Tuesday, June 24, 2008 - Here's the partially finished drawing for this piece. What I'm attempting to portray is the movement of troops thru jungle and across a river in Vietnam with some ground and air support. On the right side behind the M113 Armored Personnel Carrier will be lots of jungle foliage that will reach almost to the top of the painting. The M48 Tank on the other side will be coming out of the jungle, a section of which you will be able to see. The soldiers in the center of the drawing are fording the river and the soldiers in the foreground are on higher ground. The UH-1 (Huey) helicopters are above and sky can be seen behind them. Right now I'm working on drawing the Jungle foliage, which is really time consuming, but better to figure it out now than on the painting. I've sent this image on to the client for approval thus far.

Wednesday, June 25, 2008 - This is a much better picture. You can actually see all the elements. It's amazing what taking photos in the right light will do for an image! LOL! Anyway, since yesterday's update ....I've added the palm fronds in the very foreground and I think that that helps to give the piece quite a bit of depth. And it is starting to set it apart from the Marines "Answering the Call" painting. Both my client and I were a bit apprehensive that this piece was looking too much like "Answering the Call". But as my client said the two services missions are similar, which would make the paintings similar. I think that as I add more of the jungle elements that these pieces will start to diverge. We'll see.

Thursday, June 26, 2008 - WooHoo!! Here's the finished drawing. It came along a lot faster than I had anticipated. Jungle elements are usually very time consuming to both draw and paint. But that wasn't the case here. I just hope that painting it comes along as fast!

Friday, 6/27/08 - On to the next step! I spent yesterday transferring the drawing to the primed wood panel. As with "Answering the Call", I used artist transfer paper (kinda like carbon paper -for those of you old enough to remember that). Because I've done the drawings full size ( 30" x 48") I only have to draw the artwork once. I just place the drawing over the panel, put the transfer paper underneath, then use a pen to trace over the drawing. This works with canvas as well. It's pretty boring work so get yourself a book on tape, that helps bunches.

Now I've started to lay in the first layer of color. The photos in the right hand corner are actual photos of Vietnam. I'm using them to aid in getting the colors of the landscape correct. To tell the truth I have loads of these photos taped all over the studio. It'll take a few days to get the first layers in.

Monday, 6/30/08 Here's photos of the work that I did on Friday. With a close up view of the "jungle" in the distance. I sure do hate jungle!! If you do too little it looks awful, if you do too much it looks fake! You have to find that middle ground and recognize it when you find it. Geez! Needless to say, I'll be working on that jungle again today.

But I think I got just the right color in the sky and the river for their base coat. I'll add more layers to them as they dry to give them more depth. With just one coat they are a bit flat. Okay off to work on the jungle mess.

Tuesday, 7/01/08 - You know I would have sworn to you that I didn't really get much done yesterday. But when you look at the two photos, that's just not true. I got all the background in on the mid-right side and all the background in on the lower section. I think that maybe the fact that I painted in basically the same colors and that I'm still painting jungle may be why I don't think that I'm getting much done. I also added a bit more blue to the tree-line in the background. (In photos, If you look at the edges of trees in the distance they look blue. I didn't think that I had added enough of that atmospheric effect to that section.) Happy July!!

Wednesday, 7/02/08 - Green, green, green and more green!! Even the helicopters have some green in them!! LOL!! Seriously though, putting in the front leaves on the left side has given the painting some nice depth. And the helicopters are pretty cool. I think though that the back ones need to be a bit more washed out in color than they are right now. Atmosphere would have dulled the color some. I'll catch that later. Well off to work. Have a great Wednesday!

Thursday, 7/03/08 - So instead of so much green, yesterday I worked mainly on the US Army Seal in the bottom left corner. It's slow work, because the details are so small. The brush I work with must have two or three hairs on it! LOL! With elements like the official seals in these paintings - You just have to take your time and be patient with it. It will take a few more sessions of work (going back over areas several times) to get the details cleaned up and as crisp as they should be. But it's well worth the effort in the end.

Monday, 7/07/08 - Hope you all had a wonderful Independence Day Weekend. We did!

But I did do some work over the weekend. I put the shadow sections into the 3 vehicles and the men on those vehicles. Then I did some work on the men in the foreground too. It was fun to watch them materialize. And since I had skin tones mixed up in the paint I went ahead and added the base tones to the men in the river. The progress slows down some now because the details are small and intense.

Tuesday, 7/08/08 - At the end of the day yesterday, I was really excited. The painting "turned the corner" for me. ... In every painting, there comes a point when I can finally see on the canvas what I see in my head. For some it comes early on. That was the case with "Answering the Call". For some it comes much later. I found that point for this painting late yesterday afternoon .... It's also the point where I can relax a bit and know that this painting will be one I can be proud of. Before that point, I'm never sure.

Now, can I tell you what made the difference for me? Ha! Nope! I can tell you that I worked on the vehicles some more. Then I went back and worked on the sky - adding more pale yellow - so that it washed out some more. Then I worked on the greenery in the background some more - adding more yellow and brown. Then on to the water in the background - adding darker colors and the shine off the water.

Wednesday, 7/09/08 - Lots of hours on small detail work yesterday. The Huey's are done and the Ontos (that's that evil beasty looking thing in the center back) And more of the jungle has gone in. Today will be more detail work.

The big thing today is that I finally have a title for this work. It's called ...

"You are Not Forgotten"

Thursday, 7/10/08 - Wow, It seems to have been one of those days again, where I thought that I didn't make much progress. But in looking at the two photos, I guess I did! Go figure! ... I think the "jungle" area on that right side is coming along nicely. Trees are really difficult, I think. For me the watch words are - 'Less is More'. If you try to render all the leaves it just looks like a mess. If you 'suggest' the details, the viewers eye will fill in the rest and it looks more real. Did that make sense? So now to get the left side to look like the right! Geez!

Friday, July 11, 2008, Well the tank and the left jungle went in. It took a little effort to get it to look like the jungle on the right. But I think I got it there. Then it was time for the water. And contrary to popular belief water is rather difficult too. I think I've got a good start on it though. And I've got books all over the place that help me to paint water. I think one more layer and then it will be right.

Monday, July 14, 2008, In the home stretch now. If you noticed, I work the elements in the background first and move forward. With each layer, I try to do that. It helps to give the painting depth, I think, if you are actually painting the elements closest to you last. Today I'll work on the last 3 soldiers and the grassy hill in the front.

Tuesday, July 15, 2008 - More of the men are in, and IMHO that makes so much difference in the painting. It really looks like it's coming together now. I think that the yellow colored grass in the front also helps to complete the composition. And with the yellows toned down some they are better integrated with the painting.

Thursday, July 17, 2008 - Finished up that last soldier. That was fun - Adding in all the little details. Then I did more work on the grasses around the two front soldiers and added some ground detail too. Then did the next layer of color on the palm leaves in the foreground. I still have to finish the one in the upper right corner. I need to clean up the Army Seal and then some general clean up and then I think I can sign it! WooHoo!!

Friday, July 18, 2008 - It's Finished!! WooHoo!! I cleaned up the Army Seal; finished the leaves in the upper right; added a bit more shading to the front most soldier, the personnel carrier and the tank; and a bit more shading to the sky in the upper most corners on both sides.

And as usual, I have those "finished painting blues". It's really an annoying. LOL! It's soooo stereotypical! Well, no time to wallow. I'm on to the next one. Which is.....

The US Air Force in the Persian Gulf War (Desert Storm).

Here are the two completed paintings so far.