A cheeky style and attention to detail combine for these fun illustrations
The dual passions for cartoon art and classic cars have come together to inspire a humorous series of automotive artworks by Andrew Ritter. Be it a flying BMW 3.0 CSL ‘Batmobile’ at the Nürburgring or a rally Mini Cooper ‘S’ charging around Monte Carlo, Ritter’s designs always make you smile, and his recent prints have been a sellout after gaining an enthusiastic following on Instagram.
Ritter has enjoyed drawing from an early age. “With a set of crayons, I’d be happy sketching a car or a rocketship,” he explains. “When the Sunday papers arrived, there would always be a race to find the latest Calvin and Hobbes cartoon: Bill Watterson was an early hero of mine. The work of Pixar has also been an inspiration. The first Toy Story was a coming-of-age event and I enjoyed Luca, the latest film.”
Art and automobiles have long been parallel interests. At Kenyon College, Ohio, Ritter studied fine art sculpture, but he graduated in 2007 during a tough recession: “I never really had any plans as a student, but to make some money I started my own firm designing car T-shirts that I’d sell at events up and down the East Coast. Then with my buddy Mike Burroughs we started the online magazine StanceWorks, which was a great outlet for my photography and writing. From Porsches to hot rods, it was very much open borders with the cars we covered.”
After moving to California in 2010, Ritter left the magazine to focus on his art, and started developing his digital talents through his caricatures. From the initial sketch idea, he builds the cars in Blender, a graphic software package in which he forms the 3D shape before cutting away the detail. Once happy with the subject, Ritter begins building up the background and textures using Photoshop: “Creating the roads and buildings is my favourite part. As a kid I’d always loved diorama displays I saw during school trips to natural-history museums. The backgrounds really create the atmosphere. It’s a bit like making your own little world.”
For inspiration, Ritter enjoys the California car scene and an annual trip to the
