the micro micro bus

[joegagan]

i was looking at the brilliant sketches over at speed and design .net. maybe someday they will let me join. so far, they don't seem to want to let me in the club ( activated by harv e, the propieter, a person must email him directly, i tried 3X)
anyway, there was this dude, i will get his correct name as soon as he gets back to me, he did a cool sketch of a vw bus concept, and i had to give it a go:




i know i need to clean up my lines, better definition in line weights, improve the realism of my perspective, and accomplish more with less in defining shapes. wheels could be much more cleanly executed.

this was a first draft that i worked over pretty hard to get the perspective where it is. of course you can spot the photoshop quickie touchups/mods as well.

any other criticisms? i am all ears ,and no hard feelings at all , ever.

thanks for looking.

[Bravada]

Good idea, good design, good execution, what else can be said?

As concerns personal taste, I am not a big fan of the overdone elements, such as wheels/wheelwells, or the front end, but I guess that's within the rights of a "concept design"... As concerns "virtual reality", it would make a lot of sense for VW to build something like this, I actually thought about that one for a moment:

[joegagan]

thanks! that is a fascinating little bus you've shown. what is the story on that?

[Bravada]

Quite simple. In Japan, there are quite a few companies offering body kits for kei cars and trucks that make them look like, mostly foreign, classic vehicles. The VW Microbus conversion kit for the Subaru Sambar was apparently pretty popular (do note the photos probably show two different Sambars).

Here's a blue one from Wikipedia:

[johnstarnes]

Beautifully done! I like how you took heritage design elements then made them sleeker and futuristic....I see a touch of Pontiac Bansee concept in the front end and like it. I hope you create and share more of your designs.

[joegagan]

that was my first guess. a body kit on a third world miniwagon. thanks for the flesh out on the originating vehicle . hmm --- subie!

yah

[Bravada]

that was my first guess. a body kit on a third world miniwagon.

Japan is hardly third world... The body kits do not come cheap, this industry could only develop in a country with lots of excess income...

[joegagan]

hey johnstarnes, great to see you!

wow, i appreciate the feedback, very nice of you for sure.

i totally see what you mean about the banshee ( loved it), but really i have to give alot of the credit to the original guy ( so far all i know is his moniker at the speed design.net forum - "infernonoble"

i saw his flow on that colorband going up from the v to the roof rails, i wish i had thought that up but it was him. i was trying to give it a muscular but cartoonish/ sculptural feel, while tying the elements together.

here is the drawing that inspired me:

[joegagan]

Japan is hardly third world... The body kits do not come cheap, this industry could only develop in a country with lots of excess income...

sorry, i should not have been so glib. what i meant was that it reminds me of news footage of third world countries, tons of little tiny vans running all over.

but i understand, the people with the modded minivans have obviously done really nice with them, takes $$ to do that for sure. i like em.

[Bravada]

Tiny van = third world? Oh well, only in America...

[joegagan]

hey johnstarnes, great to see you!

wow, i appreciate the feedback, very nice of you for sure.

i totally see what you mean about the banshee ( loved it), but really i have to give alot of the credit to the original guy ( so far all i know is his moniker at the speed design.net forum - "infernonoble"

i saw his flow on that colorband going up from the v to the roof rails, i wish i had thought that up but it was him. i was trying to give it a muscular but cartoonish/ sculptural feel, while tying the elements together.

here is the drawing that inspired me:

[joegagan]

wow. i found out the original designers name - andre noble , and get this - he's 13!

[Bravada]

Did you add the last two pics later or did they not load for me previously? Anyhow, your last design is really good, I'd say "concept-ready" (i.e. one could build a concept looking exactly like the vehicle you've drawn).

[joegagan]

hey thanks bravada, you are really paying attention.
i appreciate the compliment very much.
i have been studying in my spare time to think and hopefully work like a real pro designer, in that i strive in my drawings that they be realistic for actual production as the concept starts to get fleshed out. if anything, i would like to spend more time just doing freeform sketches to get my wilder ideas flowing as well. this vw was fun for me because it moved me out of my normal sports cars, shook things up a little.

you are correct, i posted more throughout the day. i do this for two reasons:
so people can see the improvements in one screen( maybe just a wee bit of scrolling), allows for easy comparison, and

2. i like to see them together myself. the edit feature at this forum works very well for this.

anyway , thank you.

[Bravada]

Please do, but be louder about it - change the thread title (like: Updated pics), change the first post to reflect that, post at the end of the thread. Your work is worth of good advertising!

And please do not limit yourself to outlandish sports car concepts. Actual cars need design too, if not even more. Gee, even plastic cups need it!