Tag: ART

S_V_H New Like A Rock image3

Published on by Scott Von Holzen


This is a commissioned artwork for the Chevrolet Like A Rock commercial that aired from 1991 to 2004. In this image, as I have always done,  I place the music moving from left to right. The color of that music is a tinted Primary Cyan, which is a close match to the blue across the front of every Chevrolet dealership.  I am using darker shades of that same blue for the other parts of the music, to avoid one-color-boredom. At the top of this image is a clamp, to improve the glued bond between wood and aluminum.

Although my Father, a lifetime car guy,  made his money with a Ford Lincoln Mercury, heavy truck dealership, I think he was generally more a General Motors car person.  Of course being a true car lover,  his last, most favorite and greatest car he ever owned was his S Class 500 Mercedes sedan. Still, my early car memories are of his first Cadillac. I can see it today as a 1964, probably an aspen white, De Ville.  For Dad buying a Cadillac was more than having a great car.  Thinking back I wonder if for him that Cadillac  was a defining moment.   Maybe that was the point where he no longer thought of himself as a son of a Swiss immigrant. From then on,  he wanted to be known as a respected and successful American businessman.

My 2006 picture of my Father Warner, and his Mercedes

Creating the Chevrolet logo brings back those memories of growing up in the automobile business that my Father built. To this day I still love the sight and smells of new cars on the showroom floor. And like my Dad’s Cadillac, I had a car passion: “Like a rock, I was strong as I could be, Like a rock, nothin’ ever got to me, Like a rock, I was something to see.” My car was my red 1968 Mustang, and then my yellow 1970 Mach I Mustang. There where the road and bar trips with friends,  but the best part came in fall when I drove my Mustangs back-and-forth, and around the streets of Madison. I was particularly proud, to let the campus ladies, take full advantage of getting around that little big city, with me, in my cool wheels.  I too, like Dad,  once thought, I was something to see.

Scott Von Holzen

 

S_V_H New Like A Rock image2

Published on by Scott Von Holzen

For now the background is finished for this second Like a Rock project, and to my surprised it turned out better than I expected. Even though I stock many different canvas sizes I was lucky to find two sizes that where a close match to the dimensions of the client requested Chevrolet logo.  Because silver surrounds the logo I decided I would do the same with angled aluminum.  The problem was the difficulty in finding decent lengths of aluminum that where not marred or scratched. I searched three stores to find enough aluminum for this project. That made me realized that the issues of marring and scratching using aluminum needed to be resolved.

What resulted was that I learned that rubbing compound works for cleaning, and triple and quad zero wool removes most flaws, giving the aluminum a clean-looking finish. Finally,  using a Dremel with a buffing wheel gives me an extra backup for removing the worst mares and scratch marks.

Next up I will be placing the music.  For the music I went to the local Chevrolet dealership with a color chart to narrow the range of possible blues.  On my second trip to the dealership I  compared my painted test samples to what I call the “Chevy blue”  you see in this example:

With the help of my wife it turned out that the best option, for the music,  was a slightly tinted Primary Cyan.  I know my color pallet for this artwork is extremely limited.  That means adding contrast and interest to this artwork will probably be limited to those colors already in the background, or shades and tints of the music color. That may be an interesting challenge, something only commission work offers.

Scott Von Holzen

S_V_H New Like A Rock image1

Published on by Scott Von Holzen

Here is the first image of the commission work to create an artwork based on the Chevrolet, Like a Rock commercial,  that ran from 1991 to 2004.

The client wanted to include the Chevrolet logo, and as you can see I have done that. It is amazing that my experiences of using aluminum and canvas to create some pretty good Artworks, would be put to use to make a reasonable facsimile of an automobile nameplate.  Fascinating.

Scott Von Holzen