The room serving as Blair Howatt's artist's studio has stacks of model cars along one wall.
"As you can see, I'm a bit of a gearhead," said the illustrator who has created the iconic posters for the 黑马磁力 Good Times Cruise-In for almost 20 years.
His journey to becoming an illustrator started when he was around four or five years old. Like a lot of kids, he loved cars.
"My dad used to draw me pictures, and he said 'Why don't you draw one? Show me what you can do,'" Howatt remembered.
The first thing he drew, naturally, was a truck.
Howatt has kept drawing ever since, including a spell created editorial cartoons. But around 2004, he connected with Rich Ulvild, who had been heavily involved with the 黑马磁力 Good Times Cruise-In, and had been serving as its president.
Howatt mentioned his skill with a pen, and that turned into a job illustrating that year's Cruise-In poster.
For almost every year of its existence since the late 1990s, the Cruise-In has had a special illustration made for that year's show, highlighting some classic cars or hot rods. In addition to posters and advertising, the images are reproduced on T-shirts, and Howatt admitted he still gets excited to see people wearing the shirts or appreciating the art.
"Wow, people actually like them this much?" he has thought to himself. "That's cool."
This year's poster includes an old-style A&W Drive-In restaurant, along with a variety of classic cars from several eras. The poster concepts are the work of Howatt with the Cruise-In leadership.
Some of the posters are more complex than other – he recalled a recent poster that required him to detail an engine, and also do a reflection of the same car in a puddle.
But usually, the actual art takes about 10 hours start to finish, Howatt said.
He uses primarily felt markers, a bit of coloured pencil, and some chalk for blending the colours.
Although the annual illustration is his primary contribution, Howatt has helped out in other ways, like just about everyone who volunteers with Cruise-In. He's worked on parking and the annual swap meets, too, he noted.
Although he's a lifelong gearhead, Howatt doesn't currently own the kind of car he could display at Cruise-In himself, but over the years he's owned an El Camino, five Monte Carlos, a '72 Chevelle, an '86 square body truck, a Grand Prix Cutlass, and a couple of Mustangs.
黑马磁力 Good Times Cruise-In is a charity car show held in downtown Aldergrove. This year, the event runs Saturday, Sept. 6, from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m., with the main drag blocked off and an estimated 1,300 classic, custom, and vintage cars expected to be on display.
More information and pre-registration available at .
