Latest / BREAK/FIX the Motorsports & Vehicle Enthusiast Variety Show / From Spray Booth to Sharpie Legend: The Jackknife Journey of Pinstripe Chris

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From Spray Booth to Sharpie Legend: The Jackknife Journey of Pinstripe Chris · BREAK/FIX the Motorsports & Vehicle Enthusiast Variety Show

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  BreakFix podcast is all about capturing the living history of people from
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  all over the autosphere, from wrench turners and racers to artists, authors,
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  designers, and everything in between.
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  Our goal is to inspire a new generation of petrolheads that
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  wonder How did they get that job?
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  Or become that person?
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  The road to success is paved by all of us.
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  Because everyone has a story.
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  Passion for vehicles comes in many different shades and colors.
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  Custom cars, hot rods, and exotics.
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  There's always a variety of artwork to keep things fresh
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  and never limited to one genre.
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  Chris Dunlop is an automotive design and render artist based
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  out of Southern California.
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  He started out as an automotive painter that specialized in custom paint and
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  high end restoration work on classics and exotics in Rockville, Maryland.
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  From there, he began airbrushing, doing Sharpie art, and pinstriping.
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  Soon after, he was doing his artwork nearly full time, And some
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  of you might have heard of him.
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  He's been dubbed pinstripe Chris, and he joins Brad and I tonight on break
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  fix to share his journey from paint and body work to full time artists.
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  So welcome to break fix Chris.
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  And thank you for having me, you know, like all good break fix.
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  Episodes.
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  There's always an origin story.
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  And we absolutely love the fact that you're originally from the DMV from
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  the DC, Maryland, Virginia area.
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  And as Marylanders ourselves, we are immediately proud of
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  you and your accomplishments.
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  So let's take a trip back in time and talk about how you, how you got into the
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  automotive world and why paint and body.
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  Always nice to be talking to some fellow Marylanders.
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  I feel like people from the Northeast coast, we have a way that we can
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  understand each other when we talk that maybe isn't as a language that
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  we have that doesn't exist everywhere.
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  Appreciate me being able to talk with fellow Marylanders.
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  You guys are going to get it.
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  We got to ask a proper Maryland question, which is all right.
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  Which question is that Eric?
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  What high school did you go to?
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  Oh, well, it was true.
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  I went to Richard Montgomery.
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  Hey, there you go.
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  Yeah.
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  Right down the road.
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  Yeah, exactly.
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  Exactly.
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  That's where I grew up.
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  Of course I love cars.
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  I think everybody that really likes cars always as a kid, you always
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  start out liking cars anyways.
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  And you want to figure out how to do that as a work thing.
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  And what I was doing the job right for paint and body was
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  like, I was a server at IHOP.
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  It was just a normal crappy job, but I always worked on my own cars, just.
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  So I got to ask, since you loved cars as a kid, what was on your bedroom wall?
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  What was that poster?
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  The magazine that I tend to grab most when I was a kid was the DuPont registry.
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  I always liked looking at either exotics or like really nicely restored classics.
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  As opposed to like the beaters that I drove my first vehicle
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  out of high school was a 69 C 10.
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  That I replaced with a 72 C10, none of which were in great shape, but they were
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  good fun, but they weren't like nice, but I enjoyed classics and wrenching on them.
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  But anything that I had that was on my wall was pulled out of a magazine and
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  it would have been DuPont registry, something really, really fancy.
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  So it would have been like an F50 or an Jaguar XJ220, supercars of that
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  era, McLaren F1, Hennessey Venom Viper.
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  Stuff like that.
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  Shortly after high school, a really, really close family friend, they
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  owned and operated a collision shop in Frederick, Maryland.
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  They happened to have a spot available as a painter's helper.
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  What got you excited to do that?
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  Why paint and body?
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  Was there a draw there?
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  Nothing.
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  No, absolutely nothing.
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  Paint and body was just sort of far out of my mind, but give that a try.
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  It's not something that I had thought of, but it sounded interesting.
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  Sort of worked out and it worked as a helper for about a year
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  there before I moved to St.
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  Louis.
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  And then, uh, I was in St.
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  Louis for a couple of years.
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  And that's where I started doing more full time as a painter.
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  I was a helper in Maryland, but the owner of the shop there was super cool about
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  letting me use crashed fenders and crashed hoods to practice like airbrushing on.
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  They're pretty casual about letting me burn lots of paint materials at
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  nighttime just to play and have some fun.
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  So you went from Maryland to St.
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  Louis and somewhere, somewhere in this mix, you met your wife, Caitlin, and she's
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  also in this industry as well, right?
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  Did you guys meet at work?
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  It's not exactly in the industry.
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  She does help me as a, just stay sane in general, which is immensely helpful.
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  When I met her, when I lived in Frederick and then we sort of went our
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  separate way is when I moved to St.
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  Louis, I ended up moving back to Maryland after a couple of years in St.
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  Louis, cause we reconnected on MySpace of all things.
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  So we moved back to Maryland and we moved in together and then we moved here
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  together a couple of years after that.
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  Here in California, and you opened up your own paint and body shop at some point.
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  Yeah, that's the cliff notes version.
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  I couldn't have done it without a partner, somebody who already
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  had a space and was in Montgomery County and not in the air park.
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  Thank goodness I had help with that.
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  And he was already kind of established a little bit more in the Ferrari world.
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  So he kind of had like the ideal job.
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  Guy's name was Robbie.
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  By the time I met him, he was already a really old guy.
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  So he was just like sort of angry and direct, really enjoyed
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  working with somebody that was a little bit more to the point.
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  We had our space, this whole journey, just jackknifed all over the place.
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  We moved back from St.
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  Louis to Maryland.
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  I worked at a bunch of shops before we worked on our own shop,
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  but it was all, I was like a painter helper at a hot rod shop.
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  And made some good friends there until I connected with this guy, Robbie.
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  And we were working together on Ferraris and Classics there, which was great.
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  And it was just also a great opportunity to learn that the cost of running
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  a shop is so enormously expensive that the hopes of being able to make
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  a lot at it, you have to scale so much or be really, really efficient.
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  It was a really good lesson to learn in, in what's possible and
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  what's not possible, no matter how much you care about what you do.
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  So somewhere in this mix, Did you end up going to art school?
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  Or if not, are you self taught?
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  I'm entirely self taught.
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  In fact, when I lived in Frederick the first time and I was at that
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  collision shop, I applied to go to an art school out here in California.
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  It was my first trip to California and I got accepted, but it was
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  too expensive for me to go.
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  I never actually went.
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  So I never went to college.
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  I never went to art school.
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  Everything is self taught, but I really have the years of being in
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  a spray booth, for the way that I think about colors and lighting.
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  I thought it was the fact that you're from Maryland and like the rest of us,
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  you were probably drawing those Stussy S's in class instead of paying attention.
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  You know what I'm talking about?
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  I figured that was everybody to be honest.
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  Seems like no matter where you go in the country, people did it everywhere.
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  It doesn't matter.
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  So where did you draw your early inspiration from?
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  It's like this jackknife journey along the entire way in there.
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  By the time that I got back to Maryland from living in St.
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  Louis and when I was working in our own shop space, Each time somebody
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  would come along and say, Hey, you should give airbrushing a try.
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  You should give pinstriping a try.
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  So just try stuff.
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  Just kind of muscle through learning it, which basically means
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  screwing up a thousand times until you sort of kind of get it right.
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  All that is just trial and error and practice.
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  I got a lot more practice that when I lived in Maryland, but
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  there wasn't a huge aspect.
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  For stuff like that, the demand for stuff like that seems to really,
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  really exist strongly out here.
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  But by the time I got out here, I wasn't doing as much of that anymore.
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  And then how did Chip Foose and Steve Stanford's work influence you?
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  A huge way.
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  Well, I grew up watching overhauling.
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  So my favorite part of that show, and even still, I'll pull it up on
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  YouTube just to watch the clips of where Foose is drawing some of my
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  greatest memories of watching the show.
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  It's just watching the artwork grow.
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  And then Steve Stanford, I've seen his artwork so many times in magazines and
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  I've been lucky to call Steve a friend.
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  Steve and Chip are local here to where I'm at.
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  So I worked with Foose on a build pretty early on when I moved here
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  at a shop that I was working at.
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  I try to visit Stanford every couple of months and see how he's doing.
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  Both huge inspirations.
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  Chris, did you happen to catch recently when Chip sat down, I believe it was on
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  Haggerty's YouTube channel and he did a at his desk redesign of the C8 Corvette.
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  Yes.
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  Oh yeah.
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  I've watched a bunch of the Haggerty stuff there.
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  So what did you think of that?
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  Do you think that was a good interpretation, a good
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  take on the, on the C8?
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  And what do you think of the C8's design right now as one of the newest sports cars
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  to come out in the last couple of years?
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  Oh man, I don't know where your audience leans.
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  So what I'm going to say is probably going to be a little bit controversial.
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  My wife and I were thinking about getting one last year.
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  So we borrowed one off of Truro to give it a really honest try.
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  And we couldn't wait to get out of that car.
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  Really?
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  Yeah.
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  We rented it for the day, and an hour later, we called the guy back and
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  asked if we could bring it back to him.
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  Didn't care about giving him his money back.
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  No hard feelings.
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  We just want to get the hell out of this car.
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  Is it because it's uncomfortable?
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  Or is it just It's A step away from what we're used to with Corvettes.
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  So here's where it gets really, really tricky.
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  As a car, everything that you can measure.
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  It is an amazing car.
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  It's fast.
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  It sounds good.
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  You could daily drive it.
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  So those things are amazing.
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  It looks okay.
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  It's not my favorite looking car.
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  It looks worse.
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  I think in orange County than most other places, because it
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  looks like a fake Ferrari, right?
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  So you feel a little bit goofy when you're next to people in McLarens
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  and Maseratis and they're like, eh, I think I'll put the top back up.
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  But I think the look of the car is growing on me a little bit better.
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  And I think over time, the look is going to get better.
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  It's not a bad car.
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  It definitely did not suit us.
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  The thing that we did to really test the car is we did the thing that nobody
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  really does when we go and buy a sports car or any type of car like this.
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  As we just drove down the street, down PCH, a couple
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  beaches down to go get coffee.
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  Just do something routine and see what the car is like.
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  It was the dumbest car to try to park you've ever seen in your life.
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  Cause you can't see out of it, right?
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  You really, really can't see out of it.
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  And I'm not a tall person, maybe a taller person would have better luck, but the way
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  that the doors come up over your shoulders and we're in a stingray, it's convertible.
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  So the way the pillars are, I like the look of it sort of, but just, I
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  parked and then my wife couldn't get out cause the doors are freaking huge.
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  So I had to unpark, let her out, put the car back in.
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  And by the time we walked back to the car, grabbing coffee, we're like, So if you
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  could redesign one aspect of the C8 other than the pillars and the visibility, what
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  would it be from an artistic standpoint?
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  Interior, 100%.
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  Really?
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  Really stupid interior.
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  I don't know who crafted that thing.
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  If you've sat in one, you're in the driver's seat.
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  The console wraps around you, which is kind of cool, but all your AC controls are
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  on the outer edge facing away from you.
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  Your passenger can hit all that stuff pretty easy.
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  I'm sure once you own one, you get used to it.
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  It's fine.
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  But the interior also has this really bizarre, like
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  layered stacked look of shapes.
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  You think, wow, how much dirt and stuff is going to get stuck in there in no
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  man's land in some amount of time.
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  I don't think it's gonna age that well, but I think the interior would
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  really really help because most cars You don't you enjoy from the inside
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  not really from the outside If it had just a better just sitting being in it.
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  It looks good ish, but it was Ergonomically just not All
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  over the map and the steering wheel, I think, is square.
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  I think that's just the way with Corvettes in general, though.
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  I think anything after the C2 does not age well, especially the C4 and the C5.
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  They look like trash as soon as the next one comes out.
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  And I feel that way about all Corvettes.
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  Like a lot of cars, just give it some time and they'll kind of cycle through.
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  That's kind of what we're seeing a little bit more of C4 and C5 as nineties
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  and early 2000s stuff are starting to become a little bit more flavorful.
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  I'm not really a big Corvette person to begin with.
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  It's really hard to sell me on a Corvette.
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  The idea of the C8 is like this huge bang for buck proposition.
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  I think at the time we were just getting out of a brand new Cayman GTS
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  and they were considered comparable.
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  They're not comparable.
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  From an artist's point of view and a car guy through and through,
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  what's the sexiest car of all time?
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  Of all time?
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  Man, that'd be really tricky.
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  Naturally, I always lean towards Ferrari stuff, something like anything in the
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  250 series Ferrari, my Testarossa, my short wheelbase, those to me are just
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  some of the best looking cars ever.
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  Nice.
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  So speaking of Ferraris, and for our listeners that aren't watching this on our
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  Behind the scenes, Patrion episode, you have behind you a three 48 convertible.
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  So let's talk about that just a second.
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  If Ferrari, that doesn't know what it wants to be, right.
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  It's got one day it'll figure it out.
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  Yeah.
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  The baby at 40 layout, the five 12 TR nose and the sort of Testa Rosa rear end.
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  Why a three 48?
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  I've heard people say that you buy a 348 because you can't afford to buy a 355,
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  which is sort of a funny thing to say.
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  I actually really, really love 355s.
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  I've done a lot of mechanical work in the past on Ferraris, having worked
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  on them as part of paint and body.
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  So I wanted something that I could work on a little bit more myself.
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  By the time that I really got to looking for it, we said last year I
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  sold two, I had a 911 and then I had the Cayman GTS and I sold both of them
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  because the car prices were For stuff like that, I had just gone through
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  the roof and I just thought I'm done paying Ferrari money for portions.
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  So I'm just going to go get the car that I want.
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  And of course, I always look at three 55s as well.
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  I actually really, really liked four 56s if you can find them in a six speed.
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  But once I really kind of got down to a little bit more nuts and
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  bolts research, I liked that the three 48 was kind of the odd ball.
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  I never liked what everyone else is going to like.
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  I like to show up with something different and unusual.
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  And the three 40 is definitely that to begin with as somebody like to
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  go on really hard Canyon drives.
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  At least once a week up in LA.
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  So the car is no power steering, no assisted brakes, no driver aids, nothing.
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  And even the top is manual.
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  It's the last flat tappet V8 that they made.
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  It's a really unique layout system and it is awesome.
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  It's also the last dog leg transmission.
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  So it's five speed with a dog leg.
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  So it's a really, really interesting driving experience and I love it.
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  We've kind of diverged a little bit.
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  We should probably get back to your timeline and talk about some
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  of the things you're noted for.
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  And if our listeners are checking out your website, while we're chit
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  chatting here, they'll notice that as we mentioned, you did some Sharpie
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  art and you're famous for both the Sharpie Mustang and the Sharpie Camaro.
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  So why don't we explore the inspiration behind this?
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  Why Sharpie?
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  Why choose that medium?
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  Kind of around the time that I was experimenting a bit more with airbrushing
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  and pinstriping, one of the guys that I worked with at a hot rod shop, I
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  was just a prepper guy there, one of the times that I moved back to
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  Maryland, and he had shown me this article of the Sharpie Lamborghini,
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  and this would have been like 2010 ish.
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  I thought that was really, really cool, giving it to me as an idea like,
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  hey, think about stuff like this.
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  What's the future hold for how we do artwork?
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  On cars and stuff like that.
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  And I just kind of went for it.
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  I got really, really lucky in that the first Sharpie car that I got to do,
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  a guy flew me out here to California and Northern California to do his car.
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  And it was like a 94 Eldorado and nothing really, really elaborate,
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  but it was really cool just to have the opportunity to do, and that seems
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  like a million years ago, but since I've done a 23 Sharpie vehicles.
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  All over the world.
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  And it's one of my absolute favorite things to do.
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  Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa.
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  Hold, hold on a second.
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  That Eldorado is a huge car.
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  That's a lot of surface area.
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  And then you did 23 cars.
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  Obviously the Mustang and the Camaro are the ones that are most
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  notable on, on social and stuff, but I got to ask this question.
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  Cause I'm sure a lot of people are thinking it, how many Sharpies.
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  Does it take to cover an entire car?
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  Not as many as it would seem like.
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  That's of course one of the more popular questions.
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  It really doesn't take as many if you're efficient and
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  you're kind to the materials.
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  So at least these days, especially if you use something like paint
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  markers, you could get around a car and probably five or ten markers.
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  That's way cheaper than I thought it was going to be.
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  Yeah.
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  You'll destroy the name of the marker long before you run out of ink.
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  Interesting.
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  What do you do to make the Sharpies ink stay on the vehicle?
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  Cause I mean, if you've ever used a Sharpie, yes, it's permanent
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  marker, but it doesn't always bond to the surface that you put it on.
• 15:19
  So do you have to prep the car a certain way?
• 15:21
  Yeah.
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  I guess I was lucky in that my before life knew already that if you're going
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  to treat this type of thing as part of a paint job, prep first, do the artwork.
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  So treat it like you would if you were doing a full paint job anyways.
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  And that really gave me a leg up because there was a lot of people
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  in the early times where that idea was kind of blowing up, but none
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  of them were automotive painters.
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  So it was a different game of whose stuff was actually going to last.
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  Of course, the earlier stuff that I did, it was actually Sharpie, like ink markers.
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  They were industrial markers, but as time went on, I changed over to using the paint
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  markers, which has a pigment and a binder.
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  So it actually, it won't fade as time goes on and you can clear it pretty easily.
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  It becomes more of a paint process.
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  It's a lot more robust than just using ink markers.
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  So how long does it take to Sharpie a car?
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  Not as long as it seems, and it certainly depends on the project, but these days I
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  can get around a whole car in a weekend.
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  Wow.
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  Oh my God.
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  That's craziness.
• 16:16
  Uh, I'll let my daughters go at mine, I guess.
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  See how that turns out.
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  Let them go at your black car with a black Sharpie.
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  It's called touch up paint.
• 16:25
  Exactly.
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  It'll be just fine.
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  Well, I got a question for you.
• 16:28
  What is robot number three?
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  It's kind of a spinoff series of artwork that I do every now and then.
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  When the mood sort of strikes, it's one of the few things that I do
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  that actually has a character in it.
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  My wife and I were big, like comic book, cartoon fan.
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  So it's the only way to sort of bridge some of the interests together.
• 16:43
  Get to put a little bit more of a story or a mood into a scene with
• 16:47
  a car or something else happening.
• 16:48
  What kind of comics are you a Marvel or DC fan?
• 16:50
  Not deep enough to really be one or the other.
• 16:53
  I just enjoy the aesthetic.
• 16:55
  See, he looks at the pretty pictures, right?
• 16:58
  Yeah.
• 16:58
  I'm an artist.
• 16:59
  That's all I'm doing.
• 17:00
  You know, there were words in them anyway.
• 17:02
  Graphic novel doesn't mean it has words in it.
• 17:04
  I'm just saying.
• 17:05
  No, it's just, just graphic.
• 17:08
  So is there a robot number three liveried car out there?
• 17:12
  Have you done a full car?
• 17:13
  No, I haven't.
• 17:14
  It would be cool to do that.
• 17:15
  The appropriate task hasn't really come along for that.
• 17:18
  Oftentimes, like the Sharpie cars, a lot of them More in the last handful of years,
• 17:22
  or usually for like a corporate clients.
• 17:25
  So they have sort of a specific thing that they're going for.
• 17:27
  So I can't exactly shove exactly what I would like to do on an app.
• 17:31
  Is there a bucket list car to either be a Sharpie car or
• 17:33
  maybe a robot three livery car?
• 17:36
  I'd have to think about what car would make a good robot.
• 17:38
  Number three car, but no bucket list car.
• 17:40
  I think anytime you get to turn the surface of a car into a piece of
• 17:43
  artwork, it almost doesn't matter.
• 17:44
  I've done some pretty obscure, no name cars as art cars before.
• 17:48
  And it was just as fun.
• 17:49
  I think a Volkswagen Routan is the robot three car.
• 17:54
  Very specific choice.
• 17:56
  I know where he's going with that.
• 17:59
  So what do you think about art cars?
• 18:01
  Since you're from Maryland, you know, there's a big art car festival
• 18:04
  in Baltimore every year, downtown.
• 18:07
  Were there any that got your attention over the years?
• 18:09
  And you're like, Oh my God, what is that?
• 18:11
  Or maybe when you were younger, they inspired you in any sort of way.
• 18:14
  You know, honestly, I didn't know that there was an art car thing there.
• 18:17
  Darn, you missed out.
• 18:18
  Yeah, I did, honestly.
• 18:21
  But it's funny you say that because it reminded me when I was
• 18:23
  doing, the only Sharpie car that I had for myself was an 85 Fiero.
• 18:27
  This was right after the, uh, Cadillac.
• 18:30
  This is a long time ago, so don't, don't laugh too hard.
• 18:32
  Brad's favorite car.
• 18:35
  It was a GT, okay.
• 18:37
  So, but I would only do the artwork at Jimmy Cone at the car meet there.
• 18:41
  If you guys have ever gone to that Jimmy Cone.
• 18:43
  The one in Mount Airy, not Exactly.
• 18:46
  That car meet still exists.
• 18:48
  Our partners Yeah, I've heard.
• 18:49
  Yeah, our partners over at Collector Car Guide list all of
• 18:52
  their events on their websites.
• 18:54
  That's pretty cool.
• 18:54
  Did you mention Jimmy cone?
• 18:55
  Cause we see it listed there all the time, the Baltimore art cars.
• 18:58
  I mean, you see them, some people driving to work, they're nuts.
• 19:01
  I mean, they're done in all sorts of different styles and either
• 19:04
  painted on or glued on stuff.
• 19:06
  I mean, some are covered in bottle caps and some look like sculptures.
• 19:09
  They're just absolutely crazy.
• 19:10
  I mean, I used to pass a couple of going to work every day.
• 19:12
  I'm like, you're driving.
• 19:13
  There was even one that was reminiscent of the dog mobile from like dumb and dumber.
• 19:17
  I mean, there's just no way.
• 19:18
  crazy stuff, but I don't think you want to go off that deep
• 19:21
  end doing your art cars, right?
• 19:23
  It's more liveries.
• 19:24
  It's more adapting the style to the body lines and all that kind of stuff.
• 19:28
  Yeah.
• 19:28
  What they're doing is a little bit more abstract, more, maybe less abstract.
• 19:32
  I'm not sure, but yeah, we're definitely coming at it from
• 19:33
  different points of view.
• 19:34
  So have you ever done liveries like race car liveries or anything like that?
• 19:38
  Yeah, actually I did a huge art installation with a guy last year where
• 19:42
  we did 20 something Porsche parts and each of them we painted to match whichever
• 19:47
  livery and whichever car was on the list.
• 19:50
  So every livery you can think of from Porsche discography, actually we
• 19:53
  just painted tons of parts last year for a car collection here locally.
• 19:56
  Have you ever done anything like a mural in the garage or anything like that?
• 20:00
  Yeah, I used to do more of that when we first got to California.
• 20:04
  It's not like a super common request.
• 20:06
  There's people that, that specialize in that type of stuff.
• 20:08
  But actually I love large scale artwork.
• 20:09
  Graffiti stuff is some of my favorite.
• 20:11
  You have to have the wall for it.
• 20:12
  Here's really where it comes down.
• 20:13
  Funny you mentioned that.
• 20:14
  I have this half wall in my garage that I've been saying for years.
• 20:18
  I can tell my wife it's battleship gray.
• 20:19
  And I said, this thing is ready for some motorsports graffiti art.
• 20:23
  I just need to find somebody to do it for me.
• 20:26
  Right?
• 20:26
  Yeah, it's perfect.
• 20:28
  So let's talk about the big move and you leaving the DMV area for Southern
• 20:32
  California, the car culture on the East coast is strong, but what led you to
• 20:37
  shift West and tell us a little bit about the differences in the car culture from
• 20:40
  the two sides is massively different.
• 20:43
  I knew, or at least I thought I knew when.
• 20:45
  We were done with our shop in Maryland and we're coming over here.
• 20:50
  I'm had this feeling like if we're going to do something substantive at all in the
• 20:54
  car culture Might as well go where it was bigger There is a big car culture on the
• 20:58
  east coast But it has a different type of thing going on and the part that sort
• 21:02
  of bugs me is how seasonal it is If I can be so picky so routinely we have people
• 21:07
  in the motorcycle in the car world there that you know you have from fall till
• 21:10
  spring to do all the necessary work that you need to to be ready for spring and
• 21:15
  summer yet everybody will wait until and so the first nice day of spring before
• 21:19
  they're like oh my god I gotta get my motorcycle or car ready I better go get it
• 21:22
  at the paint shop it's like we all of us sat on our hands for three months waiting
• 21:25
  for work and all of a sudden everybody wants to come out of the woodwork
• 21:27
  and get everything ready for car show season wasn't nauseous As a lifestyle.
• 21:31
  And if you're trying to run a business around stuff like
• 21:33
  that, here, it never ends.
• 21:35
  There's a car show every weekend, at least one, the biggest cars
• 21:38
  and coffee in the United States is South Orange County down the street.
• 21:42
  And it's every single Saturday.
• 21:43
  It's sort of never ending, but it gives you a lot of possibilities
• 21:46
  and a lot of opportunities.
• 21:47
  I wouldn't say like better or worse.
• 21:49
  Even the Midwest has its own car culture.
• 21:51
  What was out here or what I thought would be out here seemed
• 21:54
  like it would suit least what my interests were a little bit better.
• 21:56
  And it did not disappoint.
• 21:58
  So I think if we balance those scales a little bit, having traveled
• 22:02
  almost every state in the country now experiencing different car culture
• 22:06
  all over the country, the left and right coasts obviously have the
• 22:09
  highest concentration of people.
• 22:11
  You're right.
• 22:11
  California car culture is, I hate to say it's more showy, right?
• 22:15
  It's all about the car show.
• 22:16
  It's about polishing up your ride, having something unique.
• 22:19
  How can you make it more bespoke than the next guy?
• 22:22
  I think in the East coast, though, we have our car shows too, right?
• 22:25
  We have our bag fairs and our Honda meets and, you know, going behind the
• 22:28
  dairy queen and talking about cars.
• 22:30
  But I think the motor sport culture is much larger on the East coast
• 22:34
  because we have a higher density of tracks than the West coast.
• 22:38
  So it's sort of like.
• 22:39
  Same, but different because if you tilt the scale the other way,
• 22:42
  California has Laguna Seca and Willow Springs and other fantastic tracks,
• 22:46
  but the density is totally different.
• 22:48
  Like you guys have to go a lot further.
• 22:50
  So I said, there's less race cars and more Canyon bombers, and
• 22:55
  then I'm going to go get coffee.
• 22:56
  And hopefully Jerry Seinfeld shows up, right?
• 22:58
  That kind of thing.
• 23:00
  It's not that unlikely.
• 23:01
  What I really like about, especially coastal California is the kind of
• 23:05
  stuff that you see in magazines is what people daily drive here.
• 23:08
  Yeah.
• 23:08
  It's awesome.
• 23:09
  Yeah, that's very true.
• 23:10
  You don't see that a whole lot on the East coast.
• 23:12
  I mean, obviously New York, Northern Virginia, Atlanta,
• 23:15
  stuff with the bigger cities.
• 23:17
  Yeah, absolutely.
• 23:17
  Wow.
• 23:18
  Check out that Bentley.
• 23:19
  But when you're in Malibu, it's like Bentley's like pedestrian.
• 23:26
  Whatever.
• 23:28
  To be honest, that's why I ended up selling the last Porsche
• 23:31
  911 that I had last year.
• 23:33
  It seems like when you move to Orange County, they just give you a 911.
• 23:35
  I just thought there's nothing.
• 23:37
  It no longer feels individualistic.
• 23:39
  It doesn't suit me to have the same type of car as everybody else.
• 23:42
  The complex that we're in is Porsche collectors, a Porsche dealer.
• 23:46
  Yeah.
• 23:46
  Another collection across the way.
• 23:48
  Like everything is air cooled Porsche in here.
• 23:50
  That's actually how we met.
• 23:52
  So there's a huge community for air cooled here, which is awesome.
• 23:55
  But what the possibility of what you can daily drive here, my regular
• 23:58
  normal vehicles, I'm a motorcycle and I have roads as my everyday cars.
• 24:02
  So you can take the boy out of the East coast.
• 24:04
  Is there anything that stays with you that you've tried to incorporate
• 24:08
  into the West coast car culture?
• 24:10
  Uh, no, there's no reason for that.
• 24:15
  I mean, we've been here a little while.
• 24:16
  So I think it was more of me trying to adapt and learn what happens here.
• 24:20
  But the type of shops that I've gotten to do work with, I work
• 24:23
  with shops all over the country.
• 24:24
  So I think that's a better to get a little bit of taste of everything.
• 24:27
  Cause I don't have like a California sensibility about what cars should
• 24:31
  look like or how they should be built.
• 24:32
  California for me is just where I live.
• 24:34
  And I love being by the beach.
• 24:35
  That's all that's all.
• 24:37
  As far as car styles and builds, there's so much variety across the country.
• 24:40
  And that's what I like with working with different people is there's
• 24:43
  different interests and different ways to approach everything.
• 24:45
  I don't think that you need to add a sensibility from where you're
• 24:48
  from to make something look good.
• 24:50
  So Chris being an artist is gotta be tough and an automotive artist.
• 24:54
  Probably even more so in some respects, right?
• 24:57
  Many people say, and this is true of racing as well,
• 25:00
  is failures breed successes.
• 25:02
  Sure.
• 25:03
  Are there still some projects that you look back on and go, man, the juice
• 25:06
  really wasn't worth the squeeze, or maybe there's still something out
• 25:10
  there that you want to get around to or hashtag around to it, right?
• 25:15
  That's a good question.
• 25:16
  I think there's such a long journey kind of get to this point right now.
• 25:19
  What I'm doing is exactly what I want to do.
• 25:22
  So I don't really think much past.
• 25:23
  Just enjoying the moment where I'm finally getting to do the stuff that
• 25:26
  I really enjoy, you know, sharing the paintings and the videos on social media.
• 25:29
  But if it took all the stakes and the failures and the weird job opportunities
• 25:33
  to get here, I can't be anything but grateful for all that weirdness.
• 25:37
  I haven't worked in the custom car industry for like 10 years
• 25:40
  before I switched over to artwork.
• 25:41
  It is a pretty volatile place.
• 25:43
  I don't think most people from the outside realize what a mess
• 25:45
  the industry really, really is.
• 25:47
  Being a full time artist is challenging, whether you draw
• 25:51
  cars or portraits or anything.
• 25:53
  What made the change really, really easy is working in a custom car world.
• 25:56
  I never knew if I was going to get paid from week to week anyways.
• 25:59
  So switching over to artwork was no change right off the cuff.
• 26:03
  You know, at least your income is totally in your control.
• 26:05
  At that point, you do what you can, you provide the work and
• 26:09
  you put it out to the world.
• 26:10
  Whereas working for other people in shops, it was, you're going to do the work and
• 26:13
  cross your fingers that the check is going to clear at the end of the week.
• 26:16
  That actually sounds like a great segue into our next question, which
• 26:19
  is, uh, if you had to give advice.
• 26:21
  Two other starving, I mean, aspiring artists, what would that be?
• 26:25
  Maybe some lessons you've learned.
• 26:27
  Have you already given us a few examples?
• 26:29
  So what are the lessons would you give?
• 26:31
  I think true for anybody, no matter whatever type of creative thing
• 26:34
  that you're in, even if you're like starting out as a shop owner,
• 26:36
  realize that you can't pay your rent.
• 26:38
  with exposure.
• 26:39
  So don't take it as a form of payment.
• 26:40
  It's not a real currency, but don't say no to opportunities
• 26:44
  that you think you can grow from.
• 26:45
  You got to know what to say yes to and what to say no to learning to say no
• 26:49
  to things is really, really, really hard when you start out with anything.
• 26:52
  Cause you want every opportunity to prove to yourself and to
• 26:55
  everybody else what you can do.
• 26:56
  So you need to say yes to stuff, but you need to not get trapped in that
• 26:59
  loop of whatever that can turn into.
• 27:01
  So learning to say no is really, really hard.
• 27:03
  Really, really, really important, but know that you can't work for free forever.
• 27:07
  So if you start out working for free, it's very hard to grow from that point.
• 27:11
  You typically work in what people would call traditional or analog media,
• 27:16
  you know, like you're talking about paintings and all that, but you've also
• 27:20
  made the shift into digital rendering.
• 27:22
  Why?
• 27:23
  What are some of those examples of some of the renders you've done?
• 27:26
  I mean, I like a little bit of everything.
• 27:27
  So here I've got like a small art supply store worth of stuff.
• 27:30
  So if I want to paint in acrylics, Or oils or color pencil or marker
• 27:33
  or ink or airbrush or digital.
• 27:36
  I've got everything that I need, depending on whatever that task is.
• 27:39
  I think that I need to accomplish to change over to digital.
• 27:42
  There's still so much in the digital world that I haven't messed with because
• 27:44
  I'm not like a 3d model or anything, everything that I do digital, I'll
• 27:47
  still do the same way, just hand drawn.
• 27:49
  I just use slightly better tools for, and that really came out
• 27:52
  of the need for practicality.
• 27:53
  As time went on, builders became more interested in seeing color variations,
• 27:58
  wheel variations and design change ideas.
• 28:01
  So the need to do a set of renderings, as opposed to here's a concept
• 28:05
  meant that redrawing from scratch on paper was just totally impractical.
• 28:09
  It would be worth the expense and the time to learn how to work digitally, just
• 28:12
  so you weren't burning paper an hour.
• 28:14
  So it's a much more efficient way to work.
• 28:15
  I don't love working digitally because it doesn't feel.
• 28:18
  Real and tactile to me, but I use it for what it is.
• 28:21
  Want to create art and paintings and use paint design work for a builder.
• 28:25
  I'll use whatever tools are going to get them the result that they're
• 28:28
  looking for as quickly as possible.
• 28:30
  So one of the better things about digital is I can just send them a
• 28:32
  preview shot of the file right away.
• 28:34
  And they can tell me yes, no, and what to change.
• 28:36
  And we can work really, really quickly as opposed to if I did a marker airbrush
• 28:39
  rendering and they said, let's move these things around that starts to make that
• 28:42
  process a little bit more difficult.
• 28:43
  So it's really more of the sense of practicality and make my life easier.
• 28:47
  And to give the builders that I work with something efficient and practical.
• 28:50
  So we've seen in the past, like you mentioned, 3d modeling, where people will
• 28:54
  render cars in motion and stuff like that.
• 28:57
  And they look.
• 28:57
  Yeah.
• 28:58
  So real one in particular we talked about in our drive thru episode.
• 29:01
  You remember Brad, the Volkswagen SP2 wide body RWB inspired thing.
• 29:05
  We're like, Oh my God, this is somebody's building.
• 29:07
  This is unreal.
• 29:08
  And you're like, bro, this is super Photoshopped.
• 29:10
  Yeah, exactly.
• 29:12
  Are you going in that direction as well?
• 29:14
  Is that something you want to do?
• 29:16
  Absolutely not.
• 29:17
  Is that like the highest end computing you need?
• 29:20
  It's not that for me, that's just not where my interest lies.
• 29:23
  One, there's people that specialize in it.
• 29:25
  So why reinvent the wheel if you want that work, hire artists that
• 29:28
  specialize in that type of work.
• 29:29
  I've got enough stuff to do, so I don't need to sit.
• 29:31
  And learn something else additionally to make things better in that way.
• 29:35
  To me, there's also a practicality element that sort of misses the mark a little bit
• 29:39
  with 3d model, digital rendering stuff.
• 29:41
  And, and there's artists that I think accomplish this better than others.
• 29:44
  Once we've wide bodied everything and chopped the roof off it and put Toyo
• 29:48
  AAARs on everything, what else can you do?
• 29:50
  Like that to me, it seems like this formula for 3d renderings
• 29:53
  that is put on everything.
• 29:55
  And you go, wow, that's really, really cool as a 3d model execution.
• 29:58
  There is zero fricking chance.
• 30:00
  Someone's going to build that.
• 30:00
  Not a chance that someone's going to cut up a kumtosh and
• 30:02
  turn it into this zero chance.
• 30:04
  It just, it's like, what is the purpose of this arc?
• 30:07
  What are we doing?
• 30:08
  If it's to sell posters, I'm cool with that.
• 30:10
  But as like a form of, are we going to make good concepts out of this?
• 30:14
  You can make some really cool over the top stuff, but in the
• 30:17
  real practical build world, if you can't turn it into something real.
• 30:20
  But on the same token, I think.
• 30:22
  Some of us would argue that chopping up the real thing and
• 30:25
  trying to do it is worse, right?
• 30:27
  Taking a Kuntosh that there are very limited numbers of to begin with and
• 30:31
  bastardizing it for lack of a better term.
• 30:33
  I'd rather see it done digitally.
• 30:35
  There's minuses to that, right?
• 30:37
  Yeah.
• 30:37
  Yeah.
• 30:37
  Yeah.
• 30:37
  It can't be all one way.
• 30:39
  You're totally, totally right.
• 30:40
  If there's a way to look at these concepts, you'd rather
• 30:42
  look at them in this way.
• 30:44
  I just think right now there's a style to all of them.
• 30:47
  This is actually sort of my problem with realism and art in general.
• 30:50
  When they all look the same, it no longer has that artist identity to it.
• 30:54
  It just has a look.
• 30:56
  You're right.
• 30:56
  And the other thing that I think would be cool as a side effect of this, obviously
• 31:01
  what you're doing with rendering is mock ups towards building the real
• 31:04
  thing, you know, setting that stage.
• 31:06
  Working with your client, all that, but with these digital 3d
• 31:09
  renders, I go back to the days.
• 31:12
  And now I'm going to date myself of like need for speed underground, where you
• 31:16
  had this almost limitless customization and you can build these, you know,
• 31:20
  stance, bro cars and Kind of stuff.
• 31:22
  And then you could go out and race your buddies.
• 31:24
  Yeah.
• 31:24
  That's for me is the cool part when you put it in a SIM, but it's like,
• 31:28
  how do you get the rendering that these guys built into those platforms
• 31:32
  where you could actually enjoy it?
• 31:33
  Because your point, you're just looking at a picture, right?
• 31:36
  And I don't mean to discount the amount of work that goes into doing this thing.
• 31:39
  I follow a number of these artists as well.
• 31:40
  And it is.
• 31:41
  Absolutely amazing work.
• 31:43
  More on the marketing side of me.
• 31:44
  Are we after entertainment here?
• 31:45
  Are we trying to inspire, build ideas?
• 31:47
  I just want to understand what the purpose is.
• 31:49
  If someone says, Hey, this is just for entertainment.
• 31:51
  I can just clear the rest of the stuff out of my head and not worry about it.
• 31:54
  And I like that.
• 31:55
  There's in the same boat.
• 31:56
  There's plenty I do.
• 31:57
  That's just meant for entertainment.
• 31:58
  That doesn't land in the practical.
• 32:00
  So it's certainly not up to me to preach it to people and say, ah,
• 32:02
  this, we need to figure a way to be practic that's sort of misses the mark.
• 32:06
  I like the idea of this type of stuff as an art form.
• 32:09
  I just hope that it evolves past this formulaic look that it has right now.
• 32:13
  You mentioned some competitors.
• 32:15
  Who are the competitors you have in your space?
• 32:18
  Competitors?
• 32:20
  I guess, what do you mean by competitors?
• 32:21
  Well, I guess we're always thinking about it in motorsports.
• 32:24
  Everybody's a competitor.
• 32:25
  Everybody's a rival.
• 32:26
  Yeah, we've all got a competitive nature.
• 32:28
  We've all got people that we want to be better than.
• 32:31
  I see what you're saying.
• 32:32
  I really don't look at anything as competitors.
• 32:35
  Not from the point of view of I'm better than anybody else.
• 32:38
  I look to a lot of other people for inspiration.
• 32:40
  There's a lot of stuff that I really, really like seeing.
• 32:43
  You.
• 32:43
  a very, uh, East coast thing.
• 32:44
  I think to think things more competitively, it's taken me years to
• 32:48
  remove that part out of my personality.
• 32:50
  So I try not to be competitive about stuff like this.
• 32:54
  Cause I'll be up all night working on paintings.
• 32:55
  We'll ask it in a proper West coast way then, which is who are
• 32:59
  the artists that you look up to and that you are inspired by?
• 33:03
  Well, no, yeah, it's definitely a better way to put it way more copacetic.
• 33:06
  I don't know.
• 33:07
  I'm happy to do what I'm doing and I hope that I get better at it.
• 33:10
  A lot of the artists that I follow that I really, really like
• 33:12
  aren't even automotive artists.
• 33:13
  They're more like portrait artists or landscape artists or oil painters.
• 33:17
  And a lot of these people, I just know they're like Instagram handles.
• 33:20
  So I actually don't even know their real name, but for anybody curious, the
• 33:23
  type of stuff that I'd be interested in, that's a lot of what I look at.
• 33:26
  It's like portrait art and landscape art.
• 33:28
  I don't look at a lot of other automotive artists.
• 33:30
  I love seeing other people's artwork.
• 33:31
  I can't not look at something and not like be sort of inspired by it.
• 33:36
  So I try to limit my intake of stuff like that, so that I can kind of keep myself
• 33:40
  in my own lane, if that makes any sense.
• 33:43
  After all this time that you've been doing this, Are you still self taught
• 33:46
  or have you gone back and gotten training or worked with other artists?
• 33:50
  Oh, I'm still very much self taught.
• 33:53
  Never got a chance to take any classes.
• 33:55
  I've started teaching classes actually.
• 33:57
  And they're kind of a cool thing about social media is that artists can
• 34:00
  kind of share information together.
• 34:02
  So, you know, like I said, other portrait artists or cartoon artists that I follow
• 34:05
  might mention materials that they're using, or even Steve Stanford when I've
• 34:08
  gotten time to talk with him, they might point out some materials that he tried
• 34:11
  just so I can go and point me in the right direction for some materials to try.
• 34:14
  So that's kind of the.
• 34:15
  Blessing of social media is a lot more information you've shared
• 34:18
  openly amongst artists, which is really, really cool, but I still
• 34:21
  haven't gotten any formal training.
• 34:22
  Maybe one day.
• 34:23
  Are there any of those artists that you would love to collaborate with that
• 34:27
  you haven't collaborated with already?
• 34:28
  Like not necessarily in the automotive.
• 34:30
  You know, sector, but more the, I guess the cartoon and comic graphic
• 34:34
  novels sector that you would like to collaborate with in some form or fashion.
• 34:37
  I think it would be a really, really fun idea.
• 34:39
  Uh, I always like the idea of artwork.
• 34:41
  That's going to kind of take me out of what I'm doing now
• 34:43
  and go to the next thing.
• 34:44
  I kind of go in and out of phases of artwork pretty quickly.
• 34:47
  So I like the idea of whatever's coming next to be a big sort
• 34:51
  of change in the normal.
• 34:53
  Something like that would be really, really cool.
• 34:55
  I actually haven't done a lot of artistic collaborations.
• 34:57
  That'd be a lot of fun.
• 34:58
  When I like to go through our work really, really quickly, so other
• 35:01
  people can complicate the process.
• 35:03
  You do a lot of projects for other people, a lot of work like
• 35:06
  that, but are there some projects that you're doing just for you?
• 35:08
  Most of what you see on social media, I'm doing just for me, which we're
• 35:11
  going to get into here in a second.
• 35:13
  And so that would be, yeah, that would be like a paintings.
• 35:16
  Most of the stuff that I'm sharing more prominently to be perfectly
• 35:19
  honest, the build rendering, the design work, that stuff that I
• 35:21
  rarely post or share on social media.
• 35:24
  So some of that stuff's top secret, right?
• 35:26
  It's pretty obvious.
• 35:26
  for clients.
• 35:26
  Some of it's secret, but the real truth to it is I don't need
• 35:30
  more to do than I already have.
• 35:32
  So I don't want to advertise.
• 35:34
  I don't want people to ask me to do something that I'm
• 35:35
  just going to say no to.
• 35:36
  I have some great people that I work with already.
• 35:39
  There's always space to say yes to some really interesting projects.
• 35:43
  From practice, the stuff that you put out there is what
• 35:45
  people are going to ask you for.
• 35:46
  So I put less of it out there and put more artwork out there.
• 35:49
  There's kind of this expression in Italian that I know and in English,
• 35:53
  it translates to the artist's hand.
• 35:55
  There's a certain just patience that you guys have this tendency.
• 35:59
  There's these strokes, you know, of the pen or the, or the brush or whatever,
• 36:03
  that a lot of people cannot mimic.
• 36:05
  They cannot imitate, right?
• 36:06
  And that's what makes, You know, people, artists and makes
• 36:08
  them masters and whatever.
• 36:09
  So I've watched you and your videos on social media and they're captivating, but
• 36:14
  they're the new form of art that's come up, especially in the automotive sector
• 36:19
  of artistry, that's this photo realistic.
• 36:22
  Art, and I know it's been around for a while.
• 36:24
  People did it, you know, in dots way back when, or, you know, all this kind
• 36:27
  of stuff and whatever, but nowadays it's just gotten to the point where you can
• 36:31
  almost not tell the difference between the canvas and the photo and the real car.
• 36:35
  And so I wonder, and I've seen the technique you use, and I've
• 36:38
  seen the technique that like Mano uses and some other people and
• 36:41
  whatnot, boil it down for us.
• 36:43
  How long does it take?
• 36:45
  It seems super involved, lots of layering, all this kind of stuff.
• 36:49
  Why photorealistic art?
• 36:50
  That's actually a really great and funny question.
• 36:52
  To be perfectly honest, I'm not a huge fan of photorealistic art because
• 36:56
  I'm somebody that really likes comic books and cartoons and animation.
• 36:59
  I like a stylized existence.
• 37:02
  I already live in the real world.
• 37:03
  So the idea of creating art that just replicates it is pretty boring to me.
• 37:07
  So the only way that I could create pieces that were, this is like a few part
• 37:12
  answer, but when I do stylized pieces, a lot of the feedback that I get comes
• 37:17
  down to the way that I've stylized.
• 37:19
  If you make a wheel out around, you've ruined the whole thing.
• 37:22
  So stylizing becomes this really delicate balance with cars.
• 37:25
  What can you get away with?
• 37:26
  What can you not?
• 37:27
  And I enjoy doing that push and pull.
• 37:29
  And I keep trying and just kind of seeing where it goes.
• 37:32
  At the end of the day, some basis of realism gives you a core strength
• 37:35
  for what the viewer is looking at.
• 37:37
  The only way that I've found to kind of do my own thing within realism I don't
• 37:41
  really don't consider what I do realism compared to a whole lot of other artists.
• 37:45
  It might be like, uh, legible and believable, but I don't think it has
• 37:49
  like this really high level in that way, but I do all my own lighting
• 37:53
  and color contour in all my art.
• 37:56
  So I don't use photo references for any of the lighting that I do.
• 37:59
  I make it all up.
• 38:00
  So that for me is the way that I can create an individual style or
• 38:04
  look in all of the pieces that I do.
• 38:06
  Cause there's no photo of any of the paintings I've ever done.
• 38:09
  But you are starting from a base drawing the way at least I've seen it.
• 38:13
  You're doing that in like pen and ink, and then it's kind of cool.
• 38:16
  Actually, you take a solid color.
• 38:18
  Like the Camaro video is an example.
• 38:20
  You did like a early seventies Camaro, right?
• 38:22
  Like the bumblebee exactly.
• 38:25
  And you just.
• 38:25
  Layered on this thick looking tempera paint on top of it, it looked like from
• 38:30
  the video and then started to peel the car out of this thick paint and then from
• 38:35
  there begin to add layer after layer after layer and then suddenly I'm like, holy
• 38:40
  smokes, you know, obviously that's all, you know, fast forwarded in time, right?
• 38:45
  Yeah, to some degree.
• 38:46
  Yeah.
• 38:46
  So how long does it take to put something like that together?
• 38:49
  And how do you see the vision?
• 38:51
  Why do you choose the cars that you choose when you do it?
• 38:54
  So there's a practicality aspect.
• 38:55
  There's a lot of things that actually I'm kind of thankful that it took
• 38:58
  away from working in the automotive industry, both the collision, the custom
• 39:01
  car industry, and that's efficiency.
• 39:03
  To me, being able to work really, really fast.
• 39:05
  is everything.
• 39:06
  So most of the paintings that you see, I'll do a la prima.
• 39:09
  It's just one sitting.
• 39:10
  So an afternoon, an evening, so figure four to eight hours, something
• 39:14
  like that, depending on the size and complexity of the piece.
• 39:17
  So I jam through stuff pretty quick.
• 39:19
  Cause I have an idea of where I want to go with each piece.
• 39:23
  And if you're familiar with your own process, there's less guesswork.
• 39:25
  And also because I'm not relying on a photo reference, I'm not
• 39:28
  comparing against anything else.
• 39:30
  It saves an enormous amount of time to go.
• 39:32
  This is the direction that I'm going to go.
• 39:33
  And I'm going to stick with it versus compare, compare, compare, compare.
• 39:36
  That's incredibly slow.
• 39:38
  So the way that I work just allows me to be.
• 39:40
  Pretty direct.
• 39:41
  There's still a lot of guesswork and there's a lot of back and forth.
• 39:44
  And then the way that I like to layer a lot of this stuff you'll see is acrylic.
• 39:47
  I'll paint in oil as well.
• 39:49
  And that's way more direct.
• 39:50
  But if you think about acrylic paint, same effect as if you're spraying a car, if
• 39:54
  you were going to blend a yellow panel.
• 39:56
  And you're going over primer, you'd either want to seal it a lighter gray or a white.
• 40:00
  You wouldn't want to seal it some other color.
• 40:01
  And if you're going to shoot a three stage in orange, you're either going to shoot
• 40:05
  that over a white or a tinted yellow.
• 40:07
  Your under colors will affect every other color afterwards,
• 40:10
  just like it does on a car.
• 40:12
  So if you think about what color has Maximum opacity.
• 40:16
  So that yellow car, for example, that bumblebee Camaro, half of it ended
• 40:19
  being black at the end of the pain.
• 40:20
  If I'd have based it black, that yellow would have never popped because
• 40:24
  it would take an inch of yellow over black to get that opacity instead.
• 40:28
  Start with a white ground, put some yellow over it.
• 40:30
  That's going to give you the most vibrancy.
• 40:32
  There's a GTO that I painted recently where I did something similar
• 40:35
  based, uh, yellow over white.
• 40:37
  The yellow was dry.
• 40:38
  Red over the yellow.
• 40:39
  And a lot of people asked why because there's no yellow left in the painting.
• 40:42
  Yellow is the undercolor for the red so the red could have
• 40:45
  more vibrancy in one coat.
• 40:48
  So there's a huge practicality element to all this.
• 40:51
  But then there's all those other little details too that when you look at it,
• 40:54
  just like the headlights alone, it's like, Oh, it has this little reflection.
• 40:58
  I mean, where does that come from?
• 40:59
  Is that just imagination or?
• 41:01
  Yep.
• 41:01
  Yep.
• 41:02
  The only thing I'll use reference for is line work.
• 41:04
  I don't want to be stuck to anything because I'm going to move around
• 41:07
  the lighting the way that I want.
• 41:08
  And after having done a billion paintings and drawings, you kind of go, well,
• 41:12
  this is what a headlight looks like.
• 41:13
  This is what a taillight looks like.
• 41:14
  This is what lighting looks like over top of this curve
• 41:16
  when it's red or blue or green.
• 41:18
  There's a lot that you can learn to do intuitively.
• 41:20
  There's certain types of headlight and taillight styles where you can go, yep,
• 41:23
  I better look at a photo to make sure.
• 41:24
  But I'm getting the ball where the light glow in the right place or the
• 41:28
  HID projectors, the right shape and in the right place, you know, as long as
• 41:31
  you've got a good basis for line work, the way that you fill that in should just
• 41:35
  be based on how you're casting light.
• 41:37
  And because I'm not using a reference for that, I'm just doing it all one time.
• 41:40
  I'm not thinking that many steps ahead.
• 41:42
  I'm just kind of going, I'm going to shoot.
• 41:44
  All the colors on this whole thing.
• 41:45
  And then as I get towards the end, I'll tighten up the headlights.
• 41:47
  We'll tighten up the tail light.
• 41:48
  So the phrase is loose to tight, do all the big areas, do all the messy stuff.
• 41:52
  And then as it comes together, work on the details, because there's no sense in
• 41:56
  working on details until you know that you've got all this big stuff, right?
• 41:59
  If something goes wrong in the details and you have to start
• 42:01
  over, you've wasted all the time.
• 42:02
  So I always save all that detail stuff for the end.
• 42:05
  You know, even in let's say grade school and high school art classes, they teach
• 42:08
  you right up front about perspective and things like that, but it's always in
• 42:12
  reference to, Oh, I'm drawing a house on like a farmhouse or something like that.
• 42:16
  And it's always something like simple objects.
• 42:19
  I've always found cars to be the most difficult things to draw properly
• 42:24
  because it's a 3d object on a 2d surface.
• 42:27
  Right.
• 42:27
  And I get it.
• 42:27
  Houses are 3d objects too, but they're square.
• 42:30
  There's so many curves.
• 42:32
  Yeah, there's, there's so many curves and angles and just all these things
• 42:35
  to a car sometimes are even more complicated than drawing a human, right?
• 42:39
  The human face, you can lay out the ovals and all the circles and kind of
• 42:42
  get it going and you build around that.
• 42:44
  But car is so multifaceted.
• 42:46
  What do you do to get started to get it right?
• 42:48
  To build that Camaro in the pen and ink part.
• 42:51
  So it doesn't come out.
• 42:52
  The front looks right in the back end is, you know, squeezed like the
• 42:55
  Oscar Mayer Wiener or something.
• 42:57
  Fundamentals to being able to draw is really, really important.
• 42:59
  And not every drawing is going to happen on the first try.
• 43:01
  This is good for any artist to know it.
• 43:03
  It might take a half a dozen sketches or overlays before you
• 43:07
  kind of go, all right, I'm finally starting to make it make sense.
• 43:10
  But I start out with a pretty rudimentary way, you know, I'll just draw a box in
• 43:14
  an angle that I think that I want to, the vehicle or the section to be in just a
• 43:17
  box, just something really, really simple.
• 43:19
  And just start to break the box into pieces.
• 43:22
  You know, this is the windshield line.
• 43:23
  This is the fender arc.
• 43:24
  And these are all guest lines.
• 43:26
  I don't know if I'm going to get them right, but I need reference.
• 43:28
  points.
• 43:28
  I need to guess.
• 43:29
  So whether the guess is right or wrong, I can decide, you
• 43:32
  know, should I move that line?
• 43:33
  Should I, should I keep scooting around?
• 43:34
  Just the art of drawing is something all in its own.
• 43:37
  And I certainly still make plenty of mistakes.
• 43:39
  Drawing an obscure perspectives is difficult enough.
• 43:43
  I don't like drawing normal angles of things.
• 43:46
  It's pretty boring.
• 43:46
  So I always want to have an extra flavor, but having a unique take
• 43:49
  on perspective can add something so much extra to what you're looking at.
• 43:54
  You know, to be able to look at something from a view that people don't see where
• 43:57
  there's no photo of, it's kind of a cool opportunity to set the bar kind of high.
• 44:01
  You kind of go, man, I really need to get these details in the right place.
• 44:03
  So I might have to look at three different pictures of angles to
• 44:07
  compare details against, to place things before I get it right.
• 44:10
  Then it becomes inception where we take a picture of your photorealistic
• 44:14
  picture that has no picture.
• 44:15
  And then it has a picture.
• 44:16
  Yeah, it's a journey.
• 44:18
  It's a journey.
• 44:19
  What was the hardest project you worked on?
• 44:22
  What was the toughest thing to draw or to put it all together finally?
• 44:26
  And you went, all right, I'm glad that's over with.
• 44:28
  I mean, there's always stuff that comes along.
• 44:30
  It's pretty challenging.
• 44:31
  To be honest, I don't do a lot of commissions and a lot of request stuff.
• 44:34
  Most of what I do is just kind of from the hip, you know, whatever I'm
• 44:37
  inspired to that day or, or however that works out, just because I don't
• 44:40
  like the limitations of what other people's ideas and perspectives are.
• 44:44
  I just kind of want to do my own thing and hope that people enjoy that.
• 44:46
  I do do requests on occasion.
• 44:48
  It's rare to agree to something that I think is going to work
• 44:51
  me to death from experience to try to say no better and kinder.
• 44:56
  Chris, since you're an artist, we would be remiss if we didn't ask you some of
• 45:00
  our very specific Pit Stop questions.
• 45:03
  We've already asked two of them, the poster on the wall and then
• 45:05
  the sexiest car of all time.
• 45:07
  What would you have in your three car garage?
• 45:09
  Three cars.
• 45:09
  That's all you get.
• 45:11
  Money is no object.
• 45:12
  Money is no object.
• 45:14
  I probably still play pretty safe, man.
• 45:16
  Well, I definitely have to have a Ferrari 250 short wheel base.
• 45:19
  Probably a Ferrari F50.
• 45:20
  And I have to pick some kind of Porsche to have in there.
• 45:25
  Maybe like an early 70s RS.
• 45:27
  Something air cooled for sure.
• 45:28
  Yeah, I'm pretty easy.
• 45:29
  I don't need to spend a bazillion dollars on cars.
• 45:32
  So let's take the inverse of that.
• 45:34
  The ugliest car of all time.
• 45:36
  And is there such a thing to an artist?
• 45:38
  Oh yeah, because I'm not classically trained.
• 45:41
  I don't have to pretend to be poetic about every single thing that's made.
• 45:44
  I don't have to come up with these lies about, oh, these key lines are from BMW.
• 45:48
  Everything they make right now.
• 45:50
  Freaking awful.
• 45:50
  Every single time.
• 45:53
  Oh, that's awesome.
• 45:55
  Is it because they've exaggerated the kidney grills?
• 45:58
  It's just gotten out of control?
• 46:00
  Or is it something else?
• 46:00
  I couldn't place one thing that would be like, I don't know.
• 46:05
  The whole thing is just a how, how did we arrive here?
• 46:07
  A company that makes such good cars, even aesthetically, they're very
• 46:11
  German, they're very utilitarian, but they've started to lean this Let's
• 46:15
  try to be a little bit Lamborghini and it just misses the mark.
• 46:18
  It's so dumb.
• 46:19
  It doesn't mean the cars don't perform great in most of these cars, you know.
• 46:22
  Well, I guess say maybe like the M2 definitely is a good looking
• 46:25
  car, but the M4, I don't know, there's something about the way that
• 46:28
  they're going with their design.
• 46:29
  You're just like, I don't know where you guys are going.
• 46:31
  I actually, I think if there's a lot of contemporary stuff,
• 46:33
  that's pretty hard on the eyes, you know, the electric EV Hummer.
• 46:37
  Not really sure where that's coming from.
• 46:38
  If we're all just going to like draw ideas with rulers and stuff,
• 46:42
  then people don't need my help.
• 46:44
  And a lot of these new cars are rendered.
• 46:46
  They're not drawn by hand anymore.
• 46:48
  I mean, I'm, I'm assuming here, but I mean, a lot of it is done in CAD.
• 46:50
  Tires are designed in CAD.
• 46:52
  A lot of things are done in CAD, 3D printed and otherwise.
• 46:56
  It's true.
• 46:56
  That's where a company like BMW is really, really confusing.
• 46:59
  They have a really, really artistic take on why they do the things.
• 47:02
  They still clay model.
• 47:03
  So does, uh, so does plastic.
• 47:04
  Porsche, but you get a very different sense of how Ferrari, Porsche,
• 47:09
  and BMW handle their audience and their target cars and, and
• 47:13
  who they're trying to sell to.
• 47:14
  Same with Lamborghini.
• 47:15
  I mean, how many lines and slats and vents can you put on the same car
• 47:18
  over and over and over and over again?
• 47:19
  Enough?
• 47:20
  No idea.
• 47:20
  Never enough.
• 47:22
  Yeah.
• 47:22
  You know, maybe it's just 'cause that See 'em all the time.
• 47:24
  It seems like if you're a full-time YouTuber, you own a McLaren.
• 47:27
  And to me, they're really not that interesting to look at.
• 47:30
  That's true.
• 47:30
  And they all kind of look the same.
• 47:31
  They're hard to tell apart, but you brought up something
• 47:33
  interesting about BMW.
• 47:34
  I think there's certain brands that are iconic for certain
• 47:38
  features like the kidney grills.
• 47:40
  BMW is associated with that.
• 47:41
  BMW is, I think we all look back to the era of square bodies and round
• 47:45
  headlights, much like there's a big craze of the pop up headlights,
• 47:48
  just like your 348 Ferrari there.
• 47:51
  Is there something in your take that is that iconic thing
• 47:55
  that you love about a car?
• 47:56
  Maybe it's the pop up headlight.
• 47:57
  Maybe it's the Porsche whale tail or something.
• 47:59
  Is there something that just, it's that one facet that sticks out to
• 48:03
  you that maybe every car should have?
• 48:05
  That's something that you really love.
• 48:06
  Maybe not on the nose in that way.
• 48:08
  I think each manufacturer, Or at least in some of the higher end models have
• 48:12
  done a really good job of keeping the heritage with where they're headed.
• 48:16
  The one thing that I can say about designs that I think are just a little
• 48:19
  bit sideways, like some of this BMW stuff is silver lining is you can only go up
• 48:23
  from here and you can only bring back the classic look and people will be stoked.
• 48:27
  Kind of like when Porsche went from the 996 to the 997 return back to round
• 48:32
  headlights, as opposed to the Friday, kind of giving the people what they want.
• 48:35
  It's sort of misled 996 is a great car, but if you go too far, you can return to
• 48:40
  Coke classic and people will be stoked.
• 48:43
  We're in an era right now where all cars are starting to look the same
• 48:47
  and it's in the technologically and for the best aerodynamics for the most
• 48:51
  fuel efficient vehicles or whatever, but in your opinion, what is the best?
• 48:54
  Best decade for the best looking cars before the accountants and the bean
• 48:59
  counters got in and ruined the industry.
• 49:02
  It's the bangle BMWs.
• 49:03
  That's what he likes.
• 49:06
  That's a good question.
• 49:07
  I think most people are going to probably.
• 49:10
  Think about cars the same way they think about music, whatever influenced them most
• 49:13
  as a kid is probably where they would go.
• 49:15
  And I would have never really guessed that mid to late nineties would
• 49:19
  be where I find a happy spot with design because we're still like
• 49:24
  OBD one, tipping into OBD two cars, regulations are changing a little bit.
• 49:29
  There's still some freedom of design.
• 49:30
  They might not be the best cars overall, but that's how you end up with something
• 49:34
  like the E36 BMWs and threes that are just, you know, Become like this kind
• 49:38
  of great timeless classic, you know, the three, five, five Ferraris, uh,
• 49:41
  Porsche going from nine, nine, three to nine, nine, six to nine, nine, seven.
• 49:44
  The early 2000s stuff is really, really cool too.
• 49:46
  But I think there's so much design in there that also went too far, like for
• 49:50
  tourists, you know, once they turn all the headlights into these weird round shapes.
• 49:55
  Things went a little bit strange.
• 49:56
  So there's good moments, I think, in every decade.
• 49:59
  Lately, something about the 90s feels pretty comfortable because we'll
• 50:02
  never get flip up headlights again.
• 50:03
  We'll never get non airbag steering wheels again.
• 50:06
  Cars at least have some shape to them, but they also don't have to be purposeful.
• 50:10
  There doesn't have to be a reason other than it looked good, and I like that.
• 50:13
  I mean, further back, everything just about from the late fifties
• 50:17
  and early sixties, you just couldn't ask for a better era of
• 50:21
  just, let's just make it look cool.
• 50:23
  You know, that brings up a really good point, which is a couple of years ago,
• 50:26
  we did a sub series of articles called retro relativity, and it was all about
• 50:30
  the resurgence of the retro cars, right?
• 50:33
  Bringing back the mini, the Fiat 500, the beetle, the challenger, right?
• 50:38
  And so I have to ask you the question, who wore it best?
• 50:41
  Which one of the retro reintroductions is your favorite?
• 50:45
  I guess favorite is going to be kind of a tricky one.
• 50:48
  I know which one is absolutely my least favorite.
• 50:50
  Well, let's let's go with that.
• 50:52
  Anything that Dodge does.
• 50:54
  as a rebrand is awful.
• 50:55
  The Dart, the Challenger, Charger, whatever.
• 50:58
  Whenever you use your old badge to sell a new trick, you know, even Ford, their
• 51:02
  Mach E with their Mustang right now could have happily been called a Mach E.
• 51:06
  It didn't really need to be called a Mustang.
• 51:08
  Hey, I'm not the marketing department.
• 51:09
  So what do you know?
• 51:10
  But yeah, I'm not really a fan of how Dodge does their new classics.
• 51:15
  They're not my favorite, I should say.
• 51:16
  Um, especially something like the Dart.
• 51:17
  You just kind of go, you used a really cool, like, identity, and you just
• 51:21
  stuck it on the little car, you know?
• 51:23
  Yeah, it just sort of misses the mark for us.
• 51:25
  Because they didn't want to call it a Neon, but you know, hey, whatever.
• 51:28
  Honestly, it would have been cooler if they called it a neon.
• 51:30
  It would have been a little bit more honest, but I do
• 51:32
  got to give it to Chrysler.
• 51:33
  They're like the last American brand that really knows what Americans
• 51:36
  want as far as like a minivan with 700 horsepower, because that's what,
• 51:41
  yeah, that's just what they do.
• 51:44
  I was actually going to say, strange as it might seem, the new beetle, like
• 51:47
  that design, actually I think really worked well as far as like the new
• 51:51
  classic look to bringing something back.
• 51:53
  Strangely enough, you still kind of see him on the road and you
• 51:55
  go, yeah, it looks like a beetle.
• 51:56
  The retro hasn't stopped, right?
• 51:59
  That's true.
• 51:59
  I'm sure you're aware of the most recent re release.
• 52:03
  Let's talk about the Alpha five by DeLorean.
• 52:06
  Oh, that's not where I thought you were going.
• 52:08
  Oh, where?
• 52:08
  Where did you think I was going?
• 52:09
  Where did you think I was going?
• 52:10
  I thought exactly.
• 52:11
  I thought you were doing Kosh.
• 52:13
  Oh, we can do Kosh.
• 52:14
  We can do Kosh,
• 52:15
  I think we can all agree both of those examples are pretty awful.
• 52:19
  Oh no.
• 52:19
  I'm in love with the new Kosh.
• 52:21
  Yeah, I don't think so.
• 52:22
  I love it.
• 52:24
  I'm with you, Chris.
• 52:25
  It feels like an upgraded Aventador.
• 52:27
  It's it's just too, it's a little too body kitty for me.
• 52:32
  It's just a little bit like we put this body on an existing platform.
• 52:35
  It's, you know, it's easy for me to be cynical.
• 52:37
  You guys know I'm a Maryland guy.
• 52:38
  That's just the flavor of conversation.
• 52:40
  It's not the worst thing that I've ever seen.
• 52:42
  Um, especially compared to, let's say the DeLorean, the Kutosh thing is just
• 52:45
  kind of like Lamborghini has this habit of doing these kind of special models
• 52:49
  that you have no idea who they're for.
• 52:51
  I'm like, who's buying these?
• 52:52
  Where are these going?
• 52:52
  Who's signing up to get one of these?
• 52:54
  I mean, I have some really strange allocations.
• 52:56
  I mean, Bugatti does the same thing.
• 52:58
  Look at the Devo.
• 52:59
  They made like 40 of them.
• 53:00
  You're like, yeah, there, there's definitely some weird stuff in there,
• 53:04
  but I think Bugatti, you can say they have way more years of heritage to
• 53:09
  back them up, but Bugatti and then some higher tier McLaren's and then
• 53:12
  Pagani's on the, and Koenigsegg, these are just like way higher tier cars all
• 53:18
  the way up in the spectrum, Lamborghini in that world still feels great.
• 53:21
  Very mid spectrum feels very sub Ferrari to me, but I don't care.
• 53:25
  So you partnered the Kutosh and the DeLorean together.
• 53:28
  What is it that turned you off about the new DeLorean's reveal?
• 53:31
  I'm just curious.
• 53:32
  Man, people are just going to hate me because I'm so cynical about
• 53:35
  aesthetics and the way cars look.
• 53:37
  And it's not like my opinion is worth anything.
• 53:39
  It's just an opinion, but if you ever follow me on social media, you'll know.
• 53:42
  I never share opinions about this stuff.
• 53:44
  Cause I just sparing myself a headache.
• 53:46
  But, uh, uh, Welcome to break fix Chris.
• 53:50
  Yes, yes.
• 53:51
  I don't know.
• 53:51
  Yeah.
• 53:51
  I don't know.
• 53:51
  It's all fair game here.
• 53:53
  We're making awful automotive journals.
• 53:55
  I'm the owner of a 348 Spyder, so I've, it's fair game, you know, so I get it.
• 53:59
  From my point of view, it takes something like the DeLorean
• 54:02
  that already doesn't look good.
• 54:03
  Different time period that I was born and raised.
• 54:06
  I had no nostalgia for the DeLorean to begin with.
• 54:09
  So I have no want to see a reborn version, let alone the fact that you're going
• 54:14
  to revamp something that seems like a pretty far departure from what the
• 54:18
  original idea, DeLorean is only one thing.
• 54:20
  There's only one DeLorean ever.
• 54:22
  So if you're going to rebrand and make something new.
• 54:25
  You really only have one vehicle to reference.
• 54:27
  How can you mess that up so bad?
• 54:29
  I'm with you there.
• 54:30
  And my sister said the same thing when we reviewed it on the drive thru
• 54:33
  episode twice, my departure from it, because I was super excited about it.
• 54:39
  I'm like some of the angles and the teasers.
• 54:41
  I'm like, Oh my God.
• 54:41
  There's other perspectives that it does look really good.
• 54:45
  That the front end is actually details.
• 54:47
  Yeah, there's that front end has some really cool features to it.
• 54:51
  Brad says it looks kind of like a lucid air.
• 54:52
  I'm like, I get that.
• 54:53
  I see that.
• 54:54
  What killed me were those doors.
• 54:55
  Yes, I get that the gull wing is iconic, but it's a four seater gull
• 55:00
  wing, which means if you look at the doors, they go from fender arch to
• 55:04
  fender arch and they're just enormous.
• 55:06
  And it drives me nuts, drives me nuts.
• 55:08
  I think we got some other questions to ask you, right, Brad?
• 55:11
  Yeah.
• 55:11
  So what is the best color combination for a vehicle?
• 55:15
  Black, red, tan, black, reds and blacks.
• 55:17
  Are there some red or yellow to me that that's it.
• 55:20
  But I like loud colors.
• 55:22
  Are there some cars that only look good in one color, like red
• 55:25
  Ferraris or yellow Corvettes?
• 55:27
  Well, nobody likes Corvettes.
• 55:28
  So actually a yellow Corvette makes a way better argument to me.
• 55:34
  I'm like one of the three people that actually likes yellow cars.
• 55:36
  Once it's yellow, I'm like, all right, let me hear you out because
• 55:39
  the car listing says yellow.
• 55:41
  I better check this out.
• 55:42
  Cause you never know color is a personality trait.
• 55:44
  Her vehicle, it can say a lot, whether it's over the top or not enough, or in
• 55:49
  such a boring time for colors right now, there's only a couple of manufacturers
• 55:53
  that are still sort of eccentric with color ideas and that that's really the
• 55:56
  personality behind the way a car looks.
• 55:59
  You can really kill something by painting it the wrong color.
• 56:01
  Same with a custom build.
• 56:02
  You really do have to be picky about it and you should be because
• 56:05
  color and wheels and stance.
• 56:06
  These are just basic identity traits.
• 56:08
  of any car.
• 56:09
  So to do it wrong can throw the whole formula off.
• 56:12
  You're right about that, Chris.
• 56:13
  But there's one car that has been said over and over again.
• 56:16
  It looks good in every color and that's the 9 11, especially a
• 56:20
  classic eighties, 9 11 wide body.
• 56:22
  You know, that 9 30 turbo look, is there a wrong color for a 9 11?
• 56:26
  Maybe not.
• 56:27
  I've had a few and I've enjoyed them in a few different colors
• 56:30
  and I see them every day.
• 56:31
  I think I've ever seen one where I was like, Why did they choose that color?
• 56:34
  There's better yellows than not.
• 56:35
  And there's better silvers than not.
• 56:37
  But it is kind of this timeless shape that the light looks, you know, rolls over
• 56:41
  it almost the same way with any color.
• 56:43
  So they do look good in pretty much any color.
• 56:45
  That is true.
• 56:46
  Probably shoot any color on and be pretty happy about that.
• 56:48
  Wagon, sedan, convertible, or coupe?
• 56:50
  I think we know which way you're leaning because of what's behind you, but
• 56:54
  we're going to ask the question anyway.
• 56:55
  Got a motorcycle, a roadster, and a convertible.
• 56:57
  So I like as much sunshine and air as possible, but it
• 57:01
  depends so much on the car.
• 57:02
  Even something like the 348 the difference between the Berlinetta, Spyder is
• 57:08
  actually really big aesthetically.
• 57:10
  So it depends on how the manufacturer approached each design, because there's
• 57:14
  aspects like I thought, I feel like the three 48 spider looks better than
• 57:16
  the Burley Netta or feel like the three five five Burley Netta looks
• 57:19
  better than the three five five spider.
• 57:21
  It's just the way that they handle the lines for each
• 57:22
  car is just different enough.
• 57:24
  These days when I'm in a car with, with a roof, I feel very claustrophobic.
• 57:28
  All right, Chris, this is one of my favorites.
• 57:30
  It tells me a lot about who you are as a petrol head.
• 57:32
  You're the last one in the design room, your vote.
• 57:36
  is what swings this.
• 57:37
  It settles the debate between the Porsche 959 and the Ferrari F40.
• 57:42
  Which do you choose?
• 57:43
  Man, that's really interesting.
• 57:44
  Yeah, I think naturally I'm just going to go F40, but note that I did
• 57:48
  have to pause and think about it.
• 57:49
  You know, it wasn't instant because the F40 is not my favorite flagship car of
• 57:53
  Ferrari, but I do quite like the 959.
• 57:56
  But you just, it's hard to beat something as timeless as an F40.
• 58:00
  I think, I think you said the F50 and your three garage notes.
• 58:07
  Yes, exactly.
• 58:08
  Thank you.
• 58:08
  Thank you.
• 58:09
  Someone who finally agrees with me.
• 58:11
  It's just you and me.
• 58:12
  Nobody else likes it.
• 58:13
  No.
• 58:15
  If that was the truth, then the prices would come down, but Oh yeah, I was
• 58:18
  about to say, they aren't getting any cheaper actually, so maybe I'm wrong.
• 58:23
  Chris, kind of switching gears, how does one go about getting some of your artwork?
• 58:27
  I post new stuff every week on Instagram, and usually the new stuff
• 58:31
  is also listed on the website at the same time, uh, artofchristianlop.
• 58:35
  com, and Pinstripe underscore Chris on Instagram, showing new videos as
• 58:39
  regularly as possible, new artwork.
• 58:41
  And that's usually the best way to get ahold of me, either contacting me through
• 58:43
  the website or straight through Instagram.
• 58:45
  I'm still one of those weird people that tries to respond to every
• 58:48
  message and every comment that I can.
• 58:49
  Thank you for responding to us.
• 58:51
  Yeah, I think that's how we got connected.
• 58:53
  Yeah.
• 58:54
  Sometimes you do commissions.
• 58:56
  It's very rare.
• 58:57
  I do that, but you will entertain ideas, but you start with me.
• 59:01
  I'll always hear somebody out.
• 59:02
  Yeah, exactly.
• 59:03
  Exactly.
• 59:04
  I, it's just simpler that way.
• 59:05
  If.
• 59:06
  There's not enough time in the day to say yes to everybody.
• 59:08
  I would like to, but for the time and the expanse, I want to make sure that
• 59:12
  artwork is going in the hands of people that are like, I realize they're just
• 59:15
  paintings of cars, but for some people, this is like, is it part of their family?
• 59:19
  Or it's a really an important part of them.
• 59:20
  Or it's an aspiration car.
• 59:22
  And it's not always easy to find those types of people
• 59:24
  that are interested in artwork.
• 59:26
  But to me, there's not one type of car person.
• 59:28
  I think there's a lot of like passive people that enjoy cars, but there
• 59:31
  are some really diehard car people.
• 59:33
  And I just really want to make sure that I'm putting the effort in.
• 59:36
  It's for the people that are really serious about it.
• 59:38
  I guess my request then is out the window.
• 59:40
  Cause I was thinking, you know, you make this photo realistic art.
• 59:43
  Why don't we make a car look like it's canvas and go the other
• 59:46
  way and texturize it, right?
• 59:48
  That kind of thing.
• 59:48
  Very interesting idea.
• 59:50
  Yes.
• 59:52
  Interesting ideas.
• 59:53
  What are you working on now?
• 59:54
  Any big projects or anything you can share or reveal for our audience, things
• 59:58
  that they should be looking forward to.
• 1:00:00
  Yeah, anything that I'm working on design wise is either all completely
• 1:00:04
  related to SEMA, so I don't even get to really share much about that stuff
• 1:00:08
  that's really up to the builders to do the unveil on those things.
• 1:00:11
  But the way that I work through the paintings and artwork here, I'm always
• 1:00:14
  working on something new, so I don't even think that many steps ahead, I You
• 1:00:17
  know, wake up tomorrow and I paint that day and that's what I'm working on.
• 1:00:20
  So it's hard for me to look down the road beyond that, really,
• 1:00:23
  tomorrow's painting, whatever that is.
• 1:00:24
  So in closing, any shout outs, promotions or anything else you'd like
• 1:00:28
  to share that we didn't cover thus far?
• 1:00:29
  Not a single one.
• 1:00:32
  No, I'm just kidding.
• 1:00:34
  I don't have any sponsors, so, uh, except Raid Shadow Legends.
• 1:00:37
  They're the greatest.
• 1:00:38
  YouTube.
• 1:00:39
  Really, really want to get into Ray Shadow Legends.
• 1:00:41
  Maybe one day they'll sponsor me, but we'll see.
• 1:00:43
  GTM will sponsor you for 50 bucks.
• 1:00:48
  Chris's automobile was conceived like all true art to share a passion.
• 1:00:53
  His art includes exclusive works, including prints and originals themed
• 1:00:56
  in the automotive and motorsports world.
• 1:00:58
  And he offers pieces that will fit virtually any home office,
• 1:01:01
  dorm, garage, or museum.
• 1:01:03
  And to learn more about Chris and his artwork, be sure to log on
• 1:01:06
  to www dot art of Chris Dunlop.
• 1:01:08
  com or follow Chris on social at pinstripe underscore Chris on Instagram
• 1:01:13
  and add pinstripe Chris on Facebook.
• 1:01:15
  That's right, Brad and Chris.
• 1:01:16
  We can't thank you enough for coming on break fix and exposing our audience to yet
• 1:01:21
  another corner of the vehicle enthusiast and motor sport world, the main.
• 1:01:25
  An artist, right?
• 1:01:26
  I mean, who'd have thunk it?
• 1:01:27
  We talk about all sorts of stuff on this show.
• 1:01:29
  So we really do appreciate you, a fellow former Marylander coming on here and
• 1:01:34
  talking to us about cars and about art.
• 1:01:37
  Thank you guys so much for having me and weathering all my cynical
• 1:01:40
  responses towards car design.
• 1:01:41
  I appreciate that.
• 1:01:42
  You're in good company, Chris.
• 1:01:50
  If you like what you've heard and want to learn more about GTM,
• 1:01:52
  be sure to check us out on www.
• 1:01:56
  gtmotorsports.
• 1:01:56
  org.
• 1:01:57
  You can also find us on Motorsports.
• 1:02:00
  Also, if you want to get involved or have suggestions for future shows, You can call
• 1:02:05
  or text us at 202 630 1770, or send us an email at crewchief at gtmotorsports.
• 1:02:12
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• 1:02:12
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• 1:02:14
  Hey everybody, Crew Chief Eric here.
• 1:02:17
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• 1:02:20
  to remind you that GTM remains a no annual fees organization.
• 1:02:25
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