Vehicle Art (Part 5)

Art by Christopher Carter

Okay! A few more paint jobs before some major redraws! I’m excited to show you these! This next one is very dear to me. It’s a niche group who are aware of Steve Nazar or Town & Country Surf Designs but, to me, this was a major part of my childhood!

No, I didn’t surf. Oregon coast is too cold for that more often than not. I experienced Nazar’s art through the 1988 game “T&C Surf Designs Wood & Water Rage” for the original Nintendo Entertainment System.

It’s pretty unanimous amongst those who know of this game, it’s not that good. Even as a kid I knew it wasn’t much to write home about but that didn’t stop me from playing the crap out of this. Maybe it was a bargain bin Christmas grab by unknowing parents. I was happy to have it. The characters in this game were designed by Steve Nazar and were representative of real surfers he knew. Here’s a handful of them:

There’s good ol’ Steve, with his bros in the middle.

I HAD to pay homage to Steve. Do check out his art. It’s classic and has a great deal of humor in it; a major inspiration. I can’t get enough of it! But sadly, he’s doing his art in that big studio in the sky now. A month after I did this paint job, to my absolute shock and amazement, the great Steve Nazar passed away.

For Steve.

This piece (above) is not really an emulation of Nazar’s style but more a tribute to the NES cartridge box art with elements of Nazar’s characters (the surf boards) and various effects from the clothing line produced by T&C.

Some rad boards produced by T&C.

I bought special neon markers specifically for this project. Naturally, the sand and ocean needed to be present to make this one complete.

[I recently watched a docuseries pertaining to a particular producer of neon colored school supplies (which shall go unnamed here) and have therefore decided to withdraw one rather nostalgic vehicle design from this post because my opinion of said producer has changed drastically and I refuse to promote, encourage, or pay homage to them or display anything with their name on it. GOOD DAY, SIR!]

Next we have the Flintstones version. I loved the cartoons and especially loved the car designs in the live-action John Goodman movie.

I loved the idea of a cartoony version of the vehicle with one of the crazy animals as the “gun”. He’d probably squirt something at pursuers and then say something snarky to the camera like “They’re just lucky I got over my cold!” followed by canned laughter. Finally we get to the bulk of the completely redrawn vehicles! Ironic that this started out as a vehicle from a Jurassic Park game where you are tranquilizing dinosaurs to having a dinosaur riding in the back of it.

After photographing the artwork, I fiddled with some filters and landed on a more naturally colored version which I kind of liked in addition to the previous cartoony colors.

Early on, my wife wanted to see a Chip and Dale’s Rescue Rangers version and I knew it would have to be a complete redraw. I hadn’t done any like that yet and I was apprehensive at the amount of work it would entail. But using the original design as a template, drawing a completely new design proved pretty fast and the ideas came easily.

The team had a few vehicles, some I can’t even find. I appreciated the parts I could recognize as household items to their scale. I wanted everything on my own design to be recognizable too. This had to be something I could feasibly make out of stuff I could easily find around the house. Can you name everything of which this vehicle is composed?

The next one might require a bit of explanation. It baffles most. Let me show you the inspiration first.

My kids enjoy a game called Kirby in the Forgotten Land. Kirby is a character who can inhale things and then take on characteristics and abilities of that thing. Here we see Kirby inhaling a whole car. Not something you see everyday. My son requested the Kirby version and by now you know I rarely refuse the idea of a kiddo so here we go:

This had to be a complete redraw but I was happy to just trace my lines for the bottom half and do basically a bubbly outline for the top half. The shading to define the shape under Kirby’s elastic epidermis is disturbing to me… especially where those rivets are. But hey, the kid was happy. I like the rust!

The next one is about as crazy as it gets. In the film “My Neighbor Totoro” by Hayao Miyazaki at Studio Ghibli there is a bizarre 12-legged cat bus with this relentless Cheshire Cat grin. I have no explanation for its existence or purpose. Totoro is a strange but fun movie. Rest assured this will not be the sole Miyazaki inspired vehicle. I have such plans.

This begged for rolling fast-moving wind-blown grass and billowing clouds.

I love Studio Ghibli and Hayao Miyazaki films. If you haven’t seen their “Only Slightly Exaggerated” Travel Oregon promos, you simply must! Here’s the links:

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=qi4fGPPPmGA&pp=ygUeQWxsIHRyYXZlbCBpcmVnb24gbWl5YXpha2kgYWRk

And another:

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=doVV1a7XgyQ&pp=ygUeQWxsIHRyYXZlbCBpcmVnb24gbWl5YXpha2kgYWRk

And another!

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=KIC-XmyEfhI&pp=ygUeQWxsIHRyYXZlbCBpcmVnb24gbWl5YXpha2kgYWRk

And Vehicles (Part 6):