Friday, July 25, 2008 - Early evening - I fought all day long with this drawing, but I think I finally have all the planes etc... in where I want them. And I'm exhausted. It really is a battle you know. Twisting and turning elements, making them smaller, making them larger, changing from top view to bottom view and back again!!! Not to mention having to make sure that I have the right planes in for this era. And that the planes are correct in their details. Geez!

Now I have to put in the background, the on coming storm clouds, along with some reflection off the canopy. That should help bring the whole piece together.

Monday, July 28, 2008 - Okay here's what I think is the finished drawing for this piece, pending approval by the client. I didn't put much detail in the cloud formations, sort of an outline for them. I just wanted to get the basic shapes in. I think that it will work pretty well.

(For those of you doing commissions, it's best to get approval for your piece as you go along. There's nothing worse than finishing a painting and having the client be disappointed because they had something totally different in mind. So set your contracts up so that the client gets to approve the piece several times along the way - at the final sketch and about midway in the painting is a good plan.)

Wednesday, July 30, 2008 - So, see what I said about getting client approval along the way. My client for this project loved the piece as it was but was a bit disappointed in the fact that there wasn't more emphasis on support personnel in the painting. (If you research it, only about 2% of the folks in the Air Force are pilots) I'd actually had the same concerns. But didn't really address them in that first draft. So I spent all day yesterday doing more research and just plain sitting and looking at the drawing trying to figure out what to do. Did I have to start all over again or was that drawing salvageable. For a while there I had six or seven new thumbnail sketches going. Then about half way through the day, I had an inspiration and the image above is the materialization of that inspiration.

I think the changes improved the piece wonderfully and so does my client. Yipee!! So now to transfer the drawing to the panel.

Monday, August 18th, 2008 - On Friday I worked on putting in the first layer of the clouds, deciding on shapes etc... I'll be doing more of that today. As with most of my paintings, I work from back to front ( Items in the farthest distance first then move forward.) It really makes a difference in helping to create the depth that you want.

Wednesday, August 20th, 2008 - I finished putting in the first layer of the clouds on Monday and even got in one of the planes. And I think that it's really cool already. IMHO! LOL!!

On Monday afternoon, I stepped into a hole in a parking lot and severely sprained my ankle, removed the skin off one knee and made my elbow this beautiful shade of purple! But the ankle isn't broken which is great. But it is now encased in this lovely knee length boot that looks like something an astronaut would wear! I spent most of yesterday either at the Doctor's office or asleep on the couch. Ugh! Needless to say I didn't get any painting done. But I should get back on track today.

Thursday, August 21, 2008 - A bit dark in the studio this morning, looks like we might actually get a little rain. But that makes the image a bit darker than it actually is. But I think you get the idea.

I had the best time working on the pilot yesterday. Watching him form out of the canvas still makes me giggle. It really is just a little bit of magick!

Not working on the tiny details yet, those will come in the second layer of paint. Although it's a bit difficult to keep from trying to get them all in now, but it really is a waste of time. I end up painting them out while I try to get more of the background highlights and shadows in. And then just have to paint them back in again.

Friday, August 22, 2008 -- This painting seems to be moving right along. I put in the rest of the first layer in the pilot, a second plane and the Air Force Seal. Also got in the first layer of flesh tones in the support personnel.

Monday, August 25, 2008 - I'm not sure this photo gives an accurate depiction of the color of the sky. I did work on it and deepened the color tone but this makes it look like I changed the color entirely and I didn't do that.

Any way, I made the sky a bit more even in color and a bit darker at the top and a bit lighter just above the pilot's head. I also put in the B-52, one of my favorite planes by the way. I also worked on some of those top clouds adding some detail to them.

Wednesday, August 27, 2008 - Now this picture is far truer to color than the previous one. Although, parts of the clouds in the upper right area are doing that bounce-back-shine thing. I've worked 1quite a bit more on the clouds. And I think they're coming along really well. I need to get them in before I put any more planes in. As I've said in the past, if you actually paint the background first, the items in the foreground will "pop" more when you put them in.

I've come up with the title for this piece -

"Storm over the Desert"

Friday, August 30, 2008 -- Okay so maybe I punched up the color in Photoshop a bit much on this image. But I decided to go ahead and post it this way to show just how much change can be affected by a bit of manipulation in the digital world!

I have done more work on the clouds and then moved on to the start of the support personnel. Putting in the base colors for their uniforms. I also darkened the sun shield of the pilot. In the actual painting you can still see his eyes, but just barely. Which is a really cool effect.

Tuesday, September 2, 2008 - Now this image is much truer to color than the one taken on Friday! Progress has slowed down some, as it usually does when I'm doing the smaller details. Right now I'm working on the support personnel. In the close up below you can see the different layers all at once. The folks on the far left have about 3 layers of work done. The folks on the far right have about 2 layers and the folks on the right center only have a single layer.

Thursday, September 4, 2008 - Well the support personnel are all in now. And the details are really fun to look at. I worked some more on the clouds in the lower half - Adding more color and detail. I think that the upper clouds have too much blue in them right now. They need a bit more of the gray and gray-purple - I think. I'll have to let that sit for a bit to see. I also did some clean up work on the seal. But that's almost impossible to tell on this image. Just worked on getting the letters a bit more crisp and clean, etc...

Friday, September 5, 2008 - WooHoo! More planes! I did work on the clouds on the upper right some too. Got rid of a lot of the intense blue that they had and added more gray and violet to give them a more ominous look. I also worked on the seal some more - just clean up work there. Then I went on to the planes.

I think you can start to see that working what's actually in the background of the composition first really helps to create the feeling of depth. I think that A-10 on the right looks as "3 dimensional" as a 2 dimensional work can, IMHO.

Have a great weekend!

Tuesday, September 9, 2008 - Well that last plane is in (F-16) But the details for it aren't in yet so it looks pretty anemic. I'll go back to it in a day or two and punch up the details.

I worked a bit on the pilot in the foreground. Adding to and punching up the shadows and highlights, then refining some more details. Then worked again on some of those clouds in the upper right, to get rid of even more of the blue by adding gray and violet.

Thursday, September 11, 2008 - A bit dark in the studio today. Lots of rain here in Omaha.

I've been doing a bit more tweaking of the highlights and shadows on just about all the elements. I think the biggest difference is in the planes. They had each looked okay as individual elements, but they weren't working well in the overall color scheme. I think I got them to be a bit more complimentary to each other.

I also did a bit more work on the visor of the pilot. It looked a bit flat before and now it has a more rounded look.

Almost done now. A bit more fiddling with shadows and highlights and I think this is done.

Friday, September 12, 2008 - It's Finished!!!

Not many changes from yesterday. The clouds in the lower right got a bit darker to balance the clouds in the lower left. The support personal received a bit more shadowing on the left side of each figure. (left as you look at it). And the pilot's helmet had a bit more highlight added to it at the top right. Then I sat and looked at it for a long time before I quit for the day. And then I sat awhile this morning again before I decided it was finished. LOL! Artists!! Geez!