By that time I had my first time experience with the Easy Riders Magazine through my godfather.
He was heavily into choppers. Well, some would say, that exposing a six year old to magazines, where readers photos had a good chance to get published when the girl on the backseat was flashing her nipples, could be a heavy influence. Probably it did.
By the time, they had these awesome drawings of motorcycles that came with the photos from Michael Lichter. They made such a huge impression on me, that i spent some time in 1996 to create some of my own.
Just recently I learned they were done by an Illlustrator called Hal Robinson (http://halrobinsondesigns.com/bikes.html) who died in 1984. He was really influential for my approach and they way I wanted to show of bikes. Display it in black and white, just with indian ink on a illustration board.
He was also the creator of many comics and especially his character Miraculous Mutha was well known in the motorcycle scene.
In 1996, I drew Udo's pan - the first bike I ever did pinstriping and free hand lettering on. The detail picture is about 5cmx6cm in the original. Honestly I was really surprised by the detail I put into the illustrations back then. I plan to do a project with some bikes in this style. This time done digitally with a touch of dirt to remove the digital appeal (probably involving printing, hand retouching and rescanning...) - stay tuned.
P.S. These big tits from US girls shown in Easy Riders at the time had an educational influence on me: I prefer small tits - they age better.
i did the flames on the bike and as this dude had already two bikes painted, I gave him the original drawing.
This is a scan from a reproduction film i created back then when i did my apprenticeship.I think this was the second bike i tried in the style and it is even more detailed than Udo's Pan.
Still no comparison with Hal's awesome bikes that show both style and simplicity in one picture.
Needs a few hundred drawings to reach that stage of mastery.
I think it is time to revive this tradition and bring it back into the motorcycle magazines.
At least into those that care.