Wednesday, June 9, 2010

Strange Brew

C H O P S — Sometimes the pure joy of photoshopping fake cars is creating absolute oddballs—tongue-in-cheek funmobiles, with no eye towards any sort of production reality or statements. I've  mentioned in this blog before that I use my car chops for honing my Photoshop skills for use in my professional life, ie designing books and creating art to hang on walls. Sometimes, I just wanna have fun—cue Cyndi Lauper, "Boys Just Wanna Have Fun," rofl. I hope you have fun thinking of these awesome machines driving around YOUR town. Most of these were done 3-4 years ago, and are rendered in somewhat lower resolution than I use now, but are still fun to peruse. : )

Buick Electra Hybrid Sedanet, with AeroSpats® (once known as fender skirts...) I think this Lexus LS-sized luxury car would truly shake up the segment, and give mileage in the 40s. 

Buick Centurion AWD crossover sedan. British Leyland's "Landcrab" FTW! Click all photos, as usual, to enlarge and see in detail.

1959 Cadillac Coupe de Monofin—world's first CHMSL? : )

How about a Lincoln Cosmopolitan woody wagon. In this case, the wood would be a sliver-like micro-veneer layered under several clearcoats, and would be confined to the doors. Brushed stainless steel would comprise the rest of the body. Copper-anodized wheels round out the 'wtf' design of this mid-next century modern Lincoln.

For more crazy goodness, jump to next page.

Not so much crazy in looks, but we all knew the Cadillac Sixteen would never result in any production car. What else could be better to base a new Eldorado on then? I really think Bill Mitchell would have approved of this coupe. Well, I hope so!

Saturn Calypso—I really have no idea what this one is, lol. I started with Saturn's sportscar and created a pillarless Beach Buggy with so many angles I got lost in the highlights.... Still, it has a bit of that "sit up and beg" demeanor of those fifties British Fords.

I love wraparound glass on cars-not used terribly much since the late '50s/early '60s. I also added color-shifting paint, silver- to lavender- to green, for this top-of-the-line flagship Mercedes Cote D'Azure.

The Maybach is an über luxury car from Daimler-Benz. It comes in several forms of 4 doors, including a completely over-the-top Limousine Cabriolet. I think a 22 foot long coupe that seats only 2 people could be the absolute ultimate in personal luxury statements.  I want one, although I'd have to settle for a 1:18 scale model from WalMart. I'd still take it!

4 comments:

  1. Hi Casey, Nigel here. Since we were last in touch I've done something fairly crazy of my own and bought a 1934 Armstrong-Siddeley 20hp tourer, kind of like this:
    http://www.siddeley.com/gallery_broch01_07.html

    As you're a styling connoisseur, I'd be interested to know what you make of the Thirties Armstrongs with their distinctive V-radiator and tall, serious look. They're pretty unloved here which is why I could afford this one (it's still in bits at the paintshop right now). I'll email you a few pics of it if you can stand to see them...
    Cheerio,
    Nige

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  2. Nige! great to hear from you. i'll have to do some research. I don't really have an opinion yet, lol. I'll be in touch!

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  3. Just my opinion as a fender skirt aficionado ... but the Sedanet's AeroSpats look like they've been added on. (The overall effect is like an original Chrysler Airflow, for some reason.) Other of your fender skirt applications look better integrated.

    Re the monofin: Remember: Just because you can doesn't mean you should. :-)

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  4. Beautiful work! I especially like the Buick 'Centurion' -- it fooled me while looking for classic cars.

    I intend to do my own sort of mashup. So I was perusing photos of older American cars to steal styling cues.

    In particular, I will be creating an amalgam of cars to represent what the Tesla Motors Model S would have looked like had it been released yesteryear.

    Oh, and on the Monofin... Howzabout a Trifin instead?

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