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Sea Harrier


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Aww, thanks guys. Feel all embarrassed now. Glad you like it though :crying:

Steve, just give it a go. Everyone has an artist in them, all you need is a bit of practice and you'll start to develop a style of your own. Just relax and play about with the colour, that's how I and everyone else I know learned.

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Once again thanks for the comments guys. Got a half hour to it last night and then a few hours this morning while Fiona had a lie-in.

Happy with the area under the canopy for now so just begining to lay washes for the spine and selecting highlights. Picked out a few panel lines, from my experiance it would seem no aircraft has a perfectly smooth skin and those frequently disturbed access panels are never a truly flush fit, a little something that helps add interest to the overall image.

Hey Al, is that some of your work in the signature section of your post? Looks impressive man. Good luck with the A levels.

P.s. Those white dots on the intake were specks of salt or some other mineral. Damn near shat myself when I saw the photo!

Edited by Col.
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Col.

Well done painting so far! What's esp. impressive is that you are working in such an unforgiving medium! I esp. like the play between complimetary colors. It really gives the monochromatic surface a lot of vibrance. I'll certainly keep up with this project.

Do you have a website with more of your work? I'd love to see it!

aim9guy

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Once again left Fiona to sleep and got a couple of hours work in, mostly on the port wing and spine with a minor correction to the shape at the tail of the canopy.

John (kstater94), if you like the finished article I'll look into getting some prints done and find out the cost.

aim9guy, no website I'm afraid, something I'd never thought about before now. Watercolour is the one medium I've found that lets me get the depth of tones and allows a transperency to let successive washes blend and yet not swamp each other. It also lets the base sketch show, usefull on such a complex subject such as aircraft. You're right though, it takes some concentration to get right somtimes!

John (Langton), got a fair file of stuff on the SHAR, the most inpirational has to be the work of Neil Mercer who was photographer on Invincible a few years back. It's one of his shots that's my main reference on this one.

Thanks again guys, hope to show you more soon :thumbsup:

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Once again left Fiona to sleep and got a couple of hours work in, mostly on the port wing and spine with a minor correction to the shape at the tail of the canopy.

John (kstater94), if you like the finished article I'll look into getting some prints done and find out the cost.

Brilliant! :thumbsup:

Cheers!

John

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It'll be an honor to have the first one from you Col!

The honour will be all mine John, without your support I would never have got this far with it already and certainly never thought of getting prints made.

No update this morning, busy clearing the kitchen so we can get a new floor laid. I got half an hour while eatting breakfast to lay the first wash on the starboard wing and a few highlights on the vertical tail but nothing worth posting. I might have a chance later this evening, see how we get on.

If anyone thinks they may like a print let me know so I can get an idea how many to make. No obligations, just make a decision when it's finished and we know a price.

Edited by Col.
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I'm in awe. I have some questions for you :crying: Is this just a hobby for you? How long have you been painting and are aircraft your main focus? The depth of colour in this work is something I've never been able to acheive with water colours, I'm to impatient to let the page dry etc

I'm studying BTEC art in College which is basically 2 A Levels, some tips would be appreciated greatly since I mainly use acrylics :) Tis a boring medium.

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I'm in awe. I have some questions for you :wacko: Is this just a hobby for you? How long have you been painting and are aircraft your main focus? The depth of colour in this work is something I've never been able to acheive with water colours, I'm to impatient to let the page dry etc

I'm studying BTEC art in College which is basically 2 A Levels, some tips would be appreciated greatly since I mainly use acrylics :cheers: Tis a boring medium.

Hi Papa, glad you like it.

It is a hobby, one of three and the one I have to be in the right frame of mind for. I doubt I could do it as my main job. It's something I've always done, mostly on days when I feel relaxed and have time to myself. Aircraft are my main subject area and the Sea Harrier has featured quite often, my last effort hangs in the house of a good freind who is a big fan of the machine. I dabble in other subjects, usually motorbikes, now and then but the one that tested me most was the cyclist Lance Armstrong. Skin tones was something I hadn't tried since school and for a while I didn't think my style would work, when i took it down to hang in my workshop the boss grabbed it and it now sits over the customer seating area so perhaps it wasn't so bad.

I've always liked the depth that watercolour can impart but the downside is having to allow drying between washes, try a hairdryer to accelerate the process and avoid too many layers if you want each layer to be influential. Anything more than three will obscure those below.

If you feel the colour is too bold leave it in strong light, idealy direct sunlight, to fade faster than would be the case otherwise.

For blending on the paper use warm water, for detail work cold water lets you build a layer over existing washes.

Don't worry about mixing media, designers gouache features in this one for the solid black areas and for highlights due to it's stronger opacity but I've experimented with all sorts to find what effects may be usefull in the future.

I came across my own style by accident one school day, faced with a boring still life and started messing around with every colour I could find. The end result wasn't pretty but got me thinking about the way one colour can be compossed from several others. Finding a subject you know and have some understanding of helps to keep the concentration though. So long as you enjoy what you're doing it'll show in your work.

Good luck with the course and just keep messing around, it's the best way to discover what works for you <_<

Come to think of it, this is true for life in general, not just art!

Edited by Col.
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Wasn't going to add this at first but here goes.

About 1 & 1/2 hours work just getting base colour on the starboard wing and a little on the vertical fin. Fiona's on an early shift in the morning so that should be me up at 06:00, the plan being to start adding detail to the wing for a couple hours before first day back at work.

At least the kitchen floor's finished :)

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I would definately want a print...how big is the canvas?? Just the colours...there's so many purples and blues and reds but it still looks like metal. I've been sittign here staring at it for the last 15 minutes. I'm especially amazed by the area under the canopy and around the pilots feet....just amazing use of colour.

Can we see your work space and especially the types of brushes you use...I really need some good quality artist brushes. This has got me feeling all arty :)

I'm SURE the other lads here would want a couple of prints.

Edited by PapaSmurf630
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Coming along very nice Col! :explode:

Seeing as you are doing an 800sqd machine, you should have a limited print run of 800 of them done!

I'm sure people would be interested! (especially the folks on the Harrier and FAA SIG sites)

Not to mention the folks at the FAA museum might be interested!

I have a friend who flew FA2's before leaving 801 to go and convert to the GR9, he might like one...

Cheers!

John

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