P-51 pencil drawing ...
Wed Dec 12, 2007 1:10 am
This is the final pencil study for my upcoming painting, "Mission From Debden" ... this is the most complicated painting I've attempted thus far, so I did the drawing pretty big.
Notice the wingman is just cranking up, so the clams are coming up and the prop is blurred. There's also a big puff of smoke that just came out of the stacks. I found a great picture reference for that. The main P-51 is warming up already and the pilot, Capt. Van Wyk, is stealing a glance over at his dog before whipping around to taxi out:
Mission From Debden (study)
14.25 x 31.5 inches
Pencil on Vellum
Next up is the oil study, which is basically a miniature version of the final painting ... I call my oil studies the "Dress Rehersal". All this is geared towards gaining a certain level of confidence when faced with that final giant and BLANK canvas
... I'm trying to solve my problems, and resolve my approach, with these preliminary studies.
Wade
Notice the wingman is just cranking up, so the clams are coming up and the prop is blurred. There's also a big puff of smoke that just came out of the stacks. I found a great picture reference for that. The main P-51 is warming up already and the pilot, Capt. Van Wyk, is stealing a glance over at his dog before whipping around to taxi out:
Mission From Debden (study)
14.25 x 31.5 inches
Pencil on Vellum
Next up is the oil study, which is basically a miniature version of the final painting ... I call my oil studies the "Dress Rehersal". All this is geared towards gaining a certain level of confidence when faced with that final giant and BLANK canvas
... I'm trying to solve my problems, and resolve my approach, with these preliminary studies.
Wade
Wed Dec 12, 2007 1:54 am
Great pencil study Wade! The shadows look awesome too!! Im sure the final product will look really nice! Thanks for sharing that!
Wed Dec 12, 2007 11:00 am
Very nice!
Have you ever done any P-40s?
Have you ever done any P-40s?
???
Wed Dec 12, 2007 11:52 am
Shouldn't that say FT on the side 
Wed Dec 12, 2007 12:01 pm
I saw this over at HyperScale this morning - absolutely beautiful Wade! I love to see how your drawings come together and all the work that you put into making sure the persective is just right. Thanks for sharing!
Zack
Zack
Re: ???
Wed Dec 12, 2007 12:45 pm
Jack Cook wrote:Shouldn't that say FT on the side
The next one could . . .
Hey, I'm only 10 commissions behind at the moment ... I'll get to it!!
Wade
Wed Dec 12, 2007 1:01 pm
That is stunning work and tells a story too! Have you thought about a thread with updates on how you achieve the final painting with pics, kinda like Gary and the Diamond lil posts? Looking forward to the finished painting
Tim
Tim
Wed Dec 12, 2007 1:07 pm
Tim Landers wrote:. . . Have you thought about a thread with updates on how you achieve the final painting with pics, kinda like Gary and the Diamond lil posts?
Thanks, Tim ... I have been doing exactly that on eHangar.com, the world's premier site for all things aviation art. Check my thread out here:
http://ehangar.com/modules.php?name=For ... 1780#17862
Cheers!
Wade
Wed Dec 12, 2007 2:46 pm
Awesome, as always, Wade!
I'm gonna go slink back to the kiddie pool now...
Wed Dec 12, 2007 7:09 pm
Very nice, Wade!
Ummm...Give a holler when that "sketch" might be available!
Ummm...Give a holler when that "sketch" might be available!
Wed Dec 12, 2007 9:34 pm
you have an amazing talent there, Wade. I really admire your work.
B
B
Wed Dec 12, 2007 10:10 pm
Wade, that is really amazing how much time you put in to research for the detail in making a drawing. Also, thanks of reminding me about Ehangar. Its almost as bad as walking into Virginia Bader place in Santa Ana, CA. I can never get out of there empty handed. Kinda of like a moth and the lightbulb...
Well Done,
Lynn
Well Done,
Lynn
Wed Dec 12, 2007 11:46 pm
Chico, I sure wish you would do something with a PBY up in the Aleutians. Such a neglected and yet vital sideshow in the war. And the pilots there faced such amazing weather conditions...Not much scrapping but I bet you could find a story or two!
*begs*
*begs*
Wed Jan 02, 2008 2:15 pm
Here's a mini-update with a hand-held shot ...
The sky's done, and I've got the groundwork going at this point. During tonight's session I hope to have most if not all of the rest of the 'hills' on the other side of the main Mustang done. I'm following my pencil study pretty closely as you can tell - the study is attached below for comparison.
For "color" reference, I've got 4 or 5 of my own pics for inspiration. Past that, after the first layers of paint are on the canvas, I tweak as I get the whim, all the time stopping (hopefully) just short of 'overworking' the painting and thus ruining the "painterly" effect. Not easy to know when to cease and desist on a particular area ...
Potential roblems at this point, for example, are things like the prop disc looking WAY out of place, simply because the 'context' of the painting in the form of the aircraft the disc is attached to isn't there yet. Some avoid this trap by "blocking in" everything in one paint layer, but that's just not my style, I've found ... I just refer to the study for 'context' and values, and my ref photos for color notes, correcting later if necessary as the paint dries and allows me to do so.
Things I've already made notes about are I need to glaze-darken the prop blades of the far Mustang; don't think I'll go quite as dark as the pencil study, but definitely darker than I've got here in paint. I prefer to darken with glazes rather than try to lighten with them, so I held off when doing the prop blades darker at this point. As you can see, I like to paint "whatever's in the way" as I go, especially prop blades/discs. That way I'm using the same background paint within the blade/disc. Just works easier for me.
In case you forgot, the canvas is 19" x 42":
Wade
The sky's done, and I've got the groundwork going at this point. During tonight's session I hope to have most if not all of the rest of the 'hills' on the other side of the main Mustang done. I'm following my pencil study pretty closely as you can tell - the study is attached below for comparison.
For "color" reference, I've got 4 or 5 of my own pics for inspiration. Past that, after the first layers of paint are on the canvas, I tweak as I get the whim, all the time stopping (hopefully) just short of 'overworking' the painting and thus ruining the "painterly" effect. Not easy to know when to cease and desist on a particular area ...
Potential roblems at this point, for example, are things like the prop disc looking WAY out of place, simply because the 'context' of the painting in the form of the aircraft the disc is attached to isn't there yet. Some avoid this trap by "blocking in" everything in one paint layer, but that's just not my style, I've found ... I just refer to the study for 'context' and values, and my ref photos for color notes, correcting later if necessary as the paint dries and allows me to do so.
Things I've already made notes about are I need to glaze-darken the prop blades of the far Mustang; don't think I'll go quite as dark as the pencil study, but definitely darker than I've got here in paint. I prefer to darken with glazes rather than try to lighten with them, so I held off when doing the prop blades darker at this point. As you can see, I like to paint "whatever's in the way" as I go, especially prop blades/discs. That way I'm using the same background paint within the blade/disc. Just works easier for me.
In case you forgot, the canvas is 19" x 42":
Wade
Wed Jan 02, 2008 4:59 pm
excelent work.