This month's artist was struck by the illustration bug at an early age. Gerard Blommaert is a "No Photoshop!" hands-on kind of guy, His favorite tools consist of ink pen, felt tip marker pens, pencil, crayon, and gouache paint stuffed in a top feed airbrush. He was born in Audenarde, Belgium, where at a very early age he began drawing. Needless to say, Gerard's first years were spent in the country where horses became the subject of Gerard's interpolations. Reminiscing back to those days, Gerard remembers his first sketch was developed with pencil on the coarse surface of a brown-paper grocery bag.
By his early teens, the '60s muscle car era was in its prime. Hot Rod, other custom magazines, and scale models tied Gerard ever closer to the auto. His youth was spent drawing and assembling miniature versions of his favorite cars and trucks. It wasn't long before Gerard's bedroom walls started filling with awards in both model cars and country fair art competitions from his skilled hands.
Gerard was eventually driven to get more involved, he worked in an auto body shop where he learned the skills of sheetmetal fab-rication and the art of mixing and shooting pigments. By the age of 20, he attended Ricks College, where his major course of study was art. Taking a job up north in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, he worked for an agency developing and generating ads, designed logos, brochures, posters, and magazine cover art.
In 1980, he went out on his own and has been fighting the Gerard Graffix fight ever since.
Artist: Gerard Blommaert
Gerard Graffix
(780) 468-7240
gerardgraffix.com
As an older artist, Gerard's...
As an older artist, Gerard's been drawing for quite some time. He's enamor with the classics, as shown here in one of his favorite truck types. The '68-'72 C Series has definitely taken its place in the popular classic-to-build category. Here, the C20 is denoted by the longbed, and the front clip follows the '71-'72 era. The graphic design is reminiscent of the '80s, but the larger wheels and shaved body bring the rendering up to date.
Rarely found in two-wheel-drive,...
Rarely found in two-wheel-drive, the '69-'72 Blazer is a popular choice among off-roaders, but a few made the custom-truck scene in its two-wheel-drive form. Many of which were converted 4x4s. the extremely short wheel base, raking the windscreen back, provides a unique look only found on the blazer. Gerard's version wears the front sheetmetal from a '67 c10.