Dial 3 for…

…3D, I guess.

Having always been a fan of classic movies, and even more, an Alfred Hitchcock fanatic, I took a rare couple of hours last week to sit and watch a film. The day’s selection? “Dial M For Murder”, Frederick Knott’s great play-turned film. If you’ve never seen the movie, do yourself a favor, and scare up a copy. It’s typical Hitchcock visionary cinema, and is so far ahead of its time, presentation-wise, that it boggles the mind. What’s really slick about the film (beyond the incredibly intimate camera angles) is the use of very limited sets. The majority of the film takes place in an apartment, by the the story makes you forget that.

Anyway, why bring up this film? The movie was filmed and subsequently released in 3D back in 1954, coincidentally, the year that the fictional scene depicted in the image with this post takes place (…it always ties together, doesn’t it?). What’s great about this film in particular is that it wasn’t the typically hokey 3D spectacle… It used the effect brilliantly and subtly. Granted, in ‘54, there were a ton of 3D movies, and most of them bad, thus, “Dial M for Murder”, shown in 3D, didn’t fare so well, which is a shame, because, as we’ve touched on before, it was done superbly and subtly.

If you’ve got a pair of the old red and blue 3D glasses laying around, dig on the picture that accompanies this post…

Break out the red and blue 3D glasses... and step on in!

I’m a fan of subtlety, always opting to take the “less is more” route, and playing with a design to harness some serious visual impact from a well-placed modification. Perhaps that’s why Hitchcock’s films appeal to me: they are well-crafted, and sort of sneak up on you, making you re-examine a scene, study the details a bit more carefully, and pay closer attention. In the last issue of Rod and Custom, I was fortunate to have had another piece featured as their “Dream Car of the Month”, that being the ‘53 Ford moonshine runner, which illustrates this subtle approach perfectly. There’s a lot going on with this car, but it’s presented in a very subtle way (on the car itself, anyway… Racing through the woods in a custom car isn’t precisely “subtle” by any means…). It’s got many layers to dig through, and the narrative behind the image is pure fun… But it’s what was on my mind when creating it that makes this so damn cool.

When I began drawing the car, the scene was already set in my mind: there would be a dark, moonlit night in 1954 (ahhh…. it’s all tying together!), a bed of red clay, a police car in pursuit, and some moody lighting. But what made this piece unique in my portfolio was that I kept seeing this thing in 3D… stereoscopically. I set out to create multiple versions of the piece, and there had to be one that used 3D glasses. No two ways about it, that’s what my mind kept going back to, and I was determined to reach into my bag of tricks, pull out a clever technique, and apply it to this piece.

It was fun to make the trees “pop” out and recede, to make the lights gain some depth and “flicker”, and to work to make the features of the car visually sit in their rightful places in space. It’s a lot of work to get things “right” (working a drawing into 3D isn’t as easy as working from a couple of photographs, and requires a TON of planning and work… but the results are just damn cool), and when they fall into place, the results are stunning. I’ve been experimenting with a number of my older pieces using this technique, and we’ll have prints available soon…

In any event, what this all boils down to is that I’m happy to be having fun with it all again, and after applying some inspiration from a great cinematic experience, I’ve embarked on a new path with my work… It’s getting to the point where I can invite you to reach into my work, and see it in a whole new way… and how cool is THAT?!

Look for more soon…

Inspiration from the Underground…

Being into cars, namely hot rods and customs, mind you, well, it breeds (and requires) a certain amount of rebel spirit. I have a theory that, for the most part, those of us in the industry share this renegade spirit, and it seems only natural that we do what we do because of it. After all, conformity isn’t exactly a good catalyst when tearing into a car to make a statement.

I’ve always been drawn to music that shares this rebellious spirit, as it’s part of the soundtrack of my life thus far… While I love blues and metal, somehow the punk and underground stuff just always happens to be there, and plays a big part in the creative stew that comes together in the studio. Consider that I found this music a bit after it “happened” (after all, punk isn’t a song or style… it was an “event”, to say the least), and was, after all, just a little kid at the peak of it all, between ‘76 and ‘80, but the influence may have found me at just the right time, hitting me square between the eyes in my early teens.

As a sideline (yet a very important one in all of this), I think that, looking back anyway, my decision to pursue Fine Art in College may have been somehow predetermined. After all, consider that, for the most part, the bands involved in the underground, post-punk movement were all either artists, or supported by artists in their local shows, and there’s a common thread starting to weave. (I’ve also noticed this in my friends and fellow artists… we all share the same affinity for this music and style, especially in terms of my more automotive art-themed colleagues). It’s also odd to learn just how many of these bands were influenced by literature that I also had been “drawn” to…. beat guys like Kerouac, Burroughs, Ginsberg, etc… When I stumbled across more “arty” music like the Talking Heads, I had found that thread to be a bit thicker and more tangled, and it was an amazing discovery! There was a tangible connection in the arts, and probably explains why the artists and musicians all got along so well back in school. There’s an appreciation for rhythm and melody in painting, and the imagery that music can inspire, well, I think you get it. (this has always found its way into my work as well…. ever wonder why I keep the linework a little more “raw”, or like to repeat a curve or element? Now you know.

Granted, where I may have been born a bit late to have witnessed the performances at places like CBGB’s, the Mudd Club, Max’s Kansas City… but listening to tapes and vinyl, man….it was like being there, creatively, anyway. Not unlike my youthful days spent flipping through stacks of old car magazines… It just called out to me, and sort of dragged me along for the ride! Funny, too, how when I began tracing the evolution of punk, that it correlated neatly with my taste in cars… As punk moved West, it got a little faster and harder… As I grew older, I got into street machines… but always with a certain custom bent. Faster was always good, and my work reflected that! It got a bit looser on the edges, and retained just what made me love it all to begin with: The spontaneity of it all… The energy! And perhaps, just maybe that’s what’s so unappealing about some of the work I see today. Nothing against a photo-real 3-D rendering, or some line-for-line perfect tracing of a car… sure, both require time and some level of skill… but they both suck the life out of what makes it all so damn fun to begin with!

Consider: When you were in school, and assuming you were an addicted hot rod nut like me, didn’t you have drawings all over your folders and binders and notebooks of cars? Who didn’t emulate a Trosley-esque burnout and wheelie combo with tire smoke and fire belching from huge, uncorked headers while a mailbox scoop devoured the surrounding atmosphere in Bic ink all over that oddly textured surface? Awesome!! Now, re-imagine that, but replace the drawing with some 3D model, or worse, some over-filtered Photoshop hack-job, often with wheels canted in opposing directions, things so off-scale my five year-old gets a chuckle from it… Yeah, it kinda blows in comparison. It’s cold, lifeless…. In some cases it’s a photo-real representation based on some model bought from a forum, without all of the stuff that makes cars so friggin’ fun to begin with: That ragged, raw, pure energy and rebellion…

To me, it’s like eating pizza-flavored potato chips. What’s the point?

Lately, I had been in a funk, seeing my style copied (poorly), my themes stolen and re-hashed, and witnessed classless “artists” (their word, not mine) poaching my client list (to the amusement of my clients– thanks guys!), and watched as uninspiring work was praised… The lifeless feel of it all had me re-thinking my path, and then I sat down, flipped on some tunes, and sketched away until the wee hours… No deadline, not a paying gig…. just for the hell of it all. And you know what? It re-kindled that old spirit… and started a fast burn on a new direction, and that, my friends, puts the nails into the coffin of this chapter. Where’s this new path leading? Stay tuned… it’ll be fun, I assure you of that.