Portrait of Grandmother with Chevrolet Bel Air

This post is about my recent portrait featuring a woman and a Chevrolet Bel Air. This portrait was drawn from old photographs assumingly taken in early 50's. The person featured in the portrait is the grandmother of the woman named Jen who commissioned me to create this artwork as an original gift for her mother for the upcoming Mother’s Day.

The portrait of the grandmother was drawn from old photographs

The younger generation is luckier than our parents and older ancestors when it comes to preserving time and memory of their loved ones. Today almost anyone can make and share hundreds of photos and videos of decent quality without having to visit specialized studios and even enable real-time remote communication with his or her mother using free Internet tools when she is far away. Our parents had not all those technological benefits we enjoy today living in the digital age. Very often our parents have to content themselves with a few poor quality photos of their fathers and mothers. It’s pity those photos oftentimes do not look good enough to be hung on a wall or be displayed in a conspicuous place.

The custom gift for Mother’s Day – the grandma portrait with a Chevy car

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Pin-Up with a 1956 Chevrolet Car

Today I want to show you another custom pin-up portrait created by me. This time the drawing features a vintage 1956 Chevrolet car along with a pin-up girl.

Custom 1956 Chevrolet Pin-Up

Custom artwork featuring a pin-up girl and a 1956 Chevrolet car

As you might have noticed pin-up girls often go with hot rods or classic cars on photographs and drawings. I believe there are at least two reasons why pin-up girls and retro cars seem to be inseparable.

First, pin-up artists, while creating a product of pop art mostly targeting men, are prone to combine two most exiting objects of men’s dreams – a hot girl and a great car. No doubt, this detonating mixture drives men crazy as there is nothing else which can elevate man’s self-esteem higher than conquering a woman's heart and owing a cool-looking automobile. Having both a woman and a car makes men feel good and happy.

Women and cars have always been men's most passionate desires

Cars became a popular subject of pin-up artworks due to the fact that classic pin-up pictures are, in fact, products made in the USA and later popularized all over the world by means of the dream factory called Hollywood. I believe in 1950s more people could afford a car in the USA than anywhere in the world. An affordable car of decent quality and appealing design became a symbol of the strong economy of the United States. Mass production of automobiles and comparatively high purchasing power of Americans made it easier for even average US citizens to buy a car. And that is why cars were added to the list of any self-respecting man’s desires along with attractive women. This resulted in introducing cars into the art of pin-up which the main purpose is to stimulate men’s most basic desires.

Secondly, there is nothing as good as a classic car from 1950-s to help preserve the atmosphere of the golden age of pin-up. The woman’s beauty has being a subject of many kinds of arts throughout the human history. So drawing a pretty woman alone is not always enough. However there are a few ways to impart the “feeling of the epoch” to a drawing or a painting. These ways include imitating famous pin-up painters’ style and adding some clothing and objects easily attributed to the targeted period of history. The appearance of cars has been ever-changing just like fashion and many car models are associated with the years of their production. Therefore vintage cars like a 1956 Chevrolet can be perfect objects for modern pin-up artworks if a pin-up artist or his/her customer wishes to leave a mark of those years when pin-up art was at the top of its popularity.

Work Progress Video

I offer you to check out the video below if you think it might be interested to watch how I draw my custom pin-up portraits. I hope you will enjoy the video and its background music which creates the atmosphere of 50s. By the way, among other art supplies I used Pentel brush pens again to create this artwork.

Watch this video on Youtube

Click here to see all my custom pin-ups on this blog
All my pin-up videos

Related posts:
Rat rod pin-up
Pin-up portrait featuring 3 cars
Custom pin-up artwork with a car
Portrait of a woman with a Chevrolet Bel Air

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