Author Topic: "Desperate Maneuvers" - WIP  (Read 3523 times)

Offline RussellSmith

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"Desperate Maneuvers" - WIP
« on: January 21, 2014, 12:17:29 AM »
This is a painting which I am creating for an upcoming book on Jasta 30 by German historian Bruno Schmäling. I created the cover art for this book last year but Bruno and the publisher came back to me recently and asked if I would be willing to also create a center spread. The book is scheduled for release in the first half of this year. Unfortunately, various other commitments prevented me from getting started on this project sooner, and as a result, I found myself in a bit of a time crunch to get this finished.

The story behind this image is as follows: In the final week of August 1917, Lt Otto Fuchs took some new pilots up for an orientation flight. Fuchs was flying his Albatros 2140/17 marked with a red "F" on the side. As the flight reached altitude, poor weather began to set in and Fuchs decided to take his flight back to their aerodrome at Phalempin. As they descended they were jumped by a flight of english fighters. Fuchs was the first to be attacked. He allowed his Albatros to spin down below the approaching storm but was pursued by his attackers. Finally reaching treetop level, Fuchs raced along the countryside while having to dodge some of the taller trees and buildings. Gusting winds blew his aircraft around violently and at his extremely low altitude he began to fear that he would be blown into a tree or a church tower. Fuchs was finally able to shake his pursuers by flying into a wall of rain. He set his battered Albatros down in a muddy field and lived to fly another day.

My instruction with this piece was to create an painting showing Fuchs skimming over a French village. The author and the publisher requested that it be clear that he was barely above the tops of the trees and rooftops, and actually below the height of some of the tallest structures. Poor weather and a couple of English aircraft in pursuit were also elements necessary to the story. My final requirement was to feature a view of the Albatros which would allow the viewer to see the red "F" on the fuselage.

A complicated composition such as this is always a challenge to manage. I felt that to convey the story effectively, I needed to show village below Fuchs in order to describe how low to the buildings he was. Placing a bunch of buildings so close behind the subject meant that the background would be complicated and would involve a lot of shapes and lines. It could easily get out of control and compete with, or worse, overwhelm Fuchs’ Albatros. If there is one thing that a painter must try to avoid while creating a composition, it's the dreaded "C" word - CHAOS. However, the scene which i had in mind was very dramatic and dynamic, and I felt that if i could manage the complicated background correctly then it could help to heighten the sense of drama in the painting. But how would I do that? How do you avoid chaos when your subject needs to be dramatic and a bit chaotic? I had to find a way to make the scene feel chaotic while still having an organized and planned compositional flow.

My solution right away was to to blur the background while keeping the Albatros sharply in focus (as if we’re flying along just in front of Fuchs). This offers the twofold effect of giving the viewer a sense of speed while at the same time keeping the viewer's focus on the Albatros. If the background is blurred, then the viewer's eye has nothing to which it can latch on to for any length of time.

Here is the initial thumbnail sketch approved by the publisher.




The first task, as always if to create a perspective drawing for the subject aircraft. That's the easy part.



The next issue that I had to tackle was how to create proper perspective for my theoretical village while at the same time establishing a good pattern of darks ands lights. If I had all of the time in the world I could experiment with sketch after sketch until I got it right. Since I was in a bit of a time crunch, though, I needed a palpable visual system that would allow me to see the scene fairly concretely, determine what would and would not work and make changes quickly. Thus, I set about building a mock village from scrap cardboard and then viewing the scene through the viewfinder of my camera. I experimented with several different layouts based on my concept sketch until I had something that I was comfortable with.

(If you're wondering what the small red, green and black verticals are, I estimated that the cap from a Sharpie pen is approximately the same height as a 5'6" human at 1/32 scale)



My next step was to create a color study. I skipped over the pencil study at this stage because even though I now had a rough conceptual village in mind, I still had not finished filling in the darks and lights. Darks and lights follow patterns and shapes, and it is much faster to create a shape with a paintbrush than it is with a pencil. I also knew that since this scene is set under heavy, cloudy conditions, this painting won't rely as much on color to set the mood as some of my other works do. Rather, this will be more of a tonal painting which depends on the arrangements of darks and lights to set the sense of drama.Thus I decided that rather than using the color study as a color road map like I usually do, the main purpose this study would be to further experiment with the darks and lights in the background.

I began the study by painting the airplane portion plein air under cloudy conditions. I could immediately see, however, that even under the cloudy conditions I wasn't achieving the sense of drama that I wanted. There was too much ambient light filling the scene. It needed more contrast - in other words darker midtones and lighter highlights - in order to heighten the sense of drama and danger, so I decided to depart from reality slightly for the sake of the story.



The somewhat-finished color study.



Once I had what I felt was a good pattern of darks and lights I went back to the drawing table and began building my village around that pattern. Using the cardboard village shots as a starting point I then proceeded to draw the rest of the village based on the pattern established in my color study. My first attempt didn't work. The village felt too open - more like a park than a centuries-old French town. The scene needed to be more closed in, with more buildings close to the viewer (in other words, larger shapes). My second attempt was much more satisfying. Using a combination of resources - my cardboard village, my color study, Google Earth, and numerous period photos of French towns - I created a line drawing of the village. It is worth noting at this point that even though I knew that my background would be blurred and much detail would be lost, I still created my line drawing with detail in mind. My feeling is that in order to abstract reality effectively you have to have a firm realistic base to begin with. Many building are still intact, while others have seen the ravages of war and are crumbling and falling.



Finally, I reached the grisaille stage. The background was still somewhat busy, and threatened to overwhelm my subject.



Here its is after the first color underpainting. It was still a pretty big mess at this point. However, in addition to the values which I established in the grisaille stage, I now had a basic color map onto which to build subsequent layers. At this point, I still felt like I could make it work.

"Art is about creating a feeling, an emotion, not about creating a pictorial catalog of the artist's knowledge and research" - Gil Cohen.
Russell Smith
site: www.russellsmithart.com
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Russel...s/103226508613

Offline RussellSmith

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Re: "Desperate Maneuvers" - WIP
« Reply #1 on: January 21, 2014, 12:18:13 AM »
There are times, every now and again, that while in the middle of a project and artist realizes that he's going in the wrong direction. As much as I liked the idea of the close-up village visible under Fuchs' Albatros, I finally admitted to myself last week that the composition just wasn't working. The farther I got into the painting the less pleased I was with it. The perspective just wasn't feeling right and the composition felt awkward. Quite frankly, this was a result of poor planning on my part. As meticulous as I tend to be with my preparatory work, I got myself into a rush and failed to put proper work into the front end of the project. In short, by trying to save myself some time and work, I actually created for myself MORE time and work.

I had tried to construct my village by looking at photos of French buildings and then drawing a composite of those different examples. That, as it turns out, was the wrong approach. While my individual buildings looked good and the perspective worked, what was ultimately missing was the correct feel of the buildings as they related to each other. In other words, what I was painting was a bunch of individual buildings. What I needed to be painting was a village.

So this week, it was back to the drawing board for me. I sat down with Google Earth and began looking at pictures of Villages in Northern France. I found several panoramic views that gave me a the feel I was looking for. With those, I sat down and re-drew my village. I pushed the village back a little bit and gave the foreground some breathing room. The perspective just works so much better now. The grassy area in the foreground helps draw your eye to Fuchs and also allows me to bring a little more color into the painting. (the previous version was feeling a little drab). Its still really rough right now, of course. I'll get back on it next week once this has dried. I may knock a couple of buildings down in the background, but I'll decide which ones in the next round of painting.

"Art is about creating a feeling, an emotion, not about creating a pictorial catalog of the artist's knowledge and research" - Gil Cohen.
Russell Smith
site: www.russellsmithart.com
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Russel...s/103226508613

Offline IanB

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Re: "Desperate Maneuvers" - WIP
« Reply #2 on: January 21, 2014, 01:11:37 AM »
Thanks for posting this Russell.
 It's interesting to follow the procedures of creating a painting, far more work than I was ever aware of with my limited "O" level art! My initial thoughts when reading your task requirements was to imagine the Albatros as seen from the ground as it flew over the village, just missing the church steeple and closely followed by the British fighters. Funny how the same restrictions conjure up totally differant images for differant people!
 I'm looking forward to seeing how this turns out!

Ian

Offline Bluesfan

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Re: "Desperate Maneuvers" - WIP
« Reply #3 on: January 21, 2014, 02:01:46 AM »
Fascinating! Thanks for taking us through this.
I must admit, I liked the previous version too ;)
Looking forward to seeing the end result.

Mark

Offline lcarroll

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Re: "Desperate Maneuvers" - WIP
« Reply #4 on: January 21, 2014, 02:15:21 AM »
   Fascinating Thread Russell, and like all your work it's got "motion".
   I'm not an artist but when you outlined the situation my first thought was of Fuch's desperation; he was definitely into what we called, in my Fighter Days, "last ditch manoeuvering"! I'd be inclined to have an element of less then straight and level aircraft portrayal; he would have been yanking and banking for all he was worth and doing a great deal of looking back into his six to gauge the next move along with missing the buildings and ground as well. Just a very basic and probably over dramatic interpretation on my part; it's a magnificent scene and I really like the aircraft portrayal.
Cheers,
Lance

Offline uncletony

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Re: "Desperate Maneuvers" - WIP
« Reply #5 on: January 21, 2014, 03:01:12 AM »
Great Stuff Russel, thanks for taking the time to share your workflow and thought process.

Offline Nigel Jackson

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Re: "Desperate Maneuvers" - WIP
« Reply #6 on: January 21, 2014, 04:36:10 AM »
Hello Russell
Beautiful art work as I've come to expect from you, but what I like here is reading about the process and the challenges. Having the work placed in context was a feature I liked in your 'Tumult...'' book too.

It made me wonder what I'd like to see. I'm really fascinated by the events of 21 April 1918 and Ricthofen's last flight. I know that you've done a painting of the downed, 'souvenired' triplane, but it would be great to see a talented artist like you have a go at that moment, when with Brown having already broken off to the south, May and Richthofen face the sudden challenge of getting over the defended Morlancourt Ridge. It was the point at which some of the many witnesses expected Richthofen to finally bring May down, only for the Triplane  to begin belatedly to break off. Ah, dreams!

Best wishes
Nigel

Offline stefanbuss

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Re: "Desperate Maneuvers" - WIP
« Reply #7 on: January 21, 2014, 04:45:21 AM »
It's interesting to read that you have still to "restart" a painting, although you had progressed quite far already.

I do like the idea IanB had of watching the Albi from ground level. For my taste the french village looks to healthy (means: not enough destroyed buildings).

Anyway, reading your words on the upcoming JaSta 30 book is good news in any case - that book had been announced quite a long time ago.


Stefan

Offline Des

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Re: "Desperate Maneuvers" - WIP
« Reply #8 on: January 21, 2014, 08:01:24 AM »
What you have created is very well done, but as the title implies the aircraft in question is in desperation so in my mind should be nearly touching the road with the trees just missing his wing tips, or better still flying between the buildings and as Lance suggested in a steep bank trying to avoid hitting the building. I truely believe that the first image you painted is better than the second, just my opinion.
As good as the second picture looks it still does not give a feeling of this aeroplane being in a "desperate Manoeure", he appears to be flying along a country road enjoying the scenery, this is just my interpretation of what I see, others will see it totally different.

Des.
Late Founder of ww1aircraftmodels.com and forum.ww1aircraftmodels.com

Offline RussellSmith

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Re: "Desperate Maneuvers" - WIP
« Reply #9 on: January 21, 2014, 08:14:38 AM »
   Fascinating Thread Russell, and like all your work it's got "motion".
   I'm not an artist but when you outlined the situation my first thought was of Fuch's desperation; he was definitely into what we called, in my Fighter Days, "last ditch manoeuvering"! I'd be inclined to have an element of less then straight and level aircraft portrayal; he would have been yanking and banking for all he was worth and doing a great deal of looking back into his six to gauge the next move along with missing the buildings and ground as well. Just a very basic and probably over dramatic interpretation on my part; it's a magnificent scene and I really like the aircraft portrayal.
Cheers,
Lance

... in my mind should be nearly touching the road with the trees just missing his wing tips, or better still flying between the buildings and as Lance suggested in a steep bank trying to avoid hitting the building. I truely believe that the first image you painted is better than the second, just my opinion.


Actually, my very first concept sketch of this scene was just such. I was told by the author & publisher that he was "too low".
"Art is about creating a feeling, an emotion, not about creating a pictorial catalog of the artist's knowledge and research" - Gil Cohen.
Russell Smith
site: www.russellsmithart.com
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Russel...s/103226508613

Offline Ernie

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Re: "Desperate Maneuvers" - WIP
« Reply #10 on: January 21, 2014, 08:34:41 AM »
Wonderful insight to your artistic process Russell.  Exceptional stuff.

Cheers,
Ernie :)
The new old guy, take two...

Offline Zabu

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Re: "Desperate Maneuvers" - WIP
« Reply #11 on: January 21, 2014, 12:27:24 PM »
Once again it will be a great honour to "see you in action" post.

From my own point of view... i like the second composition better then the first because the aircraft wasn't poping out so much. Now... i can "see it coming". I also like the ambient that the colours provide.

It's very rewarding to see yout painting taking shape... without any doubt, you're a very skilled man.

Cheers

Offline RussellSmith

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Re: "Desperate Maneuvers" - WIP
« Reply #12 on: February 02, 2014, 02:49:44 AM »
Another round of painting is complete. While some areas, such as the Albatros, are nearly complete, the background still needs a little more adjustment. One more round of glazing and adjusting should bring this painting to completion.

"Art is about creating a feeling, an emotion, not about creating a pictorial catalog of the artist's knowledge and research" - Gil Cohen.
Russell Smith
site: www.russellsmithart.com
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Russel...s/103226508613

Offline Brez

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Re: "Desperate Maneuvers" - WIP
« Reply #13 on: February 02, 2014, 04:09:31 AM »
Another wonderfully dramatic painting Russell. Just beautiful.

Offline IFF1418

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Re: "Desperate Maneuvers" - WIP
« Reply #14 on: February 02, 2014, 05:12:56 AM »
Hello Russell,

I'm following this thread since the begiining and I am overwhelmed by your work on the Alby. I can't believe my eyes. As usual the b&w is the most striking for me, but than again the colors are so beautiful and natural that I don't know anymore. I wished I had 10% of your talents. Magnificent composition, wonderful talent.

Kind regards
Patrick