Art gallery [Large pictures warning!!]

[Dowly]

BLADE RUNNER

[Eichhörnchen]

Or maybe just "D-Day"... this is my latest experiment with using the PC to help me compose a painting. It really does beat the way I used to do it: shifting bits of tracing-paper around, each with a little part of the drawing on it, until they all looked to be in the right place.



It started the same old way, though... with a very quick sketch to record the idea; in this case a Spitfire banking over a Normandy beachhead, viewed through a thin veil of low cloud and sea mist.


Then some model photography... remembering the direction of the morning sun... I have to get some good shadows on the models to make them "pop". Finally they can be photo-shopped onto a makeshift background with adjustments of size and attitude all done with digital manipulation. I photographed my model from different angles just in case I decided to put 'two' aircraft in, and in the end this is the way it's gone.

Problem is, I'm not going to be able to use my chosen aircraft: despite coming from an "Xtradecal" sheet entitled "Normandy Invasion Aircraft", my research has revealed that this plane was not in the war until July '44, and even then flew only over Holland and Belgium... not Normandy. I considered stretching things and suggesting this was how I fancied the pilot (Tony Cooper) might have returned to the area where he had indeed flown during the initial invasion, in his Spit MkV, but this notion was in turn squashed when I discovered that the decal instruction sheet had mistakenly directed the modeller to put 18" (full size) invasion stripes under the wings, when in fact this squadron used the narrower ones. They got the narrower stripes under the fuselage right, but not the wings. A reissue of this decal set has corrected the error, but my model was built years ago and I trusted the information; it's unwise to trust decal sheets and artists' profiles... always use contemporary photographs if you can get them.

So I've had to re-think the fuselage markings entirely... currently favouring no.485 (NZ) Squadron, who flew MkIX Spits on D-Day.

Now all I have to do is to draw and paint it.

[Eichhörnchen]

Working on the background still, but I've started to rough in the Spitfires to help me get the colour-contrast & tonal values right.

I think I'll put some invasion "traffic" heading for the beach... the white wakes in the water will follow the same direction as the aircraft and help the impression of speed.



Some more progress; happy with the clouds now so I'll move on to the aircraft tomorrow (remember these are only rough atm).

Nearing completion I think.

Finished