Art by Christopher Carter
When I realized I could draw over the top of what I already drew with no ill affects, it opened a whole new world of possibilities to me. With the application of color, aspects of the original design would essentially disappear. Case in point, a bunch of crazy crap on top of the Ghostbusters Ecto 1 version of “The Vehicle” as I’ve come to call it.
The elven-eyed will notice the scale of the items on top don’t match. I kind of forgot to maintain uniformity with those aspects, more focused on the shapes and the angles than the size relation from one angle to the other. Oh, well, I love the way these came out. I feel like the chrome looks especially impressive. I don’t mean to toot my own horn. I go into a bit of a trance while drawing and when I’m done I look at it and think “Wow! That came out of me!?!” It almost doesn’t feel like I’m the one doing it.
The splotch of green slime on the hood vent sells the whole thing for me though. It was a fun way to say “Slimer was here” without drawing Slimer. I wanted the cars to demonstrate what inspired them without the presence of characters. However I did make an exception…
A little girl was watching me draw and said I should do a Garfield version. I can’t refuse the request of a little kid so the following week I had this (above) ready to give to her. I don’t think she was too familiar with the other characters but she liked it nonetheless.
While I was drawing, my daughter took one look at Arlene (the pink girl cat) and said “Ew!” I asked “What is Ew?” “Her lipstick!” She said. Apparently lipstick is not appealing to kids her age so Arlene’s lips got to be the same color as the rest of her. My daughter agreed this was an improvement.
It was fun drawing these guys. Those sheep were complicated. I gotta hand it to Jim Davis, original Garfield artist, his character designs are crisp and well thought out.
The car itself was a toy 57 Chevy Bel Air convertible associated with Garfield, which I contorted to fit the basic shapes of the Jurassic Park vehicle. I matched elements of the Ghostbusters Cadillac almost exactly but changed the body shape drastically. This shape gave me another idea!
This (above) might look weird to most. It’s based on the “Foot Cruiser” from Playmates’ 1989 Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles toy line. After making the Chevy shape for the Garfield car, I couldn’t resist repurposing it for this.
I always thought this toy was awesome but my nephew got this one and my parents seemed intent on getting the each of us different things. My nephew was only four years younger than me by the way. People always thought we were cousins. We played together with ninja turtle stuff all the time. This was a nostalgic labor of love. Also it was part two to this:
Of course this came before the Foot Cruiser. No body modifications here with the small exceptions of the lights on top and the plunger coming out of the gun. Obviously the motif is based on the Turtle Van with a few cues from some other toys.
Are there more Turtle themed vehicles in my future? Possibly. Possibly. There’s so many possibilities. The Ghostbusters Ecto 1 taps into a completely different list of drawings I’ve wanted to do, that of applying the Ecto 1 motif to different kinds of vehicles.
I need more of this ^^^^
Incidentally, the father of the little girl who requested the Garfield car made his own suggestion. He’s big into golf. I thought it was a great idea! The result is now among my favorites.
With this we come into designs that barely resemble a vehicle anymore; complete re-draws that only use the basic shapes of the original. And I’m okay with that. The art is evolving. Fun fact those club are now left handed golf clubs since I flipped and rotated my reference picture. Also, because of the Lego movie I thought the Titleist brand was pronounced “Tit-leest”. It hadn’t occurred to me they were pronouncing it incorrectly like every other non-Lego item in that movie. Oh, and yes, that’s a Minecraft tnt box in the back of the golf cart. Just in case.
Professor Popinjay's Compendium of Perspicacity 
Leave a comment