Coincidence or Not?

Greetings all. A nice welcome back to blog world. I'm posting a few stuff a have written about but never got around to posting them. I begin with the Coincidence or Not series....

I'm working on my website at www.manuelhampton.com trying to figure out what is the best site template to use to display an art based website. I had thought I was going to settle one, tweaking, looking, revising, standing back looking at the screen, then while I'm at that final point of trying to decide if this template is really going to work, the song by U2 "I Still Haven't Found" .. "What I'm looking for" was on. Coincidence or Not? (20060516)

A VW Squareback! Literally, yes they did make these things. I found this website where someone was selling a project Squareback with a photo of a gazillion pieces neatly organized and ready for you to put together. Sink included! (Pen and Ink, 1988)

Believe me, I was trying to get somewhere with this one. If you click on the picture for the higher res, you can see details of the flower itself where I was getting some good fades. I think I opted out continuing with this piece due to the colors being very harsh. In any case, that’s what art is all about.

I have a few drawings of the Volkswagen Beetle. Here’s my story about them. My Father, the best in the whole world, one day when I was a senior in high school took his old gold colored VW Beetle to get a Candy Apple Red paint job. Then he surprised me with it and said “Son, this is your car.” For a 17 year old kid back then, just to even have a car and not walk some 5 miles to school was great! I took that car, threw some banana rims on it, tricked out the engine with some chrome (Note: This did not put a dent in the 48 horsepower 1600cc engine) and slammed it to the ground. If it wasn’t for my Dad, I would not have this love for cars. That’s my story on the VW Beetles.

More ink! And color pencils, all mixed together to create a nice drawing. This butterfly is only a portion of a drawing from my sketch book "Welcome to the Terror Dome" that I painstakenly scanned. It took me hours, but I scanned just about every page in it to share with you. So please check it out here. Make sure to register first so you can see the FULL size images. Thanks for visiting!

Now let’s take a little turn from all that Pen and Ink and head towards Paint alley. In fact, let’s twist it. Twist the brush, the colors and the canvas and you produce this painting titled “Twisted Colors”. Twisted Colors is an acrylic painting I did in 1997 for my sister. I haven’t found a preference for either acrylic or oil paints. I personally think it comes down to what you want to accomplish in the end. I have done works in both and like both. I hope you all like this one. (Acrylic on Canvas, 1997)

More cars! A Model T hot rod drawing. I started to get crazy with the detailing then began to work on other projects where I never completed this one. If you want to know more about the Model T, you can check out Wiki here. (Pen and Ink, 1989)

Here is an Orb I drew in colored pencil. Nothing spectacular, just an assortment of colors everywhere to give it that euphoric look. (1997)

Here is a quick sketch of a 1947 Chevrolet automobile. It can be whichever model you like, The Fleetline, Stylemaster, Sportsmaster, Aerosedan, Townsedan, Sport Coupe, or The Business Coupe. A guy thing again. (Ballpoint Pen)

Every summer is a Summer Jam. Even in 2006, with summer right around the corner, it’s going to be a Jam. Almost 20 years ago; there was the Summer Jam of 1987. I made this party flyer for my Sister and her friends where they would pass out to their closest friends. My question is how in the world were people able to read these things? I mean, look at the map, and look at those arrows, got directions? LOL! In any case, this was drawn in 1987. Where has time gone? I kid you not when I say “…this is my moment in time to share with you…” (Pen and Ink)

It’s the “P-Funk”, the “Pure Funk”, the “Plainfield Funk”, the “I want the bomb, I want the P-Funk, I want my funk uncut”, Parliament Funk. (Pen and Ink 1995)

Don’t ask me why I drew characters with big teeth. I couldn’t tell you. Here is another one of those situations back in 1989 where I must have been bored at work. I doodled this rabbit character to past the time on. Too many bits and bytes, bytes and bits, all I want is my two front teeth… Just kidding, all I wanted to do in life is DRAW! (Ballpoint pen)

I did a four year service for the United States Air Force that gave me the opportunity to learn a new skill, travel, and meet some of the finest people I have ever worked with. When I signed up, I tested pretty well on my Armed Services Vocational Aptitude Battery (ASVAB) Test where I thought I had a pretty good chance on landing an excellent AF Job. Those that know, it's the military's pickings first. I was actually one of the lucky ones where my recruiter did not fake the funk on me and told me I had no guarantees. I was worried, but felt I had nothing to lose. Plus, everyone was telling me since I did so well on the ASVAB to join the Air Force and you're better off not joining the Army, Navy or the Marines for a bunch of reasons (Sorry!). Don't fret, I actually like all the other branches and thank those who are in service, have serviced, and have made the ultimate sacrifice. God bless them all. One of the other reasons I didn't join the other branches such as the Navy was because I got sea-sick. No way Jose would I torture myself feeding fish off the side of a ship for four years. The Army, I just never really gave it thought. The Marines, the same thing, I saw those commercials where they were in a boat and I was like no way. And you can imagine what I thought about joining the Coast Guard. So the Air Force was the only logical thing to do. Did it, got on a plane to fly to boot camp in Lackland AFB, Texas and guess what happened during that flight? I got air sick!! So there I am, discovered my real problem was with motion sickness and I'm joining the Air Force, great. To top it all off, the Air Force makes you fill out a questionnaire of things you don't like such as, "Are you afraid of heights?" and "Do you have problems with following instructions?" I figured it was to properly place you in a job and not put you in something where you may not function well, such as boom operator who has to refuel planes in midair with precise hand controls and concentration. Or be able to turn "The Key" on command. One question that vividly stood out with me was this one: "Are you afraid of seeing blood?" The reason, I made sure I filled in that bubble "YES" really good as there was no way in heck I wanted to see any blood. Guess what the Air Force decided my job to be? My four years of the Air Force was solely dedicated to providing health care services to all that walk through the military hospital doors. I had become a Medical Service Journeyman/Emergency Medical Technician (E.M.T.), great. I overcame the fear of blood but not the motion sickness and blended into my new career quite well but the major thing was I did not have to fly, thank God.

This finally leads me to the drawings below. I had the opportunity to lend my artful hand into creating some t-shirt designs for an E.M.T. competition called an "E.M.T. Rodeo" at McConnell AFB, Kansas. The first year (1993) I drew the symbolic hospital cross with a bull in the center. The idea here was to get the wording "E.M.T. Rodeo" to stand out but to also have something that resembled a rodeo. If I drew the bull in detail, it would have washed out the "E.M.T. Rodeo". Therefore, I used stippling to faintly pattern the bull so it stood out in a darker background but not to stand out more than the words. When transferred to silk-screened t-shirts, this combination worked out really well as you can vividly see the wording and an outline of a bull, plus all within a hospital cross. I was happy with the results.

For the second year (1994), I wanted something not so rectangular, something that was different from the previous year just in case a lot of previous year t-shirts showed up at the second competition. So I designed a circular drawing making sure the words stood out as it should, a rodeo themed horse, and again including a symbolic drawing for E.M.T.'s (The Serpent and Staff with the Star of Life). (Pen and Ink with Vinyl Letters)

It’s time to get wicked!!! I love this drawing. I didn’t make this one up. I saw it somewhere, I just can’t remember where since I did it in 1995. If anyone knows, please inform me. This drawing is just so wicked. I wished I had gotten the spine in a nice tight circle. It’s off a little bit but not by much and you probably wouldn’t of realize it if I had not mentioned it. It was drawn in India ink and the fades were done with a black ballpoint pen.

Why do some artists find it interesting to do their work with strange things? I’m trying to think now, why did I even draw this… Who knows… As awkward as it may look, you can’t blame him when it comes to showing off the grills. (Ballpoint Pen, 1990)

Just a typical guy thing who likes cars. Why a VW Bus is beyond me, but when people customize things that you aren’t suppose to customize, such as a VW Bus, it trips me out. Lowered, shaved, ragged out, low profile tires, on a bus? Or how about a Beetle? LOL! (Pen and Ink, 1995)

Do you guys remember those Absolute Vodka advertisements in magazines where they would take their vodka bottle and make an art piece from it? I thought they were pretty cool and a great marketing technique. One that caught my eye was the rendition they did with a trumpet. The shiny metal, the beautiful chrome and interesting reflections the photographed trumpet reflected challenged me to recapture it with this 1994 pen and ink drawing. I was amazed that I pulled it off quite well for not tracing or for not having experience with the direction of light.

In this drawing I was practicing with stippling again. Stippling as I mentioned in a previous post is the art of dots. Lots of dots. So many dots, so time consuming, but the results are so nice. What I have found was using the best types of inks and nibs, and some good ol’ patience produced the best results. (Pen and Ink 1987)

Here I am practicing with the ballpoint office pen again. I did this while at work back in 1990. I guess it wasn’t too busy then. The thing about using ballpoint pens is that it gives you a really nice fade and cut lines. If you start out heavy on a line and pull up as you draw, the pen will give you a nice fade. Also the inks used on the ballpoint pens are thick. So you do not get any bleeding. At times, you may get some blotching but all you have to clean the tip as it will cake up with ink.

This 1990 drawing doesn't say anything. I was really getting to like playing with the ball pen fade technique. So I drew up some lines that may look like something but don't. The fade, the lines, the overlapping and the connections is what intrigued me about this piece.