NeilF92

Hi Larkie . I think Gareth Hector has taken his 3D work to the level of top conventional art . That is due to the fact that he is also a top flight conventional artist who switches between the two genres with consumate ease. A few others are close but I'd say he has set the bar. A lot of the 3D art work has , as you say, an artificial feel even when the model is perfect. I discovered that setting the lighting for a 3D scene is far from easy and there are a multitude of factors to tweak before things look right in the render. Aircraft carrier ? Dream on sunshine - a bit beyond my capabilities . Happy New year !

Thanks Larkie and bhouse, I was fortunate to be on the Cat 2 forum a year or two back when Kevjon did a Blender tutorial build of a Nieuport Scout . You can still find his tutorial on there or in Military Meshes . Blender is an amazingly capable platform in skilled hands - Myrs over on Military Meshes built a Gladiator part by part using Blender - outstanding ! Larkie , Once clear of current comittments I'll get back to Blender and finish the E. E. Lightnings I started a while back. This is the Scimitar I made for the painting shown above. Crude but effective! This is as far as I got with the Lightnings - aim is to have a Mk2, Mk3 and Mk 6 from the basic fuselage adding wings and belly tanks as appropriate. Still a long way to go to reach that dream!

MAVAS are a very friendly group . A real mix of amateur and a few professionals . Well worth joining and attending their monthly meetings - first Tuesday of every month at the Science Museum.

Hi Colin , Sale library was one of our venues - quite a nice showroom looking out onto the main street as I recall. We did get one or two sales down there .

Yeah - I used to live in Manchester and participated in our Aviation Art society exhibitions around that area.We got lots of nice comments and plenty of people talked to us about the paintings during the exhibition . But very few bought - maybe one or two out of 40 or so paintings often none.

Added a rough Anson mk1 to the stable for the current painting. Very far from right but good enough for distance work which is what I plan.

Good luck with the Summer Exhibition - your work looks like it should sell.

I like the Star Wars image - wonderful opportunity to let the imagination flow when it comes to space subjects!

Larkie - thanks . Yes , as long as you have reasonable 3 view plans you can follow the shape very accurately . I'm disappointed I let the wing get thin in the vertical but can disregard that for the time being . The Hurricane was meant to be an hour or so's knock together to help set up a harvest plus aeroplanes scene I have to paint . But I got hooked on seeing it through to the paintshop! I'm sure there will be a Hurricane painting to follow later once i'm done with the farm scene. MBdesign - Yes , Blender models really help when you get involved with the rarer types like the Supermarine Scimitar . I built a very basic virtual plastic model of one and managed a reasonable action painting from it .

Blender freeware Andrew.

Thanks Colin .

I paint aircraft mainly - conventional paintings using acrylic on canvas . Sources in the past have been photographs of real aircraft and /or plastic scale models . Geometric projection was another means of creating accurate perspective views of aircraft from plan drawings . Over recent years I've delved a little way into the esoteric world of 3D modelling using Blender freeware software . I found it quite a big learning curve to come to terms with but have progressed from initially just making basic " virtual plastic" models till this latest venture where I persisted till a full colour render was possible. The result is very far from perfect - my conversion of the mesh into flat surfaces ( unwrapping) was not good so there are numerous narrow strips and odd bits missed in the painting process . And the wings are not thick enough for a Hurricane. However I now have a fair approximation of a Hurricane which can be spun in all axes and lit from any direction as well as having a choice of camera and focal lengths to pick for the render . From now on Blender should prove a useful addition to my sources where plastic models or photo's don't suffice . As long as you have reasonable 3 view drawings you can build your own aircraft on screen. Well worth investing a bit of time to learn and great fun once you get into it . Very addictive as well - like painting you end up thinking " "Next time I'll do better" . p.s. I'm well aware of the incredibly high standards being set in the professional world of virtual modelling - a trip to the Military Meshes site is enough to put hams like me off ever touching a keyboard again .

Nice work Andrew - creative art is art however it comes into being. "One down - 3 to go" and "On the deck" are my favourites. I'm a conventional acrylic on canvas type myself but use Blender freeware to create rough and ready 3D models to assist in composition work ups .

Interesting to see this type of work. Great picture quality and compositions.

Gridding is not really cheating . Just a standard method for assisting the transfer of an image onto canvas. If you have it , Photoshop lets you overlay a grid on the photo , go to "View", options and select "Grid" . Not sure if that is the same as your "interactive" grid though Larkie? Good idea - as long as you don't fall into the traps mentioned below. Using a photo unadjusted for any lens distortion will simply transfer the photographic distortion onto the canvas . So those of us who can't draw very well ( incl. me) run the risk of finding out that the wonderful painting we have created was flawed right at the start. Tele photo lens shots quite often produce aircraft images where the basics of perspective are stood on their heads - instead of converging at a horizon parallel lines diverge etc. Canopy glazing is also a well known hazard , acting like a hall of mirrors to curve the target aircraft. Fisheye lenses also bend the image.

Superb tribute to the Reds Terry. Had a look at your site , it looks good , lots of excellent paintings . "A Breed Apart " is outstanding as a tribute to the Hurricane and Spitfire .

The Vampire's a bit too full frame but you were going well with the metal finish on the aircraft . A bit of definition on the pilot and you're up and running again.

Trailing edge wing/fuselage fillets look to have crumbled and been restored - -onwards!

Thanks all - it certainly came out looking as good as I hoped for at the start.

Thanks Bri .

'Fraid I'll have to disagree with you there upnorth . The aircraft is pretty much exactly as I shot it in the Drumochter Pass a few years ago.

*****

Good image - something different to pure side on profiles .

Thanks Mark , I take your point. I think it's less about size -1024 wide is fine on here - but more about keeping the resolution DPI's low .

I like that . Shame about the copyright watermark. I find that posting at 72 DPI and 800 pixels or so wide means that nobody can squeeze a decent print out of any download they make . That doesn't stop them using it on screen of course so stick with the watermark if you feel the need .