It’s been a while since my last post, but I’ve been busy working out a new painting design in Adobe Illustrator. This design will be the basis for a large oil painting. I started with a small plastic model of a Boeing C17 Globemaster III cargo plane that’s about 10″ long. My first goal was to come up with interesting lighting and compositions.

The small C17 model sits on a sheet of reflective acrylic.

I placed the model on a sheet of clear acrylic and then photographed it in a darkened room, using bike headlamps as the only source of light. The digital camera allowed me to rapidly prototype lighting and composition ideas.

Model airplane lit with bike headlamps.

Once I settled on a composition that was promising, I put the camera onto a tripod and took a number of shots with different lighting. This allowed me to mix and match the best lighting effects from several images. At this point I used Adobe Photoshop to produce a composite image to guide me through the drawing and color studies.

Photoshop image combines best lighting passages from several photos with a hand-painted cloudy background.

My next step was to set up the plane and the composite image in front of me and produce a detailed line drawing. This was done in Adobe Illustrator. I didn’t like the shape of the nose gear and windshield on the model, so I adjusted them based on photos of the actual plane. Same for the main gear doors.

The model was also a little lopsided from a poor gluing job in the factory, so I lowered the starboard wing in the drawing and moved the number one engine (outboard, port) back underneath its pylon. I also added antennas and navigation lights. I felt it was important to include the green light on the starboard winglet, so I extended this wing a bit so that it protrudes beyond the number four engine (outboard, starboard).

Line drawing rendered in Adobe Illustrator.

Once I had the line drawing, I was able to begin experimenting with color studies. Here’s one with a dark aircraft against a bright white background.

This study with a light background really shows off the composition. I need to take care not to lose the strong lines as I darken the sky.

The image in my mind’s eye, from the beginning, was a nocturne. Since they say it’s always darkest before the dawn, my most promising idea is daybreak. I like all the color, but I may have to lighten the sky a bit to keep the composition strong.

Color study rendered in Adobe Illustrator.

I will tweak the drawing a bit more and then transfer it to a black 18″ x 36″ canvas. Then I can start painting.