Monday, October 3, 2011

Taco Time!

Hungry folks rejoice, because Big Star has a taco truck! They asked me to paint it, and I gladly agreed.

This was, of course, a big project made trickier because I painted it outdoors. Chicago's weather is no friend to an artist working with oil based enamel. But launching into a chilly October, I'll certainly miss those scorching summer afternoons before long...

Some cheesy Chicago laws are preventing the truck from hitting the road just yet, but its live for catering and events. Lets all cross our fingers that the city get some sense, or payoffs, or whatever it'll take to let the food trucks get cooking...time to give Portland a run for its money!


The great looking photo above was taken by Bill Guerriero. Take a look at more of his fine photos at his Flickr stream.



I wanted to create an image that notes the burbon-bar style of Big Star while recognizing that the truck is sort of a booze-free entity of its own. Style wise, its sort of a child of Big Star, rather than a direct extension of it. While I was designing the images, the truck's menu hadn't yet been decided. So I tried to evoke some classic ingredients of taqueria cuisine.


(All these pics get bigger. Click 'em!)


I realized very quickly that drawing a big old al pastor taco just wasn't going to work in a sign-painter style. A taco would just look like a pile of mush, lacking any eye-catching hook. I decided that the images should promise the food without illustrating the simple looking dish. So we've got a rooster on the bottle, along with an onion, garlic, and cheese.


Some Chillies too.

What would Mexican food be without maize? The painted area and windows make up an awning that flips up when the truck is serving food.


We talked about having mariscos and drinks. Again, a simple painting of seafood stew didn't look nearly as appetizing as it tastes, so I stuck to the ingredients.


Keep an eye on"Consuelo's" Twitter feed to find when and where the truck will be serving.

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