Click image for larger view.

One of the frustrating things about commercial work is that you have to keep some good stuff under wraps until the client gives the green light. (I don’t say this to complain. Rather, just noting that it’s hard to keep from sharing the excitement of a project you really like.)

So here’s a design I was commissioned to do and completed back in January. Almost nine months since I delivered the final art to the client. Sometimes it goes much longer than that.

But I recently got clearance to put this art out so people can see it. The client was starting a new company around his sunflower seed product. They would sell the seeds packaged into five-gallon plastic buckets, with a large label applied to the outside. The biggest thing they wanted was a depiction of sunflowers as the main image. I fired off a few sketches, and they approved one sketch that was very close to what ended up being the final result for the bucket label.

I tried to keep a very traditional approach to this design, giving it a strong retro vibe. I can never find good script fonts that fit what I have in mind, so here’s another instance where hand-lettering was the only option.

The birds and the flowers were all digital illustrations done completely in Photoshop.

As a side note, I’ve never done much with illustrating birds before this project, but I am amazed how much I enjoyed it on this job.

Charles Venable's '53 Stude Land Speed Racer

Charles Venable brought the car to my dad’s shop, Rod Crafters, Inc., in Welcome, North Carolina to do the build. The car is coming together very nicely, and it won’t be long before it will head to the race courses. It’s always cool to see illustrations come to life as real-world things, and this one has remained very true to the original concept.

And major props to my dad, Larry Shoaf, for laying out the scallops on the car. That’s not as easy to do as a lot of people think!

(Click the thumbnail to view Venable’s Photobucket album on the build of the car.)

Racers Reunion logo. Click for larger view.

I was recently asked to develop a logo for Racers Reunion, a gathering of vintage race cars happening as part of the annual Manifolds on Main Car Show. The city of Irving, Texas puts on this annual event each September, organized primarily by Bart Stevens.

Bart asked me to create a logo reminiscent of the decals put on early race cars. I put together a few digital pencil sketches, and he combined some elements from two of them and asked me to add the trophy.

From there, it was just a matter of execution. I hand-lettered the Racers Reunion type, and built the car in vector paths based off my own drawing.

I always enjoy working with Bart, and I thank him for giving me the opportunity to work with him again this year. He’s constantly working to make each Manifolds on Main show better than the year before. There are some really cool things planned for this year as well, so if you’re in the Dallas-Fort Worth area on September 25, be sure to check out the show.

Manifolds on Main web site.

AaronAutics Mockup Cover

Here is something I’ve been working on a lot lately, and now it’s to a stage I can show it.

My mom, Sharon Shoaf, has written several children’s stories, but recently decided to self-publish this one titled, AaronAutics: Aaron, the Helping Hand Airplane. She asked me to illustrate the book, and of course I jumped at the chance.

The main character, Aaron, is an airplane (a T-6 Texan, specifically). In the story, he goes around helping others (other aircraft and humans) in big and small ways.

My 9-year-old son is very much into airplanes, so I created this mockup book to have Mom present it to him on our recent trip to visit my folks in North Carolina.

This is “close” to the final cover of AaronAutics, but there are still some tweaks I plan to make. I’ll be sharing more about this book in the coming weeks, but for now, enjoy a few images of the mockup book.

We are also planning a separate blog specifically for the book, so I’ll be announcing that here and on Twitter and LinkedIn once that’s up.

Oh, and I have to say that this has been hands-down the most fun art project I’ve ever been involved in. I’d really like to thank Mom for giving me this opportunity.

AaronAutics Mockup Spread

AaronAutics Mockup

Meantime, here are some older automotive projects I’ve not featured on this blog. Click on these for a larger view.

Anglia 400 Concept

Race Car Illustration for promotional products

Charles Venable's '53 Stude Land Speed Racer

This Cobra-themed 32 Roadster is currently being built by Hatfield Restorations.

"Eco-Bulldozer" Illustration - click image for large view.

I had a tighter timeframe for this one, so it’s a little looser/sketchier than some of my work.

The ad that included the illustration. Click image for large view.

The May issue is out, and this ad appears as a vertical half-page on page 121.

The illustration was done completely in Photoshop CS4, from initial sketch all the way through completion. I did the illustration as a full image of the waitress in case she needs to be re-purposed for a different format application later. The ad itself was assembled in InDesign CS4 and delivered as a PDF.

Click image for larger view.

I’ve done a few hot rod concept illustrations for Hatfield Restorations in Canton, TX, and they recently asked me to do some t-shirt art. They planned to distribute them at their open house event last weekend, so the schedule was relatively tight.

Per their request, I included the Gene Winfield Shop Truck, a ’35 Ford pickup that was originally customized back in the late 50s. The Hatfield crew recently finished the restoration of this historical custom, and have been showing it around the country as a beautiful example of their stellar craftsmanship and attention to detail.

(As an aside, for those unaware, Gene Winfield is to custom cars what Arnold Palmer and Jack Nicklaus combined are to golf.)

The other car is Gary Hatfield’s ’34 Ford Five-Window Coupe, and the service station is actually part of one of the buildings at the Hatfield Restorations campus.

The cars and gas station were sketched digitally, using several photos of each as reference. The production art was built as vector art in Adobe Illustrator CS4 with heavy use of the Blob Brush tool using my pressure-sensitive Wacom Intuos tablet.

I had done the art for shirts and flyers for Unique Tin Car Club’s 2008 event, so Jason Jellum from the club contacted me to do the art again this year. Jason gives some pretty clear direction as far as vehicle choice when he turns me loose on a project. Unlike a lot of the car show art I do, the Unique Tin shirts feature a real car owned by someone that the club knows.

It’s my understanding that this ’56 Mercury and the Triumph motorcycle belong to the same guy. Jason emailed me a handful of photos of the car and the bike, and I got to sketching.

Jason approved the initial concept with only very minor changes. I worked on the t-shirt art first, then applied it to a poster and a black & white flyer, suitable for photocopies.

The final art was built in vector based off my own drawings. (Vector art can be enlarged or reduced without loss of quality; it’s resolution-independent.) The “Unique Tin” lettering was hand-built as well.

Unique Tin 2010 T-Shirt Back

2010 Unique Tin Poster

2010 Unique Tin Flyer