Deuce is Wild Pin Up Final.

So I've finished "Deuce is Wild," and before the final touches, I was asked to switch the redhead with a blonde and to have them doing a burnout on top of that. Is it the safest thing to do? In reality, no. But since they're not real girls and it's not a real situation, it's ok. That's what fantasy art is for, right? Creating and actualizing imaginary and risky situations, like paintings of Greek gods and Jesus walking on water.

Deuces Wild update! Mid-Progress.

Don't know what else to say besides, ALMOST DONE! I'm very excited that I now have 7 followers in the blogging community. Thank you all, very much, for your continued support and interest in my work, it means everything to me. I will have this piece done by the end of this weekend so that I don't have to worry about it when I leave, next week, for Chicago and then Las Vegas. As soon as I get back, all of my time will be spent in preparation for the Chrome and Chroma 3: Motorcycle Art Exhibit at Uhl Studios. If you don't know the info, refer to an older post that I put up, all of the details are there. I've also been asked to show my work at Jay's Bar and Grill. The owner said he's tired of beer signs and bar mirrors, and he really likes my work and thought it would be nice to have it on his walls for everybody to see. So the months of July and August are all going to be about EXPOSURE!!!! Sweet! Okay, enough with my rambling, here's the pretty ladies.

Deuces Wild - New Pinc Tacos Pinup

I'm working on the next pinup for Pinc Tacos t-shirts. After this one, I believe they're going into full production with the 4 motorcycle pinups that I've done, including this one. I am confident enough with the drawing to be able to share it with you all. Everyone was pretty excited about Dyna Doll, the last motorcycle girl, but this one is going to take it another step. More complex bike with a more complex arrangement of figures. Since the bike is a Harley Davidson Softail Deuce, it's only right that I have two awesome girls instead of just one. This custom Deuce belongs to the client. One unexpected element popped up in the last week or so with a request from the client to put an 80-spoke wheel on the front of the bike instead of the 40-spoke that's currently on the actual bike. This pushed the project back a few days and will take a couple of days more once the painting and rendering phase gets around to that part of the bike. The benefit of this, though, is a much more dynamic front-end on the bike and another shiny thing to be able to look at, since the ends of the drag pipes are nearly covered by one of the girls. The girls themselves are subject to change, in the future, but the drawing of the bike is pretty much finalized, unless the client sees something he wants to change. So here's a process shot of the drawing. I'll try to keep them coming as the project rolls on. Also, here's a picture of the actual bike, so you can sort of get an idea of what I'm talking about with the spokes and the pipes.

Dyna Doll Poster and La Fe: Prize Winners!

At long last I've finished the Dyna Wide Glide piece in time for the Colorado Alliance of Illustrators 20th Annual show. and I've affectionately named it "Dyna Doll." The piece took 3rd place out of all of the votes for High 5. My other piece, which was done for a recently released book of poetry, entitled "La Fe': Poetry of a Widow's Spirit," came in 2nd, so I was very happy and pleased with the turnout. Opening night of the show was really incredible and we packed Anam Cara Studio with an estimated 200 people or so. We're really hoping to have as many people for the closing party on June 11th, as well, so If you're reading this, you should definitely come down that night.

Dyna Doll was pretty grueling at the end, there, I lost at least one complete night of sleep and missed my print deadline by 2 days. I even lost feeling in my right thumb from my Wacom pen rubbing the nerves raw at the joint. But, after many revisions, here at long last is the newest Pinc Tacos pin up girl. Here's a couple of versions to check out. One without text and one with all the bells and whistles. You'll notice that the poster version is a little bit lighter. This is due to the fact that the image prints a lot darker and therefore needs to be brought out more in order to sustain its on-screen appearance.



Here's a wraparound picture of the book jacket. The cover image is the one that took 2nd place at the CAI show, without the text on it.

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.

Dyna Wide Glide - Pinc Tacos pinup #6

Well, it was bound to happen; The guys at Pinc Tacos liked the American Ironhorse pin up "One Hot Burnout," so much that they now want to get their own bikes put into a picture with a very attractive young model. This one focuses around a 96 cubic inch Dyna Wide Glide. He just got a new seat put on made of Ostrich leather from a company called Bitchin' Stitchin' here in Denver. So, naturally, we both felt that it was best to put a redhead on the bike, seeing as how the bike is a dark maroon with bright red pinstriping, very similar to the deep gooseberry paint on my 1500 Vulcan Drifter. So here's a process shot of where I'm at before I start really tightening things up and making it shine. I'm also in the process of redoing the Pinc Tacos neon sign so that it looks more like an actual gas tube neon sign. More to come.

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 Pin Update! process #3

I've been pretty busy getting things ready for my show on Friday night at The Big Frame Up in Littleton. So I'm really getting in gear to bust out this last pinup so that I can have it ready to hang before Friday Night. Here's just a quick process shot of where I am, I'll have a more refined version to post, tomorrow, but I just wanted to show you that I'm still working and revising.

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.

High Plains Drifter Pinup

Howdy Fans, Working on something that is very close to my black little heart... My OWN BIKE! Freakin Sweet! After nearly a month long Holiday away from pinups I'm back on track and this time I'm using my very own 1999 VN1500-J Kawasaki Vulcan Drifter. That's 1500cc's of fuel-injected, shaft-driven, two-wheeled rolling classic beauty with all the classic flavors of a '47 Indian Chief but all the kick-ass power and performance of the 21st century. This will also be the first pinup in a line that will be exclusively designed for print on tons of novelty items from buttons to posters, coffee mugs, sweatshirts, and whatever else is available to print on. This is still in the early stages, obviously, but I thought I'd post a quick process shot to show you that I haven't been entirely sedentary since my last post. My bike currently has Vance and Hines pipes on it, but I still have the original 2 into 1 Fishtail pipe, as well and I thought that the original pipes have a nice classic look to them that I wanted to preserve in the painting.

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

One Hot Burnout! Pinc Tacos Poster.

Ok, so now that we've settled on the image, we're throwing in the neon sign and a little bit of flavor text. The text may change or we may throw it out entirely, but we'll cross that bridge when we come to it. I'm a huge fan of all things classic, so naturally I chose this very attractive Art Deco font for the flavor text.

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 - Skier Spraying the White!

So you saw the snowboarder, now here's the skier that I'm working on. This is second draft that I've sent to Pinc Tacos of this pose. Once again, the catch-phrase for this winter series will be "It just feels right to spray the white!"

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 - S&S Ironhorse Hotties Update!

With the holiday, last week, I had to take a day off, but I realized just a minute ago that I've neglected to post an update on the Burnout piece for Pinc Tacos. So here's a quick shot of my progress. The girls are nearly done, then it's the headlight and the smoke from the burning rubber, and then Fine'. Take a look at the girls in the meantime. = D

One Hot Burnout - S & S Engine Completed!

I've finished up with all of the mechanics of the engine and the pipes, So I wanted to just throw it up here and share it with you guys. This is an S&S 45th Anniversary 145 cubic inch high performance V-Twin engine. The engine was first built in 2003 as a tribute to the original founders, George and Marjorie Smith. In addition, it commemorates Harley Davidson’s 100th Anniversary. It was also intended to honor all passionate builders, riders, entrepreneurs, and enthusiasts who have helped grow the 100-year evolution of the V-Twin motorcycle market. The 145 Cubic Inch motor is capable of producing over 185 horse-power and 180 ft. lbs. of torque. Very Impressive! I turned off the smoke from the burn-out so that you can better examine the motor.

Pinc Tacos Pinup Update - One Hot Burnout

Hi everybody, I just wanted to give you another progress shot of "One Hot Burnout." All of this machinery is meticulously time consuming, but I'm trucking along at an even pace listening to a LOT of Meat Loaf. I should have this thing wrapped up this weekend. Then it's on to more snow bunnies!