We tried a few different looks, and settled on this hand-lettered approach.

When handling an identity, it’s always important to consider all potential kinds of reproductions that the logo might be put through. I see a lot of brands developed with what looks like only a web presence considered. A good designer should consider the possibility that a logo might need to be printed… in full-color, or screen-printed on a t-shirt, or embossed or debossed into metal or leather.

That left us with a pretty big package of deliverables to cover all those bases, but in the end, the client got a very versatile brand.

Horton took the branding and ran with it to update her website on her own. I think she did a great job maintaining the identity we created. Check out her site at: www.amyhortonphotography.com

The “Crock” lettering was hand-drawn, as was the truck itself. Speaking of, the truck shown combines details and characteristics from several of the trucks Crock has built.

As a result, I’ve had the pleasure of being pointed to a scarce few who’ve done some bike art. There’s the Mint Sauce comics that appeared regularly in Mountain Biking UK Magazine. There’s also some cool painting work from Kevin Nierman.

Some theories are being suggested as to the reason for the scarcity of MTB art, but I’m taking this as a challenge to myself to actually make some pictures related to this.

I really have no idea where this is going, but it’s kinda one of those things I’m gonna just sort of follow and see where it goes.

There is a bit of irony, though. Typically, when folks see art being posted online, it inspires them to go make some art of their own. But it’s really the reverse that’s happening to me. The lack of art is making me want to see what I can make of it. Who knows? Maybe this little exercise will show me why MTB art is so rare. Maybe everyone else has already learned something I’ve yet to pick up? We’ll see.

For now, here are a few quick doodles from my sketchbook. I think I have some ideas as to what direction each will head, so one or two of these might end up as more finished art. These are pretty crude, and I really don’t think they are grabbing the gist of where I want to take this, but consider this the beginner trail.

MTB Sketch 1

MTB Sketch 2

MTB Sketch 3

MTB Sketch 4

MTB Sketch 5

Luke has been into cars and airplanes literally since he could crawl. Lately, he’s had an affection for the Morris Minis of the 60s.

I initially sketched out the basic composition on my iPad, and then brought that into Photoshop to do this digital painting. The end results were printed out as six tiles and applied to 11″ x 14″ pre-stretched canvases to be hung on his bedroom wall. I was glad to see Luke was pretty excited when he opened up the package on Christmas Eve!

One of the things I’ve found myself really digging lately is off-road bicycling. Most people would say “mountain biking”, but I have a hard time calling it that when there are no “mountains” around the Dallas area where I live. It’s frequently abbreviated as “MTB”, so for North Texas, we’ll pretend it stands for “Multi Terrain Biking”.

By any name, it’s a blast, and it’s been a big reason I weigh about 55 pounds less than I did 18 months ago.

For those that are into MTB, there’s a lot of passion for the sport/hobby. Not unlike the world of old cars.

However, unlike the people into cars, MTBers haven’t shown much in the way of painting and drawing pieces of art related to their passion. Most any sport that guys get themselves all-wrapped-up in, there emerges some talented folks who create paintings, illustrations, drawings, etc. based on the love of what they do when they’re not making pictures.

Even though I’m not into golf or fishing or hunting, it’s not hard to find some beautiful pictures people have made with these activities shown as a significant reason behind the desire to make said pictures.

So, why the lack of MTB art?

There are certainly creative works being made. There are some ridiculously-talented people making stunning photos and gorgeous videos that certainly convey the respective artist’s first-hand knowledge and love of the sport. No doubt that getting out of the daily grind and into the woods can inspire some acts of creativity.

Also, I’ve seen some pretty neat 3-D works made out of actual bike parts. Found-object sculptures and objects with a little extra utility like clocks or mirrors aren’t too hard to find.

I’m sure one reason we don’t see much in the way of MTB-themed painting and drawing is the fact that bicycles are deceptively hard to draw. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve heard other illustrators from all kinds of styles – photo-realistic or cartoons – mention this fact. Bikes may be relatively simple machines, but all those angles of all those tubes and such can really be tough to render convincingly.

Another challenge that I’d have to resolve is telling a story that would be unique to painting. The picture would need to say something that photography or video can’t. Or at least deliver a message in a way that the viewer wouldn’t expect from one of the other mediums.

Furthermore, in my own work, I’d want to focus more on the vibe, the flow of riding bikes off-road. The rush. The connections you make with other cyclists. Less focus on the actual equipment. And I wouldn’t have much interest in any focus on specific people or personalities. (Though there might be another picture maker that would handle this well.)

That said, though, I guess what I have in mind would be a bit of a self-portrait even though I wouldn’t intentionally render myself in the pictures I’d make.

Lastly, event posters for races or other meets. Man. Almost all I’ve seen looks like they all pick from the same three pieces of cheap clip art. Somebody needs to step up the game here.

Right now, I’m going to go practice drawing some bicycles.

The car here is heavily inspired by the car A.J. Foyt drove in the 1961 Indianapolis 500.

The cover art was done by Jeff Allison, and other artists featured are Bruce Anliker, Gary Campesi, Keven Carter, Neal DeWitt, Chuck Dudley, Mark Ervin, FLiP, Robert Hamilton, Lemorris Harris, Johnny Jalopy, Todd Jones, Janne Kutja, David Lozeau, Britt Madding, Ben Mitchell, Jeff Norwell, Gabe Pacheco, Ger Peters, Bernie Ramirez, Joe Sander, Joe Satriani, and Bart Stevens.

For 2011, the client asked me to make it looks like a vintage car magazine cover.

I’m seeing what looks like a trend on the choice of cars (and motorcycles, in this case) for event shirts. In the past year, I’ve had more clients request me to illustrate a specific vehicle for their layouts. A year or so ago, most clients just had me pick something out for them.

This 1968 Camaro project was done by Hatfield Restorations in Canton, TX. In this case they had a pretty good idea of what they wanted to present to their client for the paint scheme, color and a few of the subtle modifications they made. They called on me to create a picture to show the client what they had in mind.

When I went to the Goodguys Spring event at Texas Motor Speedway the other day, I ran across the real thing. As you can see, it turned out very close to the drawings I did almost 6 months ago. There were people around the car constantly, so it was hard to get a good photo of the car.

The car turned out absolutely beautiful, as the Hatfield crew did a killer job on it as usual. (There was another similarly-colored “pro-built” Camaro just around the corner from this one that wasn’t getting nearly as much attention!)