Travel Air; 10x24 digital painting

[Ol' Scrapiron]

 

Hot on the heels of the Helldiver, I carried the mojo momentum into a a new project featuring a vintage Travel Air based on reference photos I took during a family road trip last summer. We stumbled into Tillamook OR just after the air museum closed for the night (I was actually just planning to get some pics of the massive blimp hangar). A gentlemen was still packing up the Travel Air "Magic One" that he had been offering rides in during the day. Even though there was no chance to sell a ride, he gladly showed me around the plane and shared its history for maybe a half hour. A great conversation, and I knew it was going to wind up on the top of my to-do list at some point.

 

From start to finish, this project was finished by lunchtime the fourth day -- lightning fast for me. When I go pick up a couple previous projects, I'll drop this at the print shop to have a giclee made -- digital painting is 10x24 inches at 500ppi in 16-bit RGB.

 

Here are a few cropped areas that show the level of detail a little better as it really has to be seen up close to be appreciated.

 

The name of the original barnstorming owner was still scratched into the fuselage just below the rear cockpit. I did my best to recreate it and thankfully had taken a shot close enough to read it. Hard enough to see it in person, but a fun detail I didn't want to leave off.

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A neat little access area was visible behind the triangle of plexiglass at the base of the tail.

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Already have another painting in the works. I'll make sure to post when it is finished.