Flat Out Hot Rodders

In this follow-up to How to Draw Cars Like a Pro and How to Draw Choppers Like a Pro, award-winning car designer Thom Taylor teams with kustom culture legend Ed Newton to reveal the tricks and techniques top artists past and present have used to render crazy cars and snarling drivers, warts-and-all. Chopped, slammed, channeled, blown . . . from the late '50s through the '70s all of these features and more lent themselves nicely to automotive art that caricaturized the already severe design traits associated with the cars of the period. More often than not, the whacked rods and muscle cars depicted in this art were piloted by slobbering, snaggle-toothed, wart-covered monsters with bulging, bloodshot eyes. Beginning with a brief history of the form, Newton himself traces the lineage of rod 'n' monster art to legends like Von Dutch, Stanley Mouse Miller, Dean Jefferies, and his former employer, Ed Big Daddy Roth. Taylor and Newton then proceed to chapters covering everything from equipment to perspective, light sources, and other technical considerations. Taylor also expands on the cartooning, people, proportion, and color chapters from his previous works, applying them to the subject at hand. In addition to art by Newton and Taylor, the authors include dozens of examples from current top automotive artists Darrell Mayabb, Dave Deal, John Bell, and Keith Weesner.