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In response to comments made by Scott in another thread, I'm going to talk a bit about how I try to paint reflected light and color on an aircraft. Said another way, this is how I try to make the aircraft look like it is flying within the background space. I'm using a painting of an early U-2 here because everyone has a conception of what they looked like - a black airplane. I can tell you that even a black aircraft will reflect the colors of the sky above it and the earth below. This painting was done with Liquitex Acrylics on a 12 x 48 inch canvas. For many people, some of what I'll say will be common sense but it's the little common things that can trick some people up.
The first thing I want to say is that I used no black paint anywhere in this painting. Not even in the deeply shadowed intake interiors. Those areas were painted with a near-black made from mixing Ultramarine Blue with Burnt Umbra. Equal amounts gives you a good near-black. A little more Umbra gives you a warm black and a little more Blue gives you a cool black. Color temperature is important in depicting light and shadows and when working with black, temperature is important in keeping a dark area from going flat or dead. For those do computer painted/generated art, try selecting a near-black from the red, brown or blue color selection field instead of just selecting black.
Grays are another area where your painting can go flat. I don't just mix white with my near-black to make a gray. I'll break a near-black with a bit of Unbleached Titanium and usually have a touch of the color mix of the sky or ground to begin the reflection. For the areas reflecting the most light in this painting I mixed a gray using Ultramarine Blue and Unbleached Titanium. Other blues mixed with Unbleached Titanium will give you various grays but I've found that the U.B. / U.T. mix gives me the best selection of grays to work with. Avoid using grays mixed with reds and greens in aviation art unless you are depicting the aircraft on the ground surrounded by trees and other vegetation. When in the air or at rest in an airfield, the color of the sky will have the greatest influence on the apparent color of the aircraft.
Apparent Color. Look at the wings in my painting. You know that an early U-2 was usually painted black. The fuselage looks black here so the wings should be black. They are black but when viewed from this angle, under these conditions, the reflected color overpowers the local color (surface color) to make the surface appear to be a blue gray and in other conditions the wings could appear to be white. That's apparent color.
Now I'll say something about shadows. A common mistake for most beginning painters is to try to make shadows by mixing black or gray into the local color. This creates another flat or dead area in the painting. Think of what an un-even field of snow looks like on a day with a clear blue sky. The shadows aren't gray, they're blue. That's the blue of the sky reflecting off the snow. The same thing is happening to an aircraft. Paint shadows by mixing the sky color into the appropriate parts of the aircraft. In an atmosphere, shadows are darkest closest to the object casting the shadow. Keep this in mind when painting a large shadow area.
Broken colors are more interesting than flat colors. (I say this as someone who is still working on my broken color technique.) Broken colors (in this case) are those mixed on the brush or on the painting - not on the palette. The blue speckles on the nose of the U-2 are an example of this.
This tip came from Keith Ferris. When painting the "black" (usually done with a dark gray) seam between panels or within other openings on the surface, paint the seam or opening first then paint the panel/surface to the seam/opening. Doing this makes it read as a gap and not as a line painted on the surface. I watched him paint at the forums a few times and I saw how easy he made it look.
I'm sure I'll think of other things to add later but I guess I'll get this posted now. I hope someone out there will find this useful in their own attempts to do aviation art.
The first thing I want to say is that I used no black paint anywhere in this painting. Not even in the deeply shadowed intake interiors. Those areas were painted with a near-black made from mixing Ultramarine Blue with Burnt Umbra. Equal amounts gives you a good near-black. A little more Umbra gives you a warm black and a little more Blue gives you a cool black. Color temperature is important in depicting light and shadows and when working with black, temperature is important in keeping a dark area from going flat or dead. For those do computer painted/generated art, try selecting a near-black from the red, brown or blue color selection field instead of just selecting black.
Grays are another area where your painting can go flat. I don't just mix white with my near-black to make a gray. I'll break a near-black with a bit of Unbleached Titanium and usually have a touch of the color mix of the sky or ground to begin the reflection. For the areas reflecting the most light in this painting I mixed a gray using Ultramarine Blue and Unbleached Titanium. Other blues mixed with Unbleached Titanium will give you various grays but I've found that the U.B. / U.T. mix gives me the best selection of grays to work with. Avoid using grays mixed with reds and greens in aviation art unless you are depicting the aircraft on the ground surrounded by trees and other vegetation. When in the air or at rest in an airfield, the color of the sky will have the greatest influence on the apparent color of the aircraft.
Apparent Color. Look at the wings in my painting. You know that an early U-2 was usually painted black. The fuselage looks black here so the wings should be black. They are black but when viewed from this angle, under these conditions, the reflected color overpowers the local color (surface color) to make the surface appear to be a blue gray and in other conditions the wings could appear to be white. That's apparent color.
Now I'll say something about shadows. A common mistake for most beginning painters is to try to make shadows by mixing black or gray into the local color. This creates another flat or dead area in the painting. Think of what an un-even field of snow looks like on a day with a clear blue sky. The shadows aren't gray, they're blue. That's the blue of the sky reflecting off the snow. The same thing is happening to an aircraft. Paint shadows by mixing the sky color into the appropriate parts of the aircraft. In an atmosphere, shadows are darkest closest to the object casting the shadow. Keep this in mind when painting a large shadow area.
Broken colors are more interesting than flat colors. (I say this as someone who is still working on my broken color technique.) Broken colors (in this case) are those mixed on the brush or on the painting - not on the palette. The blue speckles on the nose of the U-2 are an example of this.
This tip came from Keith Ferris. When painting the "black" (usually done with a dark gray) seam between panels or within other openings on the surface, paint the seam or opening first then paint the panel/surface to the seam/opening. Doing this makes it read as a gap and not as a line painted on the surface. I watched him paint at the forums a few times and I saw how easy he made it look.
I'm sure I'll think of other things to add later but I guess I'll get this posted now. I hope someone out there will find this useful in their own attempts to do aviation art.
