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Work in Progress
From time to time I'll try to illustrate a new work in progress to show how the process evolves.
This latest example is a LIVE work in progress showing the next painting in the RLM Collection. It depicts an Me110 of Erpr. Gr. 210 climbing off target during the attack on Croydon on 15th August 1940. There will be plenty of other aircraft in the scene as the unit was intercepted by Hurricanes over the airfield, so it should be an interesting one to paint.
This is my first thumbnail sketch ideas of how the composition might look, at this stage, 'E' was the favourite.
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Having read more deeply about the raid, it seems as if the raiders climbed hard off target to attain some height, so showing the leaving the target at very low level would not be right. I therefore came up with this alternative idea which tells the story more accurately and includes all the elements of the story.
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So, the first paint is applied,As I don't do colour studies or tonal studies, (I prefer to develop it all on the final canvas), the initial stages are crucial as this is where the light,atmosphere and ultimately the soul of the painting are created.
I put approximately 7 coats of paint onto the background trying various colours before arriving at this.
I then projected my sketch of the Me110 onto the canvas and blocked it in as you can see above. You'll note that I've moved the 110 up to break the horizon more, I decided to do this at the projection stage as when I moved the image around it seemed more suitable a bit higher. It also gives me the chance to put a reasonably large Hurricane underneath.
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Next stage was to block in some basic light and shadow onto the 110 and correct the dihedral a touch. The painting still needs more 'atmosphere' so I'll probably work on some cloud now to give the effect of depth and light.
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And last night I worked on the cloud. firstly added some cirrus in the sky and then some subtle cloud below the aircraft. There couldn't have been much as otherwise the 110s would have used it to escape but on a hazy day in England during the summer, there's always some cloud somewhere!
I've also added the smoke rising form the target and some basic brushstrokes onto the ground to establish the perspective down there, the shadow of the smoke will be a very important part of the painting.
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I wasn't totally happy with what I had so far, mainly because the background was too warm near the horizon and too light to make the aircraft stand out. I was also not happy with the direction of the light as the starboard engine would cast a big shadow on the nose and the nose needs to be the strongest part of the painting.
I therefore repainted the horizon behind the aircraft to make it darker and softened it as a hard line was too distracting behind the aircraft. This took a lot of time (and paint!) to get right but I think I'm about there now. I'll now move the shadow of the smoke as the light is now coming from over the viewer's left shoulder. This also means I'll have to turn the ground by around 90 degrees, hence why I didn't detail anything up to this stage.
Same goes for the aircraft, as you can see, it does tend to disappear during the 'reworking the background' stage but it's important to have it there in roughly blocked form to show how the light will work.
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Had one productive day on this and then Asia and I went to Dresden for a couple of days, which was a fantastic trip but has killed any chance of me having this finished before I fly to England on Monday!
I've been working on the background clouds, changed the shadow on the ground and have started to detail the port wing of the 110. I'm still struggling to make the aircraft stand out, the camouflage is just too good...
Still not touched the ground, I'll have a break in England before I attempt that!
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Well I'm back in the studio after 2 weeks in England and inspiration is running a bit thin as I battle to make the Me110 work. I've cleaned the horizon up a bit and darkened the undersides of the 110 and of course added more cloud. All of this to make the 110 dark against light rather than light against dark. It's getting there, slowly, but now I need to trim the cloud back a bit and get some perspective into it. I also need to sort out the port wing which is still not quite right.
The painting will come to life as soon as I add other aircraft but I need to get the basics right first. I'll also move the target towards the bottom left a little to balance the picture, hence the reason for removing it at the moment.
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The expression 'the darkest hour is just before dawn' sprang to mind as I battled with this painting a few days ago. The light was wrong, there was too much cloud and it just wasn't coming together as planned.
The only solution in situations like this is to go back to basics and try to find the original inspiration in terms of light and atmosphere. After 2 long days and nights, I'm happy to say I found it!
I've cleared a lot of the cloud and moved the light source back behind the aircraft. I've changed the intensity and shade of the sky which made a huge difference in terms of the aircraft standing out. I'm now adding smaller elements of cloud and haze to suit the actual conditions of the day.
I've started to detail the aircraft roughly and am slowly refining it's shape as I go. Next up is to add other aircraft and the target area before the final stage which will be to detail everything and add the final atmospheric touches.
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Just a quick update here, as you can see I've spent a lot of time working on the ground detail, using contemporary photos of the airfield and surroundings to give a feel for the built up areas. I've also done a bit of corrective surgery on the 110's starboard wing. I spent Sunday working on ideas of where to put the other aircraft so they'll start going in tomorrow.
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As this painting has overrun its slot by about a month, I'm having to work on it in the background to other more pressing commissions, hence the slightly slower progress towards completion. However, I've managed to get a lot of work done on the main Me110 in the last few days and have at last roughed in a Hurricane. I had to alter the cloud behind it to make it sit nicely, unfortunately now I've done that I'm thinking that a different angle on the Hurricane might be better! I'll have a cup of tea and a ponder...
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Nearly there! As I suspected, the previous Hurricane wasn't sitting quite right so I removed it and added these two in a very different attitude. The idea is to make the painting 'flow' in a curve from the bottom right corner towards the centre and then up towards the top right third of the painting. I've also added roughly the two Me110s climbing off target. Still to come will be 111 Squadron's Hurricanes, an Me110 defensive circle and possibly an Me109 stooging around somewhere...
Further update soon
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This example from a few years ago is an Osprey book cover painting showing George Buerling's Spitfire Vc over Gozo.
The first paint went on the background to establish the basic colour and composition and then the aircraft was sketched in ready for painting. As usual it was on a 15" x 11" piece of smooth art board.
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The next stage was to block the aircraft in with its basic camouflage colours and then add the light and shadows very roughly to see how it worked with the background.
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Once the highlights and shadows were in, it was clear that I needed to extend the island behind the Spitfire to make it stand out more. Once this was done it was time for the detail work. Hours and hours of close up painting with very fine brushes got it to this point.
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The final result. Following the last picture, I realised that my detail work had made Gozo too green, so I introduced a lot more yellows into the island to give it that Mediterranean look. Also added are dozens of smaller elements such as other aircraft, weathering on the Spitfire and the fire in the explosion behind.
After sending a proof to the author, a few final tweaks were made to the cannons and Vokes filter before it was despatched to Osprey in preparation for publication. Total hours approx 25.
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This is the workspace, a large and very tatty drawing board which I've had for over 20 years with plenty of space for sticking references. Kasia kindly lends some scale to the photo!
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And for those artists who are interested, here's the palette used. My standard set of colours which seem to go together very well for most subjects. The constant blending with other colours on the palette helps to unify the colour balance of the picture.
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Another Osprey cover, this time showing a JG53 Me109F over Malta.
For an Osprey cover first of all I sketch a quick thumbnail idea or two to find an angle and balance of light and shade. Once I'm happy with something I go straight to paint, usually on a 15" x 11" piece of smooth art board.
DAY 1
The first thing to go on is the background which I try to get at least 50% finished before drawing on the aircraft. You'll notice that the aircraft is lower in the painting than the sketch, this is mainly because it didn't seem to sit well higher up and also I wanted to show the bottom of the rear fuselage as it make's the 109's lines much more interesting.
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DAY 2
This day was spent blocking in the aircraft's colours and light and shade. The 109 is tricky from this view as the temptation is to draw the markings on a line down the middle of the fuselage when actually the centreline is much higher towards the nose. I've added more detail to the clouds and have tried to introduce some movement lines into the cloud shapes. this is only something you can do when you have the aeroplane on the board so that you know exactly where the movement should originate from.
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DAY 3
Now I'm just working on the Me109's detail. This close up shows the fine detail necessary for these covers. The thing that brings it to life is the highlight on the rear fuselage, especially where it covers the markings. When you lighten the 'black' cross so much it gives the fuselage a polished appearance, compare this with the previous picture.
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DAY 4
Back onto the rest of the picture, I've added the Hurricanes, apparently it was 4 Me109s bouncing 7 Hurricanes, so I've shown a few! I've also added more movement lines to the sky and clouds. The finishing touch is the 109's prop disc which I wanted as subtle as possible so as not to detract from the rest of the aircraft.
Now it goes to the commissioning editor and author for their approval; they usually come back with more violence please, flames smoke etc, but hopefully we'll avoid it with this one.
Once approved, it'll be signed and in the post on Monday morning. That's the beauty of acrylics!
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