Well this one was a fun one. The positive vibe could be felt a mile away. Thanks to all who made it and welcome to all the new people. Very cool to meet you all.

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Here’s another in the series of Bugtoberfest ads for 09. We’re gearing up for a really big show. (Chuckles)

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One of the big benefits is that you get to see things like this. The creativity of VW people is like no other people.

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We got a chance to go check out the Tucson Hilton East which will serve as the Host hotel for this year’s Bugtoberfest.

It’s pretty nice! Hope to see you there!

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Not really much to say.  It’s mostly nearly almost done, it’ll be the last you see of it here so to you, you can call it done. 

This I can say was mostly fun.  I experienced some pain during the process but I’m not sure you can get better without it. 

Thanks for watching.  Next up?   hmmmmm not sure but I am sure it’ll be fun.

Thanks to Chirco for allowing me to do this.  very cool.

-Lemorris

Well I tried, but didn’t make it.

I was rushing through the character this morning and when i looked at it he was totally slanted..like Bobby brown drew it or something..anyway…I gotta go home at lunch and try to fix him. lol

So…here’s where we are

It’s really close but there’s still bling to go and a couple areas need to be touched on.

I’m really ok with where it is overall though. I think it has the attitude I wanted.

I often get asked my headlights and how i do whatever happens in there. Well there’s no real secret. Sometimes I’ll use a real headlight as a base but basically I just get in there and scribble a lot. Up close they look pretty funky but when youstep back they sink into place.

here’s a detail

See..basically I just scribble a lot. I do use some of the non standard photoshop brushes and I have created a number of custom brushes so I can get the ummm…look? that I’m after, but really….turn up the music, fall into it and just scribble…that’s about it.

Anyway…looks like tomorrow…I know I said that yesterday and I totally meant it when I said it…and I totally mean it again.

Thanks for checkin it out.

-lemorris
visit chircoestore.com

This drawing is really starting to come along. Here’s a few screen shots of the progress so far.

- Here I just started to lay in some color. Dark cars are always a little difficult. It may look like it’s just a flat dark, bu they do in fact reflect the environment and they contain the same tonal ranges that a light colored car does…just different. (note: put that in the bucket where you put things that don’t make sense…until something happens and brings it into focus.) It’s no secret that I usually run from dark car drawings like I’m Ben Johnson or something, but this time…well..it’s for my friend so, I’ll stick this one out.

- Here I dropped in the darks on the chrome and started to bring in some of the sky tone to help sell it. I really like how the Albert Swans (side mirrors) came out in this drawing. At first I was concerned that the exaggeration would be too much but then that’s what a cartoon is all about and as I saw the colors go in, I really liked where they landed. I also did the running boards, which is a piece I like drawing for some reason. I don’t think I ever do them the same actually, but I still enjoy the results in most cases.

- The big change here? I was wanting to do redlines on this piece because I like them in certain situations ( http://www.lemorris.com/site/wp-content/gallery/my_car_gallery/wesq_15.jpg ) but I know Alex has whitewalls on his car now. I was doing the redlines for the dealership version, so I rendered a red and a white layer. Once I got to this point and turned off the red layer, I really liked the way it popped. Not that redlines aren’t sweet as venti iced coffee sweetened brevi style with 3 pumps of white chocolate and 3 pumps of toffenut, but man…the white really owned this. Shout out to my consultation department in Cali. The stoic yet accurate comments are always appreciated.

oh! Also added some dimension to the tread, just a little to lift it a tad and give it some weight. It’s the little things you know?

- Now we’re cookin with gas! or something gassy I guess. Actually it may be more descriptive to make it a pun and say we’re cookin with “glass!” hahahaha (note: not funny). In any case I dropped in the glass and some color in the guy. I’m not sold on the orange shirt but it was what spoke to me first. I toyed with making it a red shirt so I could justify the redlines which apparently I have a semi-obsession over but man…the white walls work.

Once I dropped in the wheel well shadows the whole thing just squatted into the paper so to speak and really started to look like a drawing. The little added depth that wheel well shadows bring to the piece is one of those things that really makes or breaks a car drawing for me.

- Finally here’s where we are. It looks like I should be almost done tonight. I left one of my selection layers on in this capture. it’s interesting to see how the sketched lines came into play. I also started on the roof rack and the stuff on it. I actually did the toony beam first just because I was so happy to have it up there. I have had beams on my my rack on more than one occasion so there’s some weird sentimental value going on there. I can’t explain it…maybe my therapist at Sonic can help me come to some point of clarity. (?)

In any case this has been an extremely fun piece so far. I appreciate you taking the time to check it out. I will try to update this blog tomorrow with the dealer version if I get through it.

p.s. Still not sold on that orange shirt.

Lemorris Harris
Visit the Chircoestore

Part of the fun of working at Chirco is…the FUN at Chirco.
This little video covers the little gathering we had a week or so ago at a great little restaurant here in Tucson named Lani’s Luau. It is very traditional hawaiian food and not only was it delicious, the atmosphere was wonderful.

To that end we made a nice little mellow video. We didn’t get a lot of car footage but the music in the video was the music playing when Lani herself performed for us.

Thanks to everyone that came out. it was a fun evening for sure.

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To say I’m fortunate would be a gross understatement. It’s not often that your employer will allow you to do work on the side, much less post that work in their blog but Joe Chirco and Don Wiggins are big picture kinda guys and they allow me to do just that.

Now this piece is not a Chirco job but since they are kind enough to let me put my side work here, the least I could do is make it exclusive to here and limited updates on my Facebook page. So…basically I’m sayin thank you to Joe and Don for giving me such a large platform to display on. I recognize the gift.

Now….

Through some random bits of life’s random bittyness I ended up being hired by the countries largest VW dealership to do a series of cartoon drawings for them. (Much love to Roy for making this possible) They feature their salesman in air-cooled VWs. Pretty cool gig. However in my opinion the coolest part is the fact that I get to pick the cars. They tell me they want a hardtop bug but I get to draw whatever car I want. So…(this part is awesome)…I have been drawing my friends’ cars or going on to websites and just randomly picking enthusiasts I don’t know and drawing their cars with the salesman and then doing a drawing of them in the car as well. It’s way cool because I’m getting paid by the dealership and I’m also able to just give a gift, just because and that really feels good.

So…to that I will post the progress to completion on Alex’s car…hereafter referred to as Whip because that’s super cool….to me anyway. Alex is one of my dear friends and a member of the car club DHP. He’s in the New Mexico chapter and I love him like a brother. I have been so nervous about doing any art for him as he is an extremely reputable pinstriper and well…I was scared, but I seem to have a little head of steam now so…here’s the shots. Pencil rough through the start of the base color.

My method? I start with a pencil drawing and scan it in the redraw it all in Photoshop…then I usually cry a little then start on the next piece.

Note: The Alex version will have whitewall inserts, not the redlines but for the dealer I thought the red against a black car would just leap off the shirt so….

Thanks for reading by diatribe and thanks for looking at my drawings.

-Lemorris