Some of my BMX drawings over the last three years. I did the drawing above of a classic brake endo, by the Godfather of BMX freestyle himself, Bob Haro. The weird coloring in the background was an experiment. This one made it into the Winston-Salem Journal (NC) newspaper, in November 2017, in my artist profile for my first little solo art show.
This is my take on my own black & white photo of the late Dave Vanderspek on his GPV. In the 80's, some riders started taking spare bike parts, and making weird little bikes with no pedals, just for bombing down big hills. These were called Gravity Powered Vehicles, or GPV's, and they ultimately reached speeds of around 90mph, and could out maneuver Oz's Porsche. I heard Bob Osborn himself say that. I shot the initial photo at the Palm Springs Tramway GPV race in 1987. Scotty Z bought this one, as I recall.
This is one I did of Mat Hoffman, I just wanted to see how a high air shot would look. I stripped out most of the background, and simplified this one. I gave this to Scotty Z., I think, as a bonus because he bought so many of my drawings and has helped me out so much.
Eddie Roman was one of my favorite riders in the 1980's, and also totally inspired me as a video producer. I started drawing this one in 2016, I think, got side tracked, and never finished it. Then it got lost in one of my moves since. Bummer.
I did this one after Dave Mirra's death, for a big tribute jam they had at Randy and Ryder Lawrence's compound in California. I sent it out, and it was given away to a rider. We've all seen a million photos and all kinds of video of Dave. But the one that really stood out to me was the photo of him doing a tail tap on a basketball hoop. It just seemed like a ridiculous idea, with a dozen ways it could have really ended badly. So that's what I drew. I did this one quick, to get it done and shipped out to the jam, so it didn't have the detail most of my drawings do.
Pay no attention to the man behind the drawing... When I landed here in Richmond, completely randomly, last August, I didn't know a soul here. Or so I thought. After mentioning I was here, I got a Facebook message from FBM founder Steve Crandall, who I've known since 1994. He told me to meet him at Power's Bike Shop. There I met its owner, Chad Powers, who's a really solid dude. Both he and Crandall have helped me a ton through these few sketchy months here.
Chad also asked me to draw his favorite rider, Brian Foster. I'm a huge fan of the Blue Falcon, too, since we were roommates at the P.O.W. House back about 1993. I went looking for a great photo of Brian doing a one handed tabletop 360. Oddly, I couldn't find the right kind of shot to work from. I wound up settling for this crazy shot in a ski town (Whistler maybe?) of Brian doing a one footed table 3 with the mountains in the background. Then I added the mug of Brian at the bottom.
It kinda bums me that Brian gets lost in the background, but it's a really cool picture viewed up close. I definitely need to draw B.F. again, at some point. Oh, and I'm actually standing below a signature Brian Foster, Blue Falcon bike, which is hanging from the ceiling at Powers Bikes, part of Chad's huge collection, which will be a kickass BMX museum at some point. #sharpiescribblestyle
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