🔴 On your mark.

Last summer, I was invited by The Seventh Corner Gallery to enter an Art Car Derby hosted by Howling Pages. Having only made a pinewood derby as a cub scout back in first grade, the idea of making and racing a car against other artists seemed like it’d kick some serious ass.

The lineup was stacked with local Chicago artists: Shawnimals, Steve Seeley, Tim Seeley, (Sub)Urban Warrior, Harebrained Design, Jason Rowland, Darick Maasen, and Roiz Montoya.

I chose to lean into a favorite subject of mine: the gator. Gators in my work for years. I drew them as a kid. I drew them in my sketchbooks in college, and I have used one prominently in a poster I created for the Up And At Them Charity.

Gators are a winning strategy.

🟡 Get set.

Once I had a chance to pick up the derby kit (excellently branded in The Seventh Corner Gallery style), I got to work on sketching out my design on Procreate. I took photos and superimposed the shape underneath my pencil sketch to keep the proportions consistent throughout the whole process.

The plan was going to take a multimedia approach, using carving, sculpting, and painting to capture the character, whom I dubbed “Swamp Gas”.

First step was to build out the body. I took the carving knives to the pine brick. Slowly and carefully, the body took form. After sanding down the rough edges, I wanted to add some texture to the body. Using a wood burning kit, I etched a scale pattern into the body, and added details to the face and teeth. I had not used a wood burning kit in years, so drawing with a searing hot needle was a new way to do linework.

Once the body was set, I had to add the details. I sculpted the tail and eyes out of clay. I drilled a peg into the top of the car and molded a peg into the bottom side of the clay tail. This way there would be a strong connection point between the body and the tail. No lost appendages during the race!

Once the tail was cooked and glued into position, I spray-painted the whole thing royal blue. Breaking out the acrylic paints, I added the rest of the colors in CMYK, trying to keep things bright and graphic. The tires took a little spray paint and Posca detailing before they were attached.

A little spray varnish and BOOM! Swamp Gas was ready to race.

🟢 Go!

The race day event was held at Howling Pages (4354 N Milwaukee, Chicago, IL), a great alternative book and art store on the Northwest side. After meeting everyone and enjoying the gallery of incredible art cars, the races began behind the store. The gallery had a whole Boy Scouts of America track ready to run the one-on-one tournament style competition.

DJ Shawnimals kept the excitement bouncing as the racers were narrowed down. Unfortunately, my car was wiped out by Harebrained Design’s “Dibs” car in the first round. But in the end it was (Sub)Urban Warrior and Roiz Montaya that sped to the final race. Roiz came out victorious!