Quick Coffee run in the VW Roadster

1st day of the year and 1st Coffee Run of the year. Sure was a nice day here in SoCal and since my studio is at home I pretty much use any excuse I can to get out of the house for a little bit and get some air. I was surprised how many questions I got about this car on Instagram and Facebook today, but for anyone who's curious this is my 1969 Vw Bug/Roadster. It's a true roadster in the sense that it has no door glass and capped door tops and of course, no roof. I actually bought this car almost 5 years ago and it has a bit of a back story... but I'll have to save that for it's own post. That'll be a good one. Something I'd like to do a bit more this year is share a bit more of the behind the scenes and adventures that happen in between and during artwork things. Not every day is 'sit down to a painting/drawing' day so it'll be fun to share a bit more. Until then, Enjoy the Ride!

And if you'd like to find me on Social Media, im at:

Instagram:  https://www.instagram.com/pinstripe_chris/

Facebook:  https://www.facebook.com/christopher.dunlop.355

"Ran When Parked": a classic tale of air cooled cars

Happy Friday!

Im looking at my posts here for the year going, "man, I sure missed a lot of cool things". So I'm going share some of what we've missed here starting with this classic Vw Bug piece called "Ran When Parked". Im a big air cooled Vw/Corvair enthusiast (I own 1 of each!) and I can't tell you how many times when browsing the classifieds for these I see the phrase 'Ran When Parked' or 'Haven't Tried to Start it', which to me essentially means: 'we tried, but it takes more effort then we are willing' to get it started. Im not sure which this happens more with in the cars that we've looked at, but it feels like more of a tradition with older Vw's. They're pretty resilient tho, so just a little TLC and they seem to get on to the road pretty easily... as long as the tires are round.

The Signed & Numbered Limited Edition Series Prints are SOLD OUT

Open Edition (Printed Signature) Prints are Available HERE

3 New Prints hitting the Store Today

Today we're launching 3 New Prints: the Custom 3 Window Hot Rod, the Custom Vw Bug, and the Square Body Street rod. All of these are available in standard frame sizes (so no need to spring for custom frames) and are available for domestic or international buyers. We also have the Originals of the 3 Window and the Vw Bug available- all of theses are listed at:

http://www.PintripeChris.com/Store

New VolksRod ink piece For Sale!

The new VolksRod piece is finished and for sale! This was done completely freehand using markers on 22"x30" Illustration Board- no rulers or tools were used. There were a few new things added and tried out on this one, but I' m totally happy with the results.

$250 + shipping
Email me for details-  Cruizin4Customs@hotmail.com

NEW Custom Beetle Original & Prints For Sale!

On Valentines day I couldn't think of a better car to draw then a Vw Beetle, but I certainly thought the car could use a little tweaking. I own a 72, and while I love it- I can't help but re imagine it. So the roof is chopped, and the wind screen tilted back a little- not a major re imagine, but enough to give the car a little motion without being too radical. As with always, this was done completely freehand using Fine & Ultra Fine Sharpies- no rulers were used.

Prints & Original available here:

http://www.PinstripeChris.com/CustomCarStore

Thanks for looking!

One for the record books

Earlier this year i met Troy Mason, owner of a 65 Vw Notchback ProMod. Jeff Mullins had built up this race car for him, John Buttrey had painted it, and Troy was looking to really make it stand out. Previously, a different (and more well known) airbrush artist had sketched out an idea for him involving traditional flames and skulls. Since Troy seem to like the idea but trusted me enough to do what i thought would be cool, i went with a more lively version of that idea. A Vw skull on the hood with blue fire, and blue fire streaming down the sides. Definitly one of the coolest things i've been a part of. It was alot of fun to do and Troy is a great customer. Following the car i did his helmet, the deckild of the the car containing the names of the people involved, and even redid a part of the car after an unfortunatness. As promised by Troy, here's his car in this months Hot Vw Magazine. I've had a lot of customers tell me that by giving them a break on (the cost of) ta job that they'll really push my name... or that it'll be good advertisement. I've lost count of how many times I've heard this and had faith enough to go through with it. Troy never BS-ed me for a second, he was straight with details and very involved. I wish more customers were like him. He had told me that his car would eventually be in Hot Vw... and man was i happy when he told me that it was. This is the 1st time anything of mine has been published like this, and i am very grateful. Thank you Troy for everything, i look forward to doing business with you again soon.

Troys' Vw dragster

Earlier this summer, i did the artwork on Troy's 65 Notchback dragster. The sides were covered with blue fire and smoke and the nose had some of the fire/smoke along with a well placed skull that had a Vw emblem stamped into it. I also did the matching helmet and the rear lid containing the name of the car and all the people involved with it. Really cool project and an excellent customer. Recently, the car had a small scrape with a guard rail... the day before a magazine photo shoot for Hot Vw. Most of the scrapes cleaned off and im sure the photos were taken cleverly enough to not draw attention to those areas. There did end up being a few cracks in the fiberglass that needed repaired, primed, base coated and re-airbrushed. They were ready for me to come to the paint shop and re-do some of the artwork last week... but upon arrival, i saw that whoever was in charge of base coat blending had gotten rather carried away. They had done a good job blending, but not so good at keeping it small. Needless to say, the people involved in this ordeal were not happy. My task had gone from being fairly simple to something very challenging. I also discovered that i needed to have the rocker panel present so that everything lined up and colors were accurate. No worries tho, im not scared. So today i got in there and spent the day carefully re-layering fire from blank to blend. It came out really good. Challenging tho. One of the headlights was also base coated over (because there was damage there too) so it also needed to be completely redone to match the one on the other side. Whoever did the original lights on the car did an excellent job, so matching their technique was an interesting process. But it also came out really well. Long day, but i got it all done and everyone's happy. All that remains is clear and reassembly.

It's always good to have challenges, right?