer, they seem to be stuck with color separation on the taillights of Easy Glider, which features a Harley Road Glide. They're telling me that there are too many different types of red inside the taillight and they can't print it properly, or something. I don't know, sounds kind of bogus to me, if they can print pictures onto a t-shirt from some crappy stand inside of a mall, why can't these guys figure out how to do it, as well? Either way, I'm getting back in gear and just going to work on this piece until it's finished. Then we can work out the problems later on.

With this piece I'm finding out the kick-ass foot gear is essential for female riders and a good picture. So I did some research and came up with some sweet looking boots for our sexy Dyna girl to be wearing. I also threw in some fingerless gloves to match and get an all-around bad ass feel to the whole thing. I was also asked to remove the left mirror, since that's what's planned for the actual bike that's being used in the painting. If you look at the last process shot and compare, you'll notice the difference.

Duck The Zipper - New Sketches!

I've been having some fun doing more thumbnails and half-assed sketches of this character. I haven't quite figured out his story, yet. I'm sort of thinking he's kind of this gear-head superhero who's a mechanic during the day and a vigilante at night. Kind of an amalgam of Ghost Rider, Punisher, Batman, the Crow, Spawn and probably some other of my favorite heroes. I guess I should probably talk to DJ N'YABASS about the ideas for a story. I'm listening to Duck the Zipper, right now. You can find the whole album on Soundcloud.com
N'YABASS - Duck The Zipper
N'YABASS described the album as the emotions inside the head of Duck the Zipper. There's definitely a bit of narration in the album from start to finish. It all wraps up with some sad love-songy kind of longing for a girl, so next I'm going to try to maybe throw in a female character and see how that evolves.

Duck The Zipper - aka Merganser aka Morgue the Zipper

So I've been fiddling around all day with this Duck idea, and I've come up with some strange and interesting solutions that have very little to do with the DJ's initial idea. I just kind of let myself go in any old direction that my pencil felt like and this is where I ended up. The first series was what you might expect to see, an anthropomorphic duck creature thrown into a zoot suit for good measure. But as I started doing my thumbnails and getting some action out of the bird, I began thinking to myself, "What if the bird is a symbol, Like BATMAN! So instead of being a bird, the character just has bird-like equipment and he's actually more of a Kick-ass superhero type of character. So what kind of equipment would make him cool, birdlike, and stealthy? How about a wicked looking bird helmet! I know, right? that's what I said. Freakin Sweet! So I sketched it out and then decided to do a full body character study and colored it up a bit in photoshop. These probably aren't sketches that will stick around for the final draft, but process is as process does and I just wanted to show you all what kind of fun you can have with a pencil.

Drifter update #4!

So I've been working like crazy trying to get this piece ready for the show on Friday. Which means that it needs to be printed, framed, and at the The Great Frame Up before tomorrow night! OUCH! That's a tight deadline. But I decided that the front end of the motorcycle was looking a little sad and needed some beefier forks and such. The tires were looking a little wonky, too, so I've fixed those. Really just tightening things down, now, and getting the drawing really solid before I start really rendering everything in great detail. We'll all just cross our fingers and hope that I can get this thing polished up in time. If there's anything I'm missing that looks a little weird, I'm totally open to critique, right now. Thanks!

High Plains Drifter - Process update 2

I'm playing around a little with different hats. I tried a straw cowgirl hat and didn't like it, so in sticking with the Man with No Name theme, I gave her an Eastwood hat. Not sure if I like it brown, but I'm going with it, for now. I haven't tucked all of her hair in, yet, because I might get rid of the hat completely in the future. So here's a little bit more rendering on the skin and face, haven't gotten too much into the bike yet, but I'll get there soon enough. I'm just glad that my Kawasaki Drifter 1500 doesn't have too much chrome. The American Ironhorse Chopper took a long-ass time because of having to render all of that chrome. I recently found out that my buddy Eric has an 800 Drifter, so now I'm getting ideas of doing a piece with two girls and two Drifters.

Pinc Tacos - Board Bunny #1 Final

I just now realized that I hadn't posted the final draft of the Snowboarder. Pinc Tacos told me that there was something that they didn't like about her face, originally, so I had to go back and redo everything from the neck up.

"Board Bunny #1"
5" x 12" x 300ppi Digital Painting
Adobe Photoshop CS4 w/ Wacom Intuos 3 tablet

Pinc Tacos - Spray the White Poster!

I've finished the ski bunny. So I wanted to share the image that we all agreed upon. we had some issues with the font, initially, but we came to a satisfying compromise.
Christopher Manzanares
"Spray the White"
9"x12"x300ppi Digital Painting
Adobe Photoshop w/ Wacom Intuos 3 Tablet

Skier Update!

Just wanted to post this quick update on the Pinc Tacos skier. A friend of mine from RMCAD suggested that I try doing a high-key pinup, so that the flesh doesn't look so "Hard." I'm not sure if I've quite achieved it, yet, but it's certainly starting to pop.

Pinc Tacos - One HOT Burnout! Final (maybe)

Ok, after blood, sweat, tears, and probably the loss of 8 or so pounds, I believe that I'm finished with "One Hot Burnout!" Everything's been polished, contoured, and Turned on, I think I'm ready to stamp my final seal on this one. Of course it's all up to the clients to tell me if there's anything else that they want to see, but I'm guessing that this one's good to go!

Pinc Tacos - One Hot Burnout Update

Just had to post a quick update on the Burnout piece. I've been given the go-ahead for this version, so I thought I'd share the process shot before I start cleaning it up a little bit more.

Spray the White - Pinc Tacos Snowboarder #1

Here's the final of the Snowboarder.


Digital Painting 5x11x300ppi
Adobe Photoshop CS4
Wacom Intuos 3 Tablet

Pinc Tacos - Spray the White

Here's The next Pinc Tacos Project that I'm working on. the theme of it is a series of sexy skiers and snowboarders to market up at the resort town novelty shops. The phrase that we're going with is, "It just feels right to spray the white!" Here's the first snowboarder that I've started to develope. Not finished yet, but I thought I'd share a process shot. Done in Photoshop CS4 w/ Wacom Intuos 3 tablet.

One Hot Burnout Update - Pinc Tacos Pinup #3

You saw the bike, now I've added the babes. I'll continue to refine everything, but here they are, for now.

One Hot Burnout - Pinc Tacos update

Here's the bike I'm working on, for the next pin up. I'm getting a photoshoot together, for this pose, but it's been very difficult to coordinate 3 girls, one bike, and the weather all on one day. I'm really getting ready to tear some hair out of my head, at this point.

When you hit a wall; SGI Daily Encouragement

This is Soka Gakkai President Daisaku Ikeda's Daily encouragement for October 8th:
"When you encounter a wall, you should tell yourself, 'since there is a wall here, a wide, open expanse must lie on the other side.' Rather than becoming discouraged, know that encountering a wall is proof of the progress that you have made so far. I hope that you will continually advance in your Buddhist practice with this conviction blazing ever more strongly in your heart."

This encouragement really made my mind rest a little bit easier now that I've come to my own wall, where it feels like I've come to an abrupt halt after a long string of success. I know that I can look back at what I've done, and realize that there's something more grand waiting just ahead of me and to not give up with what I'm doing. I hope that this is just as helpful for anyone else who reads this.

One Hot Burnout!

Here's just a quick snapshot of the next pin up that I'm working on for Pinc Tacos. We decided that redheads always rock, but we needed some other hair color diversity in the mix. This is the approved sketch that I sent to the client.