Professor Popinjay's Compendium of Perspicacity

Art by Christopher Carter

I’ve been into art for pretty much my whole life. The only reason I say that here is because some have perused this particular project (obsession really) and assumed this is where art all began for me; as if I decided I wanted to draw this vehicle and that’s how I got into art. That’s completely wrong. It’s true I laid art to rest for a while, choosing to instead write humor under the pseudonym Professor Popinjay.

After a long stint of doing very little art, a friend gave me a small un-lined notebook and I started drawing again and haven’t stopped since. I started making a list of all the things I’ve wanted to draw. This vehicle was among the list items.

I first saw this vehicle in the Raw Thrills Jurassic Park Arcade Shooter. I’m not a car guy. Minivans are pretty much all I’ve owned and I couldn’t care less. I just liked the design of this thing. Unfortunately there was never a really good lasting view of it in the game. This fact probably added to my desire to draw it. I had to piece it together from fleeting screen shots I took with my phone while other people played the game. The results were not perfect but they were close enough for my liking.

Here’s the original (not by me):

I decided to draw two angles (seen above) I learned a lot about drawing cars in the process. One YouTube video pointed out “drawing cars is like the math of art.” It’s so true. Unfortunately I started drawing first and learning the tricks later. If I were to start over from scratch I’d do things a little differently. I’d try to be a lot more precise. As it is, some of the angles are a little wonky. Nevertheless, I’m happy with it. I made a million copies of these two drawings because I started getting ideas. Just color variations at first but then it gets crazy! You’ll see.

The two above actually came much later in the project when I decided it would be easier to swap colors in the computer and I wanted to see more than the typical Jurassic Park red trim. I also added the caution stripes which I saw on a Jurassic Park Jeep parked near a Jurassic Park ride. I saw it once and then never again. Or my brain made it up. I can find nothing that looks anything like it (with the caution stripes) on the internet. More on the computer renders later.

Naturally, these (above) were the first color job I did. Can’t beat the classics. The only angles that don’t point up toward the light source were on the door and wheel-wells so I cheated a little here and there just to add some accents. Did I go crazy with the white highlights? Probably, but it’s all I had at the time. I do regret forgetting the numbers on the vehicle’s livery which is such an iconic part of the movie’s designs. There really wasn’t room on the back of this vehicle anyway. The JP Jeeps and Explorers all have numbers but this thing just doesn’t, even if there is a fleet of them as depicted in the game.

This (above) was the first computer color job I did. It does lack that hand drawn finesse but I really only cranked this out just so I could test different colors. I did the whole rainbow but a navy blue was my favorite. Here’s the rest:

And once they were all done I threw the following together. Reminds me of Power Rangers.

If you enjoyed seeing these then you’re in for a treat because these designs get wilder and wilder as the project continues. I’ll post a handful each time. Of course I’ll still be doing the non-reviews more than anything but I just needed a place to put my art. If you absolutely hate getting notified of these and you insist it’s not what you signed up for let me know and maybe I can figure out some other arrangement. Remember there’s still a button on professorpopinjay.com that will show you an alphabetical list of JUST the Non-reviews.

Either way, you guys are totally tubular! Please! Let me know what you think of these in the comments!

Vehicle Art (Part 2)