My Digital Art Journey and More Car Toons!

I’ve been pretty busy again with tooning all your cars so I decided to just share a few here if you don’t follow me on Instagram. I had stopped for a little bit because we were busy with moving and now that we’re finally all settled in, I opened up commissions again.

I just want to say thank you, thank you, thank you to everyone so far that’s reached out and supported me with these toons. I started this with a few people’s cars randomly because they knew I could draw and I thought I’d give it a shot. I never really tooned cars before and prior to all of this, cars were really difficult for me to draw because of proportions and making them look like the actual car they’re supposed to look like.

So I ended up giving it a shot a few times and I honestly stumbled upon this style accidentally. It’s such a weird and awesome coincidence for me because for short time that I was dabbling in digital art, I was really struggling to find my “style”. Lots of times, I was struggling to hide my style by masking it and copying someone else’s but it never really satisfied me because it wasn’t truly “mine”. There’s a big difference when you can create art from scratch and not from “stealing” if that makes sense.

I think if you are into digital art, you’ve probably come across the same predicament that I’ve mentioned above. All while trying to be original – it’s a really frustrating black hole to be in, to be honest.

Anyway – after just testing my tooning with a few friends’ cars, I just eventually developed a style that I vibed with and I just ran with it. I think that was kind of my turning point in digital art and it may not be much, but it was super refreshing for me because I was able to start creating something from scratch that was appealing. I know a lot of people have sent me DM’s on how to do this or where to start and I don’t know if I can honestly tell you – like me, you just gotta keep at it and eventually you’ll find what you like and are good at. Whether you know how to draw already or not – everyone starts somewhere… You just gotta start.

So, I’ve been busy tooning a bunch of cars and sometimes I get to a point where I’ve got such a huge backlog that it stresses me out but at the same time, I’m super grateful for all the work. Thank you everyone again for the support! I really love all the unique cars and challenges coming through.

 

 

Live from Japan: Super Street Fresh Meet 3: Part 2

Here we go! It’s exciting having more than one post with actual content in a month around this time. Thank god for guys like Galen that go on trips AND take pics lol.

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I can’t help but think of Jack and Eric when I see this duo together. Nearly the same except for the colour… Pretty dope!

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An R33 on TE37’s – a rarer sight to see around here since it’s not as popular as the R32. It’s also difficult to find one nicely done if you do fine one. A Soarer and a Supra. Heavy line up…

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A closer look at the Supra on Meisters

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An R32 in Calsonic Livery/decals

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A Spoon/J’s themed Fit/Jazz on some wide TE37v’s and fender flares

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Up front  an aggressive splitter/rod combo.

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Right behind that one was another… In a different theme altogether

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Also sitting low on TE37’s

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Also sporting a J’s Racing GT wing. I’m a softy for these…

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The front is an aggressive carbon J’s Racing front and hood.

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The duo together.

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More of the RB BMW

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All black FD RX7 on Meisters

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How can you just walk by this people?!

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Red Bull livery

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Like I said… TE37’s on everything!

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A duo of classics

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C63 AMG on Work CR’s with the fender just barely touching

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The rear quarter has seen better days I’m sure

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Crazy. Breaking this guys neck in the back too.

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A very nice example of a clean S13 on Work Meisters. The colour is perfect too.

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Do I need to say it again?

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Interesting parking set up lol.

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Infiniti G37/Nissan Skyline V36 slammed to the ground

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And we’ll end the Super Street meet with a very clean Supra on CE28’s. Tokyo Auto Salon content coming up!

 

 

iLUUstrations

Just a shameless plug post – some good visual/art porn for you though.

As you know, I tried my hand at vector art for weeks only to fail pretty badly. I personally think I did decent through YouTube tutorials and DeviantART write ups. I never got as far as the outline and one shade of colour before I got frustrated and gave up. I think I spent more time cursing at the screen than doing actual work.

Those of you that may have tried self-teaching may or may not know my pains. If you do, then you’ll surely appreciate the below. If not, I envy you. I’m personally not one to give up on stuff like this, but I just couldn’t devote the time and resources to it to be successful at it. ALL I wanted was to make a vector of my own car and then that’s it LOL.

Anyway, Ricky has gone the extra mile and did what I couldn’t do and it’s amazing how fast he’s progressed over the last few weeks. He went from spending a few days to complete a project to now churning them out in less than a day. With only a few pieces under his belt, it’ll only be a matter of time before he’s creating masterpieces. Don’t get me wrong, these are amazing already but just seeing the progression with these pieces alone means there’s lots more to come.

He’s currently accepting commissions to do more work. I encourage you to hit him up and get him to do a render for you. When you support artists, it helps them become better artists. A year from now, you’re gonna want him to do another and another and another! I heard from a little birdy that there’s plans for more than just a file with your car art… *cough*merchandise*cough*. Behold!

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My FRS. Attention to detail and really his first completed piece. I’m honoured to have had my car be one of the first and to be the stepping stone to other great pieces…

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Shortly after, he did a very cool progression render of Don’s ex Golf R in its’ various stages.

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Next, he started playing around with more popular cars that we’ve surely seen over the interweb. LibertyWalk Ferrari. You can already see the progression of detail.  Print

Not too long after, an RWB Porsche. Again, more detail in the wheels and reflection. Absolutely beautiful colour.

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And his latest piece – a LB Audi R8. This time with some background to give it some more pop.

Hit him up and get some work done!

ricky.luu@gmail.com

Happy Canada Day!

Man, it feels like I haven’t been on here forever… And I really haven’t! I apologize in every post for not posting, but I seriously never have time lately. Adulting is hard and I have no motivation to shoot anything lately. I need something amazing to spark that flame of inspiration in me again and I just haven’t seen or found it yet.

It’s been a while since Diana and I have hung with the guys so we decided to make some time today to go have some lunch and ice cream in Cochrane. It’s Canada Day today so it’s a nice break from work and the usual weekend errands that otherwise take up time before another week of work starts up.

I decided to bring my camera along to take some pics – nothing fancy – but something to get some car stuff back here.

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I never really posted it, but we bought a new car a few weeks ago and picked it up last week! Can anyone guess what it is?

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Maybe this will be helpful?

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A 2017 Rav4 Hybrid! I’m actually so stoked over this car, it’s a little ridiculous. It’s the first time that Toyota has introduced the Hybrid technology in the Rav4, but Toyota is no newcomer to the Hybrid game. It’s just fun to drive for some reason and I didn’t think I’d be stoked over an SUV, but this is new and exciting to me. The mileage is amazing… We’ve driven everywhere in this thing and have racked up 450km on it and still have about 300km to go. Too rad.

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While sitting inside the garage, I admired the FRS from afar.

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And the neglected one now… The Corolla still does the job but it’ll likely be my winter car now.

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Fam.

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Everyone showed up shortly and Gopesh introduced us to his new buddy – Shogun – an American Bulldog. 4 months old – too cool.

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Back to back with Punit’s GS450h. So shiny.

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We arrived in Cochrane about 25 minutes later. We took the scenic route but didn’t get a chance to stop anywhere for pictures.

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They look too good!

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Some shots on the way up back to Calgary.

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Shogun being shy and not wanting to come out…

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Nice view, nice weather. Thankfully it didn’t rain!

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Ending it here with Shogun! Thank you to everyone still sticking around! Hopefully I have time to do more car stuff soon!