[COMPLETED] Yak-3 Digital painting; step-by-step process

[Ol' Scrapiron]

I'm going to do something bold here, and walk through all the steps of my new digital painting, by updating this post with each "Work in Progress" stage as I go.

 

This will take some time... but I hope it will be worth the ride.

 

 

STEP 1 (A): The first step is to block in all the little bits and pieces that make up up the airplane. In this case I am starting with 97 individual "blocks"

Of course those 97 pieces are just a starting point to make sure I have things in the proper order (like the gear door is in front of the tire, which is in front of the gear leg and so on...). This is where I discover all the little anomalies where some object crosses from front to back of other objects that also cross the other way (depth wise). I try not to artificially stub something off to make it look like it is behind another object, but that can't always be avoided. I would not be surprised if there were more than 500 layers by the time I am finished.

 

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STEP 1 (B): I have broken these individual parts into 12 groups that I will treat like subassemblies... I have separate styles defined so I can quickly color-code the groups to make sure they work in depth order. The 12 groups I am starting with... the list may grow as I work.

 

At the beginning they are all labeled Group 1, but as each section gets worked on in a separate file, they are brought back into the main file as Group 2, 3, 4... so I can keep track of which versions are the most current. I keep them separate because I might only have 2 versions of the belly scoop, but 9 versions of the near landing gear before I am done.

 

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STEP 1 (C): Before I am ready to start, I apply a style that blanks everything out so I can keep track of what has been worked on and what is left undone. I have a separate "translucent" style that I apply to the plexi areas to reveal interior parts hidden behind them. This just makes it easier to find errors at this point, the styles are all removed when I start the painting process.

 

Let the painting begin!!!

 

Edited May 24 by Ol' Scrapiron

[Ol' Scrapiron]

STEP 2: By creating "Sandbox" files, I'm able to work on the subassemblies separately without the burden of hundreds of layers bogging things down. Then when I have made substantial progress in one of the "groups" I duplicate that group from the sandbox back into the original file -- in this case, the prop/spinner group -- and change the group name to reflect that this is version 2 for the props.

 

 

In the "Sandbox" file, I use various brushes in Photoshop to start painting the different parts of the plane, using my own photos as reference. I add new layers for coloring and such, and also use masking to play with transparency to make the propellor blades look like they are in motion. But everything is painted in using the brushes. The reference photos will not be any part of the painting-- only used in the sandbox to ensure I have the shapes and coloring right. From the original four layers of the spinner (spinner, dark nose, barrel, hole) I have painted 9 new layers: color, shade, splotch, spin brush, upper highlight, scuffs, reflex, aura, and dimple. This group quickly grew from 11 basic shapes, to more than 30 layers.

 

 

 

The main art file, now with the painted spinner/prop group added.

 

Edited May 24 by Ol' Scrapiron

[Ol' Scrapiron]

Sandbox for the fuselage (actually a continuation of the spinner file)

 

 

 

Just like oils on a palette, I just keep blending colors until I find what I want. I am able to save the best versions of the colors into the file so I can easily load them when I do other areas of the plane that use the same colors (like the wings). However, in the final version there is probably no area that will actually be the raw color. I have already added a slight gradient of black to clear over the main fuselage to add a subtle tone of shading. On top of that is a random brush I call the "splotch" layer that breaks up any flatness to the color spaces. Very similar to using oil paints in dot filters on a model to break up the solid paint.

 

Here's the fuselage group added back into the artwork file... it's temporary of course as this will be essentially unrecognizable by the time I'm done.

 

 

 

Another thing worth mentioning is recreating relatively small but complicated markings (sponsor stickers on race cars and things like the Russian emblem under the exhausts). I work at 500 ppi, so I copy part of the reference picture with the just the sticker/logo I want and paste into a new file. I then blow that up to 1500 or 2500 ppi depending on the complexity of what I'll be recreating. This is a very large canvas to work on and the work can be a little rough (usually limited by what I can see in my reference pic). When I have it "close enough" I then reduce the resolution back down to 500ppi and suddenly it looks miraculously crisp.

 

In fact, I almost always apply a bit of blur to the graphic to eliminate that because it usually looks too crisp.

 

Here is the emblem being recreated in a greatly enlarged file at 2500ppi. I'm not worried about reproducing the actual lettering on the flag (whatever it says) because the entire emblem will be less than .4 inches tall when reduced to 500ppi in the actual artwork... and any hope of reading it on the print will be dashed with a slight gaussian blur. I'm just trying to capture the basic shape of the writing.

 

 

Edited May 24 by Ol' Scrapiron

[Ol' Scrapiron]

 

 

STEP 4: More work on the fuselage. Fasteners, panel lines, dings and wrinkles, highlights and shading, etc. It's starting to look like a real object, rather than flat colors painted on a two-dimensional canvas.

 

 

A better look at the fasteners and panels. Subtle shading and highlights are painted to make the panels look like separate pieces of the plane's skin.
Bear in mind this will be considerably enlarged compared to the size of the final print.

 

 

 

 

Edited May 24 by Ol' Scrapiron

[Ol' Scrapiron]

 

After doing the belly scoop, I decided to dig into the near landing gear. At this point the wheel and the doors look pretty good, but there will be more shadowing needed when I work on that wing. Even though these are separate subassemblies, they have to look good together as a whole.

 

 

 

The tires and doors are close to how they'll look in the finished project. Note that there are only a few pieces to the leg at this point (there will be more for details that need to be added) and that the holes in the scissor parts really are actually holes that show through to whatever is behind them.

 

 

More work to gear leg. Lots of new bolts. clips, etc., were added and dozens of new layers to make it look right.

I'm not saying it's perfect by any means, but all the little minutia pays off. The upper and lower plates on the scissors (triangles) are going to be less than 1/4 inch tall on the actual print.

 

 

 

One more look at the (essentially) completed landing gear before I start in on painting up the wheel well and the wing ... probably tomorrow

Edited May 24 by Ol' Scrapiron

[Ol' Scrapiron]

 

I kicked off today's efforts by giving the gear someplace to retract.

 

 

 

STEP 6: the near wing went together well enough that I didn't stop to make intermediate screen grabs. I might dissect it to explain some of the techniques that portray rivets, reflections and tenting... all cool little tricks I wish I had figured out during the early projects.

 

 

 

 

The real plane I am basing this on can be found at some of the Northwest air shows, and I have had a chance to see it a few times. Until now I had not realized that the beat up fairing for the wing root did not matchup with the camo patterning on the wing itself. I also think that the underside of the wing has a slightly different gray tone than the fuselage, which has greenish cast to it like the Sky used by the RAF.

 

 

 

The colored wingtip lights are one of  favorite challenges -- depicting the shadowy bulb innards and the reflective shielding as they look through a wall of semi-opaque colored glass, that also has hotspots of glare on the outer surface. It's rewarding when it looks right, and if there's a problem I just keep pushing pixels 'til it does.

Edited May 24 by Ol' Scrapiron

[Ol' Scrapiron]

Hardly any time to spend at the computer today, but I did manage to do some work on the far wing.

 

 

 

One of the benefits of working in a layered file is that I can easily swap in a different background to see if the highlighting has been over- or under-done. on that far wing there is a lot of white (almost white) background that can hide the true shape of the top of the wing where the white reflection/glare is.

 

Here's the same WIP, but with a colored background... and everything looks about right.

 

 

 

Since I was toying with the background, I decided to cobble up a quick pair of gradients to simulate what I might use for the final framing. Just a temporary deal, but I like to see it closer to being done.

 

 

 

 

Still a long way to go, but I think it's coming along nicely.

 

 

 

 

Edited May 24 by Ol' Scrapiron

[Ol' Scrapiron]

Wow, the landing gear on the far side took a ton of work. Not only is it fairly complex, but the new gear had to match up with how I did the gear on the near side.

 

 

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Just this one section took all the time I could dedicate for the day, and looking at it here I already see some bits that need to be adjusted (or are missing outright)

 

Actually, I think I missed posting about the tail gear and stab/tail/rudder sections, so here's a peek at that area.

 

That's all for tonight.

Steve

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited May 24 by Ol' Scrapiron

[Ol' Scrapiron]

OK, someone finally noticed that that engine was running with no one in the cockpit... such a dangerous situation. I remedied that by getting to the Cockpit group.

 

 

 

This is a Yak-3M owned by a gentleman here in the Northwest, and I've seen him at a few local shows and also at Oshkosh last year.

 

I don't think this will get him through a TSA checkpoint, but I was going for the essence rather than as photo ID.

 

 

That wraps up the list of groups/subassemblies, but there is still much to do. I will do a hard comparison between my art and the reference photo to catch things I overlooked (the lights on the fuselage spine behind the canopy?) and also look for places where shadows and reflections need to be adapted to make a nice transition between sections that were painted separately.

 

Digital painting is like using an unlimited palette of oils that never dry, but never smudge until you want them to. Masks can be applied at any time, even after something is painted. Heavy brushstrokes are reduced almost to the point of elimination... and so on, and so on. But this is real digital painting, and not some set of photoshop filters or (bite my tongue) AI generated faux-art stolen from the efforts and portfolios of real artists who crafted their talents through years of hard work.

 

 

The next post will probably be the finished project, set against a background and ready for printing and eventual framing at 10-20 inches.

[Ol' Scrapiron]

Apologies for the reduction in size of the images. Apparently the links I had used had a shelf-life and the early posts were getting the old "missing graphic"

 

I was able to upload all the images to one of my spare sites, but in the process they were resized to only 600px wide. That's too small to be appreciated.

 

 

I will change the settings to a larger size and then re-upload them. I think the filenames will stay the same so the links in these posts will just update to the larger files.

 

It's always something! LOL

 

 

Thank you for following along. I hope this has been a nice behind-the-scenes look at my digital painting.

 

 

 

[Ol' Scrapiron]

 

FINISHED 10x20" (500ppi) digital painting of Yak-3M I have seen at Northwest airshows and at Oshkosh AirVenture 2024.

 

 

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

 

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Hope this has been an educational journey for all who came along for the ride.

 

Steve