Aircraft photos?

[PaulGT3]

Hey guys, my business has slowed abit with the enormous hits on the Defense Department, and I
find myself with time to paint again. I used to be a wildlife artist. But when my oldest got old enough
to play sports, I put down the brushes and pastels and became Coach Dad. He is 22 now and my youngest
is 17, so no more coaching for me.
So what I am looking for is some photos you might have taken at an air show, of Vintage aircraft.
I am not doing this to sell (at the moment) but should I, I will contact the photographer and work
out a deal with the photographer to pay him for his work. Right now I just want to see if there
is any talent left in me.
So any WW2 Vintage Aircraft and or any wildlife photos you might have taken of deer, big cats,
eagles or Bigfoots. email me at [email protected]
I thank you for your kindness in advance. AND you could make a few bucks. The last painting (of an eagle)
I sold in 1995 was for over $1000. But let me reiterate thats not my immediate goal. My immediate goal
is to create some art for people to see. I will post the paintings here when I get one done.
I probably wont paint jackets but who knows? I might throw one into a B-17 painting.

Thanks

 

[Skip]

Nice to have a hobby that's contemplative/relaxing. Unfortunately lost all my airshow photos when the hard disk crashed a while back.

Painting fascinates me how you can get the 'atmosphere' of place and subject across just by combining colours and adding depth, it's certainly a talent well worth pursuing and one inherently satisfying. The patch guys here certainly make those patches come alive, to think its just paint or leather. We saw an impressionist (Monet etc) exhibition at our National gallery, and seeing it in person really made sense, rather than in printed form, the real painting had life you could understand what they were trying to get across. I used to draw when I was a kid, combined this with tech drawing and did a few 3d perspective drawings of Spitfires and Bf109e, when at high school, but painting is another skill which I never mastered. I now use a camera instead, and run around chasing the light.

Best with it Paul, and look forward to seeing some of your work.

 

[a2jacketpatches]

Can't wait to see the first piece Paul, had at least a hundred pics from the Chino Air Show but that's another group buried on the hard drive that crashed.

 

[PaulGT3]

I always had this talent. In college as an engineer you dont get alot of electives that dont start
with Physic 20.... Math 21.. Chem22.. you get the picture. So when I got out I took classes at the JuCo.
but they were worthless. I found a nationally known artist in town, and I studied with her God Bless her soul.
She passed awhile ago of breast cancer. Then I took lessons from a Flemish painter named Carl Brenders in
Gran teton natl park. I learned a gauche water color technique and pastels. Its nothing but the skill to see how
light comes off an object. Then you replicate it. In my type of art. Realistic. For instance if you look at snow in
shade, ask people what color they see they say white or grey. But there are blues purples all kinds of colors.
Even oranges that reflect off of trees from the sun.
Once you do that youre home free. Just drawing and painting what you see, and whats really there. Some people
can't conceptualize that so they cant draw. Its weird to me. Both my sons can draw as if they had art lessons
their whole lives. You CAN teach a person to draw or paint, but you have to break through those barriers of
the student thinking he cant see. I think anyone could draw or paint professionally. But you have to OPEN your
brain. Once you do that rapid progress happens, and it wont quit till the student shut down his mind.
In between doing it professionally and coaching I did pet portraits to keep sharp so when I got back to it I would still be good.
THAT had to be the hardest art ever. Especially after a pet passes away and you have to do it from pictures. You the artist
have to capture what the soul of that pet (mostly dogs) was. Not whats in the picture but what personality the owner
remembers. I usually nailed it but one time I did 3 portraits of different dogs for the same owner. All deceased dogs.
The loved the first two, but just didnt like the third one. So now I want to do airplanes, something I drew all the time as
a kid and in the service. Once a Officer saw me drawing an F4 when I was a kid in the service, and commissioned me to do an F4 for the background on
Achievement awards. I was nervous, because I never thought I would do it for someone else. But it was pretty easy.
So having done elk birds of prey, all kinds of big cats, raccoons, I figure an airplane should be fairly straight forward.
We'll see.

 

[a2jacketpatches]

I read you loud and clear, an excellent way to help one realize the inner artist is to have someone draw from a picture upside down. Don't look at the image as a whole, but start at a corner and follow like a road map. This way you are looking at what is really there in detail as opposed to the entire image. You'd be surprised at the results if determined and disciplined enough to complete without turning the pic right side up.

Like you say Paul, the untrained eye would look at snow and call it white, but poke a hole in a piece of paper blocking out everything but a dot of color and you'll see a light value of ultramarine reflected from the sky. This is the mindset that separates the artist from the technician and helps with countless other problem solving issues. When you think this way, you'll develop techniques to work faster and be more effective no matter what you're doing, painting, sculpture, and even photography. Otherwise, you're just following a regimented set of rules learned at a very young age like coloring within the lines. These artistic skills can be learned, but some have a natural ability and just see it without it being shown.

 

[PaulGT3]

Sean now you are giving away all our secrets!!!LOL! With that knowledge artists would never
make any money, because everyone will be doing their own Moana (pardon the pun) Lisa!!

 

[Skip]

I read you loud and clear, an excellent way to help one realize the inner artist is to have someone draw from a picture upside down. Don't look at the image as a whole, but start at a corner and follow like a road map. This way you are looking at what is really there in detail as opposed to the entire image. You'd be surprised at the results if determined and disciplined enough to complete without turning the pic right side up.

Intriguing you mentioned that. I moved to large format photography after becoming dissatisfied with 35mm. learnt more about 'seeing' with this process due to looking at an upside down and back to front image on a ground glass. You'd think it would put you off, but quite the contrary it breaks up the scene into elements of light, shadow, colour, shape and pattern, that you can then organise into some compositional context to suit the purpose. The problem wasn't the tool but how i was approaching it, the old bellows camera gave me the vision to see through the scene,

 

[a2jacketpatches]

You got it man! You either got it or you don't.

And Paul, no need to worry, competition is a good thing for all of those who see this light. The desire needs to be present and strong enough to drive an artist forward, most can't open their eyes wide enough and drown in a sea of mediocrity.

 

[PaulGT3]

My only problem is composition. Once I get that down the painting usually flies out of me (pardon the pun again)
Skip, If you can see through the lens you can drawn and paint. I would recommend pastels because there is no paint
mixing and you just pick the shade you want.
What amazes me as an engineer that spends so much time in the left hand side of the brain is when you get lost painting and deep into the right brain, the way you can COMPLETELY lose track of time. Just blows me away. Go into the study,
start painting right after dinner at 5 and what seems like 10 minutes later the wife comes in a midnite asking me if I am ever coming to sleep.

 

[Roughwear]

There are quite a few pictures of vintage aircraft at airshows in the plane pics section and it Regional meetings. Good luck.

 

[PaulGT3]

Andrew, are the photographers names there? So if I need to credit them I can

 

[Roughwear]

Usually people post their own airshow photos on the forum. If in doubt send a pm to the person who first posted them.

 

[PaulGT3]

Thanks!