We like our art here on RSM so imagine our excitement when we saw some great stuff appearing over on the message boards at Japanese Nostalgic Car. We fired off an email to the artist with a few questions in the hope of finding out a bit more about the man himself:

Name - Dennis Salnikov

Location - Royal Oak, Michigan, USA

Age - 28

What do drive? - '78 Nissan 280z and '97 Nissan 240sx - both on-going projects.

Dream garage - Some of the cars on the list: Nissan kpgc10 through R35 Skylines, Mazda FD3 RX7, Toyota MKV supra, '68 Camaro, c6 z06 Corvette, the list goes on and on and on...

What is your drawing/illustration process and what equipment do you use - I start out with a rough sketch, either on paper or directly on the tablet. afterwards I scan it in, and continue the illustration in photoshop, sometimes corel painter.

How much do you charge? - Prices vary based on the type of work desired.

Any favourite artists? - Leonardo da Vinci. modern day artists and designers - Ashley Wood, Jon Sibal, Judson Bryant, Julien Montusse, just like the cars, the list goes on.

Day job? - Auto designer

Any other hobbies/interests? Cars of course, architecture, art, interior design, design design design.

Anyone you'd like to thank or anything you'd like to add? - I'd like to thank matt of farm of minds blog, jon sibal, jdmEGO jay for helping me bring my blog and work to life, toyotageek of toyotageek.com as well as the JNC community.

Thanks Dennis!

I guess now it's just time to show you some of his work:

A classic Toyopet Crown commisioned by toyotageek.com .

It's not just the old stuff, check out the detail work in this interpretation of Curtis Chen's time attack Supra.

More new metal in the form of this R32 Skyline.

Another Supra. The illustrations have cartoon-like proportions, but not so much as to seem unreal. What you're seeing is an enthusiast's eye rather than a formulaic 'big wheels and stretched roofline on everything' approach.

Back to the retros, this Z is one of the first Dsalni renderings I saw. It perfectly captures the essence of all that we like about retro cars.

You can reach Dennis (or just look at more pics) via his excellent blog at http://dsalni.wordpress.com . Once again, thanks to Dennis plus an additional thanks to all of those whose cars have appeared here.

Into your auto-art? Find our previous art entries here:

http://www.retroscenemag.com/post/Need-More-Motorvation.aspx

http://www.retroscenemag.com/post/Steve-Kirks-Motorvation.aspx

http://www.retroscenemag.com/post/Bob-Haro-2c-BMX-vs-Car.aspx
 

Posted on: March 18, 2009 06:44

We do enjoy the link between lifestyle and cars here, from that group of friends you always meet at shows, to the "lifestyle" additions you may make to your cars for practical of style reasons.

As well as our previously documented unhealthy obsession with trainers, we've also got a thing for BMX', we're not the only ones, but things can go back the other way.  Bob Haro is a bit of a genius, BMX rider, entrepreneur and for us today artist.  Check out his Beetle on Centra wheels with BMX bike rack on the back :



Being an 80's thing there seems to be a leaning towards the use of Porsche 911s in full on 80's style.  So much so that the Pelican Parts Porsche forum found time to have a discussion about all things BMX and Porsche here : http://forums.pelicanparts.com/showthread.php?t=253006

There was even more evidence of this with Haro's rendering of a Porsche 911 Carrera covered in BMXs.



BMX Roots has a great series of entries about Bob Haro here if you want to read more on him, or this great biography here.  Or just enjoy the images we've got here and celebrate the juxtaposition of BMXs and Cars.

In the mean time, we want a big monster truck with a rack of bikes:





Posted on: November 17, 2008 06:47

Following on from our recent article on Steve Kirk's conceptual drawings in Street Machine's Motorvation series we thought we'd bring you Japan's offerings along similar lines: 'Custom Dreaming' by Crazy Masaru.

 

My inability to read Japanese puts me somewhat on the back foot here, so the information I've gleaned is purely visual from the pages of Lightning Vintage Auto magazine where there is a Custom Dreaming section in every splendid issue. Cars are seemingly always domestic in origin (Japanese, that is) and themes are often influenced by American car culture with the likes of Bonneville styled RX7s, Cobra-ised Datsun Roadsters, surf bum Hiace vans and Suzuki Fronte Gassers! 

 

Brilliant lateral thinking here with a Lil' Red Wagon inspired Honda Acty pickup - the Little Little Red Wagon. 

 

Here's that Suzuki Fronte SS (Sport Sedan) drag racer I mentioned. A picture of the front shows a gasser stance, some Cragar-esque mags and the legend 22 cu in on the fender (22 Cubic inches is 360cc for those that don't have their calculators to hand). It's the clever touches like that that make these ideas so neat. 

 

This MS72 Crown looks good given the circuit racer treatment.

 

Another fantastic concept is this Fairlady, as mentioned previously it's been Cobra-ised (or Shelby'd, perhaps?). Again, my lack of Japanese language skill holds us back, but I can clearly make out the numbers '289' amongst the text, suggesting that Masaru has a V8 in mind for this creation.

 

Further info? Despite the Crazy Masaru moniker (changed to Funky Masaru in at least one issue) the credit for illustration goes to M.Nemoto. I've yet to find anything on the 'net about the artist or the illustrations, but judging by this picture from Auto Otaku's Flickr pages there was a display of the works at the Tokyo Nostalic Car Show this year. If you know more let us know.

 

 

Posted on: July 24, 2008 02:00

It is easy to take for granted now the idea of 'trying out' car modifications on your car before doing them, a quick lap around photoshop and you'll be able to alter your cars colour, ride height and wheels pretty quickly.  More radical modifications can also be performed, or if you are lucky you'll have a Busselecta type web page for your car.

There was a time before all this was at hand, back when skilled illustrators were required to fulfil these visions.  One of the best known illustrators in the UK is Steve Kirk, with the work he did for Street Machine magazine.

Initially the idea was in two sections, in the first Street Machine magazine from May 1979 we have a Motorvation section that concentrates on modifying details:

Here we can see some illustrations and text around bonnet scoops, the section was introduced with the text "Street Machine's idea sketchpad. Each month I'll be trying to stimulate your imagination with ideas bridging the whole customising spectrum from detail topics".

The partner to the early Motorvation was "Custom Profile" :

Here the Austin Cambridge is taken as a base and illustrated in a number of different guises.  This section was more than just pictures and went a bit more in-depth into the technicalities of achieving the look.

Later in Street Machine Magazine's life the two sections effectively became one, each month a theme was picked and Steve was provided with guidelines for cars to draw and back they would come.  Motorvation was a great way of expressing ideas and stimulate thoughts, it is a shame that we no longer get this monthly injection of ideas.

The ideas are still as valid now as they ever were, here is a little selection

December 1996 'Pro Street' theme:

February 1999 'Roadsters' theme:

January 1993 'Morris Minor' theme:

November 1979 'Street Racers' theme:

There was once hope of a book, but I don't know how far that ever got.  So for now we just need to scour ebay for back issues of Street Machine to get our Motorvation.

Posted on: July 16, 2008 03:10