FantasyConstruct.com!

NEW DOMAIN! After kind of a ridiculous run-about way of doing things, I've had to purchase a new hosting package and domain for this site. Now christophermanzanares.com and fantasyconstruct.com are both one and the same. Christophermanzanares.com will take 24-48 hours to reinitiate itself and sink with the new server. Fantasy Construct is the name I use for my blog as well as my Facebook fan page, so I figured that the domain name was the next logical step, it's also easier for people to spell and shorter to type out. Hopefully I won't have this many problems when it comes time to renew, next year! Cheers: to my first successful year online, and for many more to come!

FantasyConstruct.com, click here!

N' YaBass - Duck the Zipper Cover with Font.

Here's the first draft of the album cover with text. Wanted to go for a very comic book action hero kind of feel with a little bit of gonzo Ralph Steadman splash, for Duck's Name. Here's what I came up with. I'd post more explanation, but I've got to run out the door.

If you want to hear the album, it's on Sound Cloud
N'YaBass - Duck the Zipper

Duck the Zipper - CD Cover

So I finally decided, after talking with the DJ, Jesse Gillmore (aka N'YaBass), That I was going to just stick with the theme that I've been developing and do something simple. Here's the outcome. I'm pretty excited about it. A bit of artistic idolatry went into this particular piece, but I knew that I wanted something that was rugged and gritty. So here's the character, Duck the Zipper, holding a Desert Eagle. This is the gun that Jesse said he liked the most. I also figured that if he was going to be a motorcycle hero that he'd need to be able to shoot with his left hand so that he could still control the throttle. Overall, I think it turned out pretty awesome. Let's see what the client thinks.

If you want to hear the album, it's on Sound Cloud
N'YaBass - Duck the Zipper

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 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 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.