Pacific Post Mortem

[DMC]

Last year I got back into modelling after a long hiatus.  I spend most of my time on BM over on aircraft Work in Progress but I like to stop in here from time to time to admire the art work.  Some years ago I got involved in aviation art and thought that posting a little of my experience on here might provide some interest, or even amusement, to those of you who are followers of the genre.

 

As I kid, I was always drawing and sketching.  This continued until my mid teens and I acquired an interest in cars and girls.  In the 80s, with spare time available,  I started teaching myself how to paint.  I experimented with water colours, acrylics and oils, copying the Old Masters and other artists.  After about a year of copying portraits and landscapes, I segued over to air-craft, helicopters at first because I saw them every day where I worked at the time.  The problem I had was getting an accurate rendition of the subject.  Painting something with a definite mechanical shape, I found, wasn't easy.  An apple, or tree, something with more of an abstract shape, came a little easier.  But I wanted to paint helicopters, not apples or trees.  I needed to find a way to get an accurate image down on the canvas without copying someone elses image, painting or photograph.   Well, the lightbulb switched on and I sent off (Squadron Signal) for an SH-3 in 1/72 scale.  I would build it, photograph it (slide film), project the image onto paper, refine the image and then transfer it to canvas.  Through trail and error, I perfected the technique.   This slide image is not one of the first that I took, those have disappeared In a cull I did some years ago.  But you get the idea.

 

 

There's more to the story, culminating in my entering a painting in the annual Oshkosh art contest and having a painting hung in the 8th Air Force museum in Savanna, but I need to take a break here.  I'll post this and get back to it tomorrow.

 

Cheers

 

 

[Troffa]

Ooh, this is going to be good, nice start!  Looking forward to seeing the finished artworks.

 

[keefr22]

I'm guessing you'll likely have heard of Robert Taylor, DMC? I remember reading in one of his books that he does the same! Something I've always intended to try too, but I haven't picked up my pencils and paints for a quarter of a century or more so haven't got around to it yet!

 

Looking forward to more of your story, and seeing your paintings!

 

Keith

 

 

[DMC]

12 hours ago, Troffa said:

Ooh, this is going to be good, nice start!  Looking forward to seeing the finished artworks.

 

 

Hi Troffa,

Thank you, hope you wont be disappointed.  Only a couple of paintings in my possession now but I took photographs of most of the ones I did.  I'll have to dig them out from who knows where, photograph the photographs and then post them on here. Same with the slides: disc, laptop, Photobucket, etc.  More later today.

 

12 hours ago, keefr22 said:

I'm guessing you'll likely have heard of Robert Taylor, DMC? I remember reading in one of his books that he does the same! Something I've always intended to try too, but I haven't picked up my pencils and paints for a quarter of a century or more so haven't got around to it yet!

 

Looking forward to more of your story, and seeing your paintings!

 

Keith

 

 

 

Hi Keith,

 

Robert Taylor, yes indeed, one of my artist heroes.  I still have his first book of paintings and at one time I had the Bob Tuck Spitfire print and the Prince Andrew Falklands print. Not sure what I did with them, however. So that's how he did it, slides and models(?), I'd always wondered.  His work had a nice painterly quality about it that had great appeal.  

 

Go for it, Keith.  I might be able to help you out with a few slides if that's what you're thinking of.  Save you some time.  However, I only made and photographed WW2 models.

Mostly WW2, that is.

 

Cheers guys,

 

Dennis (DMC)

[keefr22]

Hi Dennis, I'm not sure if Mr. Taylor used slides, I recall reading him saying that he built large scale kits as 'models' for his subjects.

 

I've actually been sorting out my materials these past few weeks & buying some replacements for stuff that has dried out over the years, so I'm hoping to start doing something again soon. Thanks for the offer of the slides, but I took plenty of my models - back when I actually finished some!

 

Keith

[DMC]

Helicopters continued..

 

So I started out doing oil paintings of helicopters, mostly SH-3s.  I was still working from the 1/72, unpainted, kit but soon realized that lettering, insignia and such was just as difficult to get right as the helo itself and what I needed to do was paint and decal them.  So, I ordered a compressor from Sears and an air brush (a Badger 150, luckily) from Squadron Signal and also a few more assorted kits.  I'm really starting to get into this now.  I painted a few more helo paintings (sorry, no photos) of which some were rubbish but some I sold to the pilots.  My interest in other types of airplanes also increased around this time and as WW2 had figured prominently in my early years it was just natural that I should start collecting and building kits of that era.  Squadron Signal got most of my business and for a modeller there's little that compares with getting a package in the mail with a couple of kits in it. This purchasing glut took place in the 80s and it wasn't long before I had examples, in 1/72, of practically every RAF, USAAF and Luftwaffe airplane that flew in the war.  As I finished building one, I'd photograph it in different attitudes of flight, trying to get that perfect angle and lighting combination.  After experimenting with in-flight photos, I started on static scenes with ground crew, vehicles, etc.  I was still painting quite a bit but building models and photographing them was making serious inroads on my time.

 

Here are a couple set-ups:

 

This was to be titled "Bore Sighting a Hog".  If I remember, that was a nickname given to the F4U.

 

 

Perhaps painting a pin-up?

 

 

And a lone DR-1

 

 

These are out of sequence but I don't have that many on disc yet.  I'll be working on that soon.

 

Cheers,

 

Dennis

 

 

[DMC]

Fixed wing paintings...

 

A quartet of my first fixed wing paintings.  They were rather large paintings, 24x36", but are cropped to get them all in this format.  Not that good, really, but I was learning and quite enjoyed painting them. They were painted about 30 years ago and I honestly can't remember what I did with them.

 

 

Can't imagine why I thought anyone would want a painting with an underneath view 0f a Spitfire?

 

Cheers,

 

Dennis (DMC)

[keefr22]

Nice work Dennis, I've always struggled to get the shapes and proportions of the Spitfire right, you look to have nailed it! 

 

Have to say the B-26's may be my favourite, but I like them all, even the underside of the Spit!

 

Keith

[DMC]

1 hour ago, keefr22 said:

Nice work Dennis, I've always struggled to get the shapes and proportions of the Spitfire right, you look to have nailed it! 

 

Have to say the B-26's may be my favourite, but I like them all, even the underside of the Spit!

 

Keith

 

Thank  you, Keith.  I enjoyed painting the airplanes and by using models and slides I found I could get the shapes about right.  What I struggled with, mostly, at first, was the backgrounds: clouds and terra firma, etc.  Boring! 

 

Here are a few more. The first three were done around the same time, before we moved to the UK.  Gentile and Godfrey's P-51s were done over here after I'd been painting for a while.

 

 

B-17s were starting to interest me after an acquaintance told me his father flew them in the war and could I paint one for him.  That would be the one top left, the others were variations on the theme.  Bottom right was painted over here and was to be instrumental in my corresponding with a genuine war hero.

 

 

Cheers,

 

Dennis

[keefr22]

More cracking stuff Dennis - that P-38 painting is fantastic! They are all incredibly evocative though!

 

Brilliant work!

 

Keith

 

[DMC]

On ‎27‎/‎09‎/‎2016 at 8:07 PM, keefr22 said:

More cracking stuff Dennis - that P-38 painting is fantastic! They are all incredibly evocative though!

 

Brilliant work!

 

Keith

 

 

Thank you, Keith, more kind words.  At the time I painted these paintings, I was totally immersed in painting, model making and photographing the results.  Squadron Signal was getting a good order from me about every three weeks.  The P-51B in this set-up is in 1/72, as were almost all the models I built.  I never did the painting for this one.

 

 

I think the B-17 in this one is a Hasegawa and I actually did the painting.  I'll post a picture of it down the page a bit.

 

 

After we had settled in the UK, I continued painting and model making.  I also, by mail, introduced myself to one Ian Hawkins, a writer of historical books on the 8th AAF.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ian_Hawkins

I sent Mr. Hawkins a large drawing of a B-17 I was intending to paint and he passed it on to a Mr. William C. Lindley.  Mr Lindley was a retired Air Force Major General.  He wrote to me, complementing me on the, rather large, drawing.  Thus began a friendship that continued, by mail, over several years.  Bill, as I was asked to address him, had flow two tours with the 95th Bomb Group.  He flew 41 missions without receiving a scratch.  After the war, Bill was assigned the Air Force Coordinating Officer for the film Twelve O'clock High.  Bill had a very distinguished career in the Air Force until he retired in 1968.

 

 

I painted two large paintings for Bill, one of the Munster raid which he hung over the fireplace and, later, one of First Schweinfurt Regensberg which we donated to the 8th Air Force Museum, the Mighty Eighth, in Savannah, Georgia.  Somewhere in the house I have a nice letter from the curator of the museum thanking us for our donation.  I'm not sure if our painting is still hanging or has been retired to the cellar.  I'll post pictures of these two paintings tomorrow after I upload them to PhotoBucket.

 

Cheers,

 

Dennis

 

 

 

 

 

 

[DMC]

 Munster and First Schweinfurt Regensburg....

 

I cleared the preliminary drawings with Bill before I began the paintings.  They were painted several months apart.  On the Schweinfurt-Regensburg raid Bill's element was flying Tail End Charlie.  In Martin Middlebrook's book on the raid, two FW190s made the first passes through the formation and can be seen in the painting, one just barely.

 

Bill, his wife and the Munster painting.  It was a pleasure and an honour to paint it for him.

 

 

Colonel Lindley's B-17, The Zootsuiters, in the rear element.  The photo is somewhat cropped in width

 

.

 

Cheers,

 

Dennis

 

 

 

 

 

[DMC]

Top left is the painting I did from the previous slide.  Didn't quite get the look I was after.  The B-17 on the right is just a part of the huge mural the Keith Ferris painted for the National Air and Space Museum in Washington DC.  There was an exhibition of Robert Taylor's work on and I went back three days in a row to look in awe.  The gentlemen in the bottom two photos were pilots and crew in the 95th.  All teenagers or in their early twenties back in the forties.  I have tried many times to imagine what it must have been like but could never quite manage it.

 

 

Cheers,

 

Dennis

[Richard E]

Dennis

 

Hopefully you'll take this as a compliment: quite a few of your paintings would look at home on Airfix's model box lids.

Edited October 1, 2016 by Richard E
Correct spelling - auto-correct !

[DMC]

1 hour ago, Richard E said:

Dennis

 

Hopefully you'll take this as a comment: quite a few of your paintings would look at home on Airfix's model box lids.

 

Well, Richard, have to admit I never quite looked at them in that light but, now that you mention it, I see what you mean.  I was never really able to get the look I was after, whatever that was.  Perhaps it was something about looking more like a painting than an illustration, which is what I take it you mean.  I did enjoy several years of trying, however, but had to finally admit that I wasn't going to improve that much, no matter how much time I spent at it; and I spent a lot.

 

There is a little more to this story, yet, Richard.

 

Cheers,

 

Dennis

[keefr22]

2 hours ago, Richard E said:

Dennis

 

Hopefully you'll take this as a compliment: quite a few of your paintings would look at home on Airfix's model box lids.

 

And for me, much as I admire the current digital work on Airfix box tops, I much prefer traditional artwork like your paintings Dennis, I feel they have more 'soul' in them - if that can ever be defined... 

 

Keith

[DMC]

3 minutes ago, keefr22 said:

 

And for me, much as I admire the current digital work on Airfix box tops, I much prefer traditional artwork like your paintings Dennis, I feel they have more 'soul' in them - if that can ever be defined... 

 

Keith

 

Thanks, Keith.  Well, funny enough, I took Richard's comment/compliment to mean the older Airfix artwork, usually done quickly in gouache or, perhaps, acrylic, not the newer box art.  Have to admit, however, that I haven't kept up with current trends but I think the digital stuff pretty good. 

 

Cheers

 

Dennis

[Richard E]

1 hour ago, DMC said:

 

Well, Richard, have to admit I never quite looked at them in that light but, now that you mention it, I see what you mean.  I was never really able to get the look I was after, whatever that was.  Perhaps it was something about looking more like a painting than an illustration, which is what I take it you mean.  I did enjoy several years of trying, however, but had to finally admit that I wasn't going to improve that much, no matter how much time I spent at it; and I spent a lot.

 

There is a little more to this story, yet, Richard.

 

Cheers,

 

Dennis

 

I was thinking about the older style box arts: they have slightly more atmosphere that the current renditions.

[DMC]

15 hours ago, Richard E said:

 

I was thinking about the older style box arts: they have slightly more atmosphere that the current renditions.

 

I get it, Richard, and thank you.  There was a thread in BM a few weeks back on the influence of box art when purchasing a kit.  Can't remember but, naturally, opinions were divided.

 

But, speaking of atmosphere, Frank Wootton's work was my first exposure to real aviation art.  Wootton most likely sketched his subjects in situ or from photographs, no slides or computers for him.  His airplanes were not always as accurately rendered as today's digital stuff but somehow the overall impact of the painting overrode any quibbles about detail.  Many of his paintings look like skyscapes with airplanes in them.  This Lancaster painting is a perfect example:  http://www.military-art.com/mall/images/800s/dhm5007.jpg 

 

Anyway, along with painting B-17s I spending more and more time making and photographing models.  Obsessive behaviour!  Here are a couple set-ups:

 

 

 

The FW is in 1/48th scale.  I wanted a scene with a starter cart in it and the only one I could find in 1/48 was a by Verlinden.  The figures are all from various Monogram kits.

I can't remember the origins of the Catalina set-up, something to do with Midway, I think. 

 

Dennis

 

 

 

 

[DMC]

Back in the mid nineties I decided that I'd enter a painting in the annual Oshkosh art competition.  Why I thought this was a good idea I can't remember.  The competition was bound to be fierce and boxing up a large, framed, painting and shipping it to the U.S. would be expensive, not to mention the time required to paint it.  But, undeterred, I selected a subject and scene and began a painting.  About halfway through I realized it wasn't working so I made a few changes and started another.  I picked the Corsair probably because I was doing a little reading on the Pacific Air War at the time.  Plus, I just like a Corsair.

 

I took the image off a similar slide to the one below:

 

 

The scene was set in one of those Pacific airfields, Bougainville, perhaps, and the pilot was giving an account of his recent combat: hence Pacific Post Mortem.  The second painting was much better and I must of thought it good enough because I shipped it off to Oshkosh and got on with other things.  Probably more models and photographs.

 

This was my entry:

 

 

After the judging, I received a nice letter, and my painting back, from the competition committee thanking me for entering and informing me that although I had not won, I had received an honourable mention.  Well, I had never expected to win but I was really taken aback when I saw the piece that had been chosen for first.  I was convinced it had been picked for its political correctness rather than its merits as a work of (aviation) art.  There were several other entries, much better than mine, that I felt should have been considered for first.  However, my sulk didn't last very long and I managed to keep at it for a while before it became obvious to me that I wasn't going to have a career as an artist of any sort.  My work just wasn't good enough to warrant the expense and time involved.  Pity, really.

 

Cheers,

 

Dennis

 

 

Edited October 11, 2016 by DMC
Double photo post

[keefr22]

That's another cracking painting Dennis, lovely light on the scene and it all looks really well put together, the Corsair, figures and background all being to a consistently high standard. Every nice indeed! I actually took voluntarily redundancy when my Civil Service IT job was outsourced to give it  a go as an aviation artist, but soon came to the same conclusion as yourself! It does make me wonder though as to some people's taste when I see some of the stuff that gets sold from the annual Guild of Aviation Artists exhibition!

 

Keith

 

 

 

 

[DMC]

6 hours ago, keefr22 said:

That's another cracking painting Dennis, lovely light on the scene and it all looks really well put together, the Corsair, figures and background all being to a consistently high standard. Every nice indeed! I actually took voluntarily redundancy when my Civil Service IT job was outsourced to give it  a go as an aviation artist, but soon came to the same conclusion as yourself! It does make me wonder though as to some people's taste when I see some of the stuff that gets sold from the annual Guild of Aviation Artists exhibition!

 

Keith

 

 

 

 

 

Many thanks, Keith.  That painting is probably as good as I was ever likely to do. After it I tried a couple more but couldn't quite keep the enthusiasm going that I had had previously.  Nothing to do with Oshkosh, family matters were making inroads on my spare time  I also went a few times to the Guild's exhibits.  What I remember about the paintings was their relatively small size compared to what I was doing.  I felt aviation art should be big, still do.  Anyway I'm going to post a couple more photos on here and then wrap it up.

 

Incidentally, I made a quick estimate of all the slides I took and the count came to about 800.  That's 800 slides of all the principle ETO combat aircraft in all attitudes of flight.  A staggering amount of time invested in what turned out to be, more or less, a hobby.  Amazing!

 

Dennis

[keefr22]

9 minutes ago, DMC said:

 A staggering amount of time invested in what turned out to be, more or less, a hobby.  Amazing!

 

 

 

Isn't that what hobbies are for though Dennis? Time usefully spent to keep us out of the pub...?! 

 

And you do have a fine catalogue of work to show for it, and to have some very brave men appreciate your paintings most definitely makes it time well spent!

 

Keith

[rob Lyttle]

Great work and a good read, Dennis.

You certainly gave it a helluva good go!

Regret several images have suffered at the hands of Pbucket but I like what I can see.

 

Just had a thought while reading through.... I'm wondering if there is any milage in the idea of a "Group Build" style artwork project.

 

To provide a bit of focus, a theme, a mojo-shaker.... A deadline even.

Mutual support and ideas.

 

Just kind of came to me.

It can be a lonely place working on Art!

I see you and keefr are still following...

[keefr22]

Well, I have to admit that I'd long forgotten about this thread Rob! It was good to revisit it, even if it's been somewhat spoiled by the grubby antics of photobucket....

 

I still haven't managed to dust off my pencils & paper despite really wanting to do so - trouble is I also really want to finish some models & I'm not even managing that at the moment. 

 

You have an interesting idea though...  

 

Keith