The manliest chest ever - Illustration of the Fabio's Chest handlebar bag.

Time-lapse process video:

https://video.wixstatic.com/video/7c4631_9d7af8e097f04a4baac1425ab49da389/1080p/mp4/file.mp4

Bicycle luggage (and this includes frame bags, basket bags, handlebar and saddle bags and the likes) are ubiquitous in recent years, thanks to the bikepacking and gravel bikes explosion. While this is not something new, the aforementioned movement has herald in all types of bike bags that are found on many touring and gravel bike rigs across the world.

One such bag is called the Fabio's Chest. This bag is the brainchild and product of one who calls himself Ultraromance (amongst other names). If you are an ardent follower of all things steel bikes, gravel, bikepacking movement - then you'll know who he is.

For this artwork, I wanted to achieve a sort of vintag-ey, steampunk-ish, western sort of vibe. The background pattern is a vector art, edited in Adobe Illustrator. The starburst and the texts were done in Illustrator as well.

For the bag and bike, I used a photo from Ultraromance's website as reference. I traced (yes trace, I'm not a real artist, shoot me) the outline linework on Illustrator, before importing all of that into Procreate for painting and texturing. Once again I found the True Grit's Beat Tones brushes on Procreate to be especially helpful and a joy to use. It's safe to say its the mainstay of my painting style as far as digital artwork is concerned. Additionally, I added a single stalk rose on the bag, mirroring the roses patch on the bag.

Really happy with how the artwork turned out. Despite me not having the long hours of spare time, I get things done by chipping away bits and pieces with whatever free time I have like during my lunch breaks and when the wife and kid are in bed. Every stroke of the pen no matter how little, is progress. That's how things roll in my world. So folks, keep on keeping on. Fight the good fight.

Introversation - out.

'Basketlyfe'T-shirt available here: