Christmas design , Santa Express

For this year I added some colour to the Santa Express I draw last year. The van is inspired upon a vw T3 van. 

It's available on Teepublic, Neatoshop and Spreadshirt.  And be sure to order on time .

Have a great weekend, stay healthy and until next time.  

Greetings Andres 

Color and drawing pages

As a parent with a passion for drawing you want teach your kid ( or kids ) how to draw. Well I have noticed a lot of online tutorials aren't really good, they skip steps and doesn't explain properly how a drawing is put together. And the good tutorials are aimed at adults and not appealing to kids. Then you have coloring pages that limits the creativity because all the lines are already in the drawing. So things can be better, and untill recently I didn't know a good way, but then I got chatting with a freelance illustrator on Instagram and she send a link to her website. And she made a color and drawing page a page with room for creativity a silhouet, some lines and the idea to draw a figure within this silhouet. A way so kids can have fun and learn how to draw. My approach is to explain how the drawing is put together with small drawings beside the main drawing, here you can see the basic shapes that become an drawing. 

Of course this method can be used on more complex drawings and tutorials for kids and adults who are more experienced, and in the future I'll probably also create a couple of pages for a higher skilled level. 

Here are some pages made by my daughter: 

You can see these color drawing pages in a seperated section on my blog.  

Have fun and feel free to leave a suggestion.

Untill next time,

Greetings Andres 

It's a Vantastic life

This design is inspired upon the VW T3 van, and I know for sure many people agree with me when I say life or summer is more fun when you drive a classic van 😁😉 .

I remember my old VW T3 van, I used it for almost everything. And in many ways they where better than the modern vans that VW produced after the T3 production ended. This van has a overall length and wheelbase similar to a regular car, so it's nimble and very easy to park. And because it's a van it's practical, with extra seats in the back you could go on a trip with 6 persons. And because almost the total length was all "interior" space you could sleep in the back what was ideal when I went to a minibike race ( yep minibike racing was my big hobby in the late 90's ). 

So in my opinion is the VW T3 camper van represent ultimate freedom and good life. And with that in mind I created this design, it's all about enjoying life , traveling and adventure. Hope you like it.

By the way this design comes in 3 variations and is only available on Teepublic and Neatoshop. 

As always if you have any questions or suggestions just leave a comment.

Until next time.

Greetings Andres. 

Trash Panda

Trash Pandas trashing a Fiat Panda mk1. I wanted to create a design with the classic Panda mk1 and came up with this idea. To make a more complete design I added a border around the drawing and used two edited vacation images for the background. The images are taken in a street in Italy and just some tree, adjusted brightness, contrast and colours until I just had black and white. 

The design looks best on light colours. And if you want there is also a version without text. 

Fiesta mk1

This design is inspired upon my first car the Ford Fiesta mk1. Available in 4 versions: 

  

  

And my first car:

A roller painted Fiesta mk1 from 1979 with a 1100 cc petrol engine , yes it was really that bright yellow no filter is used 😁. 

Have a great day and until next time.

Greetings Andres 

My love for ( drawing ) cars

As you might have noticed I like to draw cars, and early this year I thought maybe I should just start making shirt art with cars. For a very simple reason, I know cars and how to draw them for a very long time. So how did this all start you might wonder ?. Well I basically grew up in the 80's , road movies like Smokey and the Bandit, Cannonball Run and TV series like Knight Rider, the A team where very popular. That plus a family with truck drivers and a car mechanic it's a wonder I didn't become a fanatic petrolhead 😁. Perhaps I'm a bit of strange car enthusiast 🤔. Let me explain, I look at cars from a technical and or design point of view. I think this keeps a sensible view on cars, I can go on and on about what cars I like but the best thing I can do is just name some cars I love.

Fast cars:

- Citröen SM just like the DS ahead of its time.

- Jaguar E type 

- Lancia stratos

Regular cars:

- Citröen traction avant ( as technician you've got to appreciate the history of this car brand )

- The classic small cars, when cars where so small it was almost a go kart. Like the first Morris mini cooper, fiat 500, BMW Isseta , Messerschmitt and Goggomobile. All examples where the manufacturers got really creative to make a small and lightweight car that makes a modern Smart look huge. 

- Classic cars that are converted to electric, although I'm not a big fan of electric battery powered cars ( explain this later ) I think it really makes sense because the cars are much lighter ( old vw van T1 , T2 is approximately 700kg lighter than the new T5 ). So less power and less battery capacity is needed to power an electric 2CV than some obese modern electric car. 

The daily driver:

If feul economy, reliability and room for family weren't issues I probably would drive some small cheap classic car for a couple of simple reasons. 

-Because of the lightweight and short wheelbase such cars or so much more fun to drive. 

-They are easy and fast to fix 

-Show your inner old Skool and have a car without airco , airbags, powersteering preferred in experienced condition in satin black or roller painted bright yellow. 

Good examples are the Ford Fiesta mk1, Renault 5 or Express ( first type )  , Fiat 126 etc. 

My first car, the Ford Fiesta mk1 

The design inspired upon my first car. 

My ( our ) current daily driver:

Well our family cruiser is a Peugeot Partner from 2004 basically a small commercial van with rear seats. And I must say I really like this car. It has a relatively short wheelbase and is a rather compact family car. But thanks to a higher roof and slightly higher seats has plenty of legroom , a lot of storing / loading capacity. And one of the best views on the road, really would recommend it to everyone above 1,90 meter. And like most French cars the car gives a good feedback and is agile around corners.  Finally thanks to a 2 liter turbo diesel it's goes a long distance with 1 liter fuel and isn't to slow. 

Our family cruiser a Peugeot Partner.

So what cars I don't like:

- The VW T5 transporter Euro 6 ( 2017 ) with Adblue, I drive this obese van for work and this van is the reason I'm no longer a VW fan. Lots of trouble with the Adblue , sudden loss of torque and stalling engine when driving from standing still, oil consumption and other shit I could write a separate post about. And like many modern cars there is no feedback when you're steering, only a blinking light when the traction control steps into action, a really boring van to drive. Only a half year before the lease ends 😁. 

- Overweight electric battery cars , you might think those cars are the answer and in a certain way they are.. But the battery still needs to be charged and very often it's done with a not environmental friendly way. Another problem is when we all switch to electric we would have a shortage in power. At the moment I think a electric feulcell car is the best alternative for the old petrol powered car. But until there are enough filling station to refeul your feulcell I'll keep my trustworthy diesel on the road 😉. 

-

So only car art in the future you might think ? Well I'll keep on drawing what I like and find a little balance between what I like and what you might want on a shirt. So if I have an idea that doesn't have a car there is a good chance that I will create this design 😁. 

-

I would like to end this post by saying thank you for taking the time to read this nonsense and feel free to leave a comment or send me a message. Stay healthy and until next time.

Greetings Andres 

Renault Estafette

This design is inspired upon the classic Renault Estafette. The more neutral light blue can be combined with a range of shirt colours. 

 

You can order this traditional hand drawn design on a range of products like shirt, phone cases , coffee mugs and more. 

So there are many ways to express your love for this classic van 😁. Check the link page on this blog for the different shops. 

Have a great day and till next time.

Greetings Andres. 

Unicorn and a fairy in a magical flying van.

It doesn't get more magical than this, a unicorn and a fairy flying in a magical van. 

For this I wanted to make a weird and colourful design, so after some brainstorming I came up with the idea of a vintage cute Japanese van, of course a unicorn and to make everything complete a fairy in the passenger seat. My 6 year old daughter loves it and now I have to buy her this shirt 😁. I hope you'll love it too. 

Link to Neatoshop

Other links are on my linkpage, and this design is also available on a range of products like stickers, phone cases etc. 

Have a great day and until next time.

Greetings Andres

New version "no Scooby Doo fanart"

New version of the "no scooby doo fanart" design. Optimized the colours for the best possible printing quality. 

Used a hard brush for shading what gives it a more comic look, and some parts the shading is done with halftones. Really happy about the result and definitely using this technique in the future. 

The Legendary Initial D

This design is based upon the Japanese cult car Intial D aka Toyota Trueno or AE86.

 

As you can see in the close up I used halftones for shading. The points are a little bit closer than previous designs. Of course it's available without Japanese characters. 

I have chosen this car because it's one of the last light weight rear wheel driven with short wheelbase coupe from Toyota and a real 80's iconic car. 

Until next time.

Greetings Andres 

Vintage Trabi

One of my followers suggested to make a design of the Trabi 601, so I did. This little car was built in East Germany and not many Trabants where sold outside East Germany.

The car has a unique structure, it's a monocoque chassis with plastic body panel parts. A small two stroke engine in the front driving the front wheels. And two transverse leaf springs. 

I choose the colour green because thanks to the two stroke engine this car is anything but "green" 😉. As always the design is available with or without text. 

Have a great day and until next time.

Greetings Andres 

Shop is open again !!

Or should I say the shops are open again 😁. After almost a month I put most of my designs back online. Hoping that this hold on sale helped other artists sell more, to bad there weren't more hobby artist that followed my example 😕. 

Anyway this hold also give me some time to reconsider how I continue my shops. Starting with a new fresh banner that is completely drawn from scratch. Added a new design with a unicorn in a magical flying van. Gave the "no scooby doo fanart" new colours. And finally removed a couple of designs that aren't suitable for the new direction, choose quality over quantity. 

Although I do this for the fun, I decided to take the direction of car fanart with an occasional weird or more complex design in the mix. I hope you like it. To visit one of my shops click a link on the link page on my blog. 

By the way: if you want a certain design back in my shops don't hesitate to shoot a me a message 😉.

Until next time, stay safe and healthy.

Greetings Andres 

All designs deactivated

Just this week I decided to deactivate all my designs. For the simple reason that I don't want to compete with other artists that are going to a difficult period because their sales have dropped dramatically because of the corona crisis. It's a small gesture but maybe it makes a little bit of a different to another artist. 

-

-

At this moment the plan is to wait until the end of April, by then I hope this is all under control. In the meantime I can re-evaluate my current designs and focus on other things. 

Stay safe and healthy.

Until next time.

Greetings Andres 

Classic Dodge A100 van

This design is inspired upon the 60's American vintage Dodge A100 van. 

 

Of course this design is available with or without text. And also as a request from a fan there is a white version 😊. 

Links: White van Teepublic , Dodge A100 with text, Dodge A100 van no text. Or check my link page for other shops. 

Have a great day ,and untill next time.

Greetings Andres

Citroën 2CV

I've used the classic nonsense Citroën 2cv for my new design. In the Netherlands this car is known as "lelijk eendje" which means translated ugly duck 😁. Just as with the Fiat 500 design I used halftones instead of regular shading. In my opinion this is just perfect to express your love for this French classic🤔😉👍. 

Until next time, have a great day 😊

Greetings Andres