Another Self Portrait

Ok this one is more accurate, me thinks, but I ran out of paper so my hair got cut off. Or rather I miscalculated how much paper I would need, rookie mistake.

Depressing Self Portrait

What have I become, I look like a psycho. Oh well I already know what is wrong with this sketch. My face is too fat, the nose is all wonky and one earlobe is super dark, among other things. They say practice makes perfect so practice I will.

Sketches 11/01/10

In an effort to maintain my creativity and become a better artist, while not working, I'm trying to do a sketch a day.

There is a god . . . maybe

Perhaps I should change the name of this blog to 'Mustang News' or something. In any case, for those of you that are not tucked away under a rock somewhere Ford has unveiled the new 2010 Mustang. Actually you are unlikely to have heard about this unless you caught a story tied to the demise of the Big 3. As the truly ardent car fan that I am I have been following the release of this car for several months now. Every couple of weeks Ford has been releasing 'teaser' photos - shots of pieces of the new car, quite good marketing actually. Which leads me to a quick tangent - it seems like Ford markets their cars way more on the web than other brands but maybe I'm just biased. I mean right now I have an RSS feed from Fords website that notifies me of all the new Mustang news. In addition their website promoting the car is one of the best uses of Flash, crazy graphics technologies on the web that I've seen in a while. They manage to use the cool little tricks like rotating a picture 360 with your mouse in a way that's not forced - in other words they don't just use the latest and greatest because they can. Anyway back to the car. I will recount the awesome features as I remember them, there are undoubtedly more features than what I mention here but for me these are the takeaways:

• Navigation system with DVD, CD, 10 Gig jukebox, audio input


• Bluetooth


• Glass roof - this is really cool to behold


• Dual climate control


• Heated seats


• Power seats, both passenger and driver


• Rear mounted camera that displays in the nav system screen or in the rearview mirror


• Body color mirrors


• Plethora of new wheel options - 18",19"


• Gorgeously re-styled interior


• Drop dead gorgeous looks!

Eleanor Grill Installation

For me cars have been a hobby since I was able to purchase my first one. I still remember it, a 1969 Pontiac Grand Prix. Back then, based off of the small black and white photo I saw in the Auto Trader magazine, I likened it to a large Camaro of the same era. Since then my love for cars has not waned however I rarely do anything but cosmetic modifications to my cars as I am not really mechanically inclined, I can read and follow instructions, which is usually enough.

My most recent endeavor - installing 3d Carbon's new eleanor grill on my 2006 Mustang GT. A relatively simple install with eye pleasing results, see photos (iPhone quality) below.

Note: when doing the install it wasn't necessary to remove the whole front bumper and fascia as the instructions recommended. Rather, just remove the radiator support and then the grill is easily removed by prying free several tabs attached to the bumper. The grill from 3d Carbon included a revised Mustang logo and some high intensity white bulbs.

Foolishly I forgot to take a photo of the car with the original grille for a before and after comparison. Lastly kudos to 3d Carbon as their product is top notch, also endorsed by Ford.

Another Year Has Come and Gone

I consider today the end of the year for me because today was my last day of work in 2007. Tomorrow, Saturday the 22nd. of Dec. I fly home to stay with my family for Christmas. My wonderful girlfriend will also be joining us for my favorite holiday. While I would love to do a highlights of the past year post I can't because I'm too busy. I will say however that 2007 was a great year, lots of stuff going on at work and personally - I feel on track to achieve my goals! I've also managed to tuck 4, that's right 4 classes under my belt towards a second Bachelors degree in Graphic Design - not easy to achieve whilst working fulltime. There are many difficult things in life and I'm talking good difficult here - kudos to those who manage school and a fulltime job. Tooting my own horn and patting myself on the back a little :-) On that note I'll end with a few sketches I did towards the end of the year. Enjoy.

Bullitt is Back Baby!

Car buffs the world over, my self included, are rejoicing in Ford's official announcement that a 2008 Bullitt Mustang will be available to order on November 13th. The car will carry a sticker price of $31,075. Ford plans to produce a total of 7,700. Production will begin in early 2008, Ford said. The car will lack exterior badging (giving it the super mean look - or as my girlfriend said when I mentioned I wanted one "make it look like a gangster car"), including exclusion of the pony emblem on the grille. It will come in the awesome Highland Green color, reserved for Bullitts, dark gray break calipers, blacked out grille accented with a silver outline. For those of you that have seen the movie, does Ford do the original justice? I think so! And if you have not seen the movie, you must see it! Even if you are not a car buff, it has the car chase of all car chases, the penultimate movie car chase - so you must see it, not to mention all the footage of old school San Francisco, and of course let's not forget oh so cool, Steve McQueen.