The Wild One - painting for Chrome and Chroma 3

Apart from my motorcycle pin ups for Pinc Tacos, I wanted to do something that was completely original for the Chrome and Chroma 3 Motorcycle Art show. After I got back from Chicago, I spent a few days researching, sketching, and researching some more about what it was that I wanted to do that would speak to people. At first I was kind of stuck on the idea of making a painting with subtle references to Indian Motorcycles. I did a drawing of an American Indian making smoke signals that look like an Indian Chief Roadmaster. Then I drew a Bison Skull with the Indian logo. Then a couple of drawings of girls in leather jackets with Indian Motorcycle logos. Then I stepped back and realized that the drawings were nice, but ultimately uninspired and not terribly original, like I was just advertising for Indian. So I still wanted to have a painting with a classic feel so I starting looking to some of the things that inspired me to become a motorcyclist. One of those things was a 1953 black and white film called "The Wild One," starring Marlon Brando, about a motorcycle gang that comes in and shakes up a town. Then the leader, Marlon Brando, falls for the Sheriff's daughter and then things start falling apart. So, since I don't want to just remake a picture of Marlon Brando, I did a couple of sketches where I reversed the role and made Brando's character into a female. At first the sketches were overtly sexual with dynamic poses. But then I thought about the character and went with something that was more cool and collected. I wanted a girl that was attractive, tough, and methodical the way a gang leader should be. Here's a side-by-side of my sketch and the picture of Brando that I was working from.

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

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.

Easy Glider - Pinc Tacos Pin up #2

Here is the second Pin up girl for the Pinc Tacos t-shirts. Still working with the text, but this is what the back of the t-shirt will look like, more or less. Baggers are getting really popular in the motorcycle world, so I decided to put a girl on a Road Glide, which is where the name "Easy Glider" was derived.



Easy Glider
Digital Painting
12"x12"x300ppi
Adobe Photoshop CS4 w/ Wacom Intuos3 Tablet

Pinc Tacos!

Since I only currently have 1 follower on my blog, I'm hoping that I'll draw some attention with what I'm working on, now (drumroll) ..................................
PINC TACOS! This is the logo that I came up with after several revisions. This logo will be the spearhead for all of the marketing.


I'm on assignment with a couple of guys that do custom .45 work, and now they're out to make a line of apparel. They're heavy into motorcycles and pin ups. Someone handed them my card and called me to do all of the pin up work for their clothing line. The company is called "Pinc Tacos." Basically pin up girls and pink taco bell tacos. It's cheesy and kitsch but that's pin up, right? So I'm pretty excited.
I'll be putting up some more of the stuff that I'm working on, but here's some shots for now.

This was the sketch that I did after hearing the client's ideas.

This was the sketch that I showed the client. He quickly approved, so I moved on to the next step.

Adding Color!

After several revisions, and knowing that the t-shirts would be black, this is the final image that will be printed on the T-Shirts, keep an eye out for them.