Progress on 'The Debden Kidd' oil study …

P51

Wade – i like the composistion a lot – and can imagine the roar of those Merlins – its very evocative and aesthetically pleasing – your love for the P51 shines thru more every time ,will add one I did recently – a/c model constructed by Joe De Marco’s APM

Best Ron

Brilliant pictures Wade!
Keep up the good work!
Cheers, Alan.

Wade – awesome. That’s all I can really say!

Almost forgot … yes, I will probably publish the final canvas as a very limited edition (100 prints total) giclee with a pencil remarque option. Once I finish this study, I’ll start taking print pre-orders with a small discount.

Thx!
Wade

. . . I notice an Elm tree (God rest ’em) on the skyline behind what I presume must be Abbots – captured a balmy Essex day well.

Very sharp eye! It was through Robert Taylor’s books that I learned that the Elm was “no more” due to disease (IIRC). Too bad, it was always in ground-based photos and simply must be included in any scene like this. I used a composite of actual photos to get the background trees and buildings.

Glad you guys like the atmosphere … that’s your sky up there! Skies have always been my weak point … but I’m learning.

Yes, Hofer is long overdue for “more” recognition. I heard some interesting stories about him over a couple of 4th FG reunions … like the time he came back from a mission and went to eat a meal in the Officer’s Mess with his flying clothes still on. The ground exec, universally hated by the pilots for his petty “rules”, threw him out of the mess for not having his Class A’s on for dining. Hofer went to his room and got his .45 and threatened to “. . . shoot the SOB!” … and might well have done so if not physically restrained.

Hofer was, in the end, a very troubled young man, with problems back home that are only now coming to light (my friend Troy White’s excellent book highlights some of these) … another friend of mine who specializes in Hofer is of the opinion that Hofer simply “didn’t care” about his personal safety and as a result threw himself into combat with abandon. That, plus his natural skill, along with a little luck common to anyone who engaged in combat, made him quite successful – and very worthy of recognition on canvas and print. Contact Troy through his website to inquire about his book:
http://starduststudios.com/

I had never done anything myself prior to taking on this project, and by the time it’s over I’ll have three Hofer paintings finished – and I have an idea for another, which I hope to get to before too long:

1. The Debden Kidd (above)

2. Duke and The Kidd:

3. Morning Mission:

Cheers!

Wade

Very nice, I notice an Elm tree (God rest ’em) on the skyline behind what I presume must be Abbots – captured a balmy Essex day well. Now, when you get onto Great Sampford then I’ll be really interested!

Seriously, I’m not just a local snob – I am looking forward to seeing you post the final version, because it looks great already!

Adrian

I’m really glad there is an artist spotlighting Ralph K Hofer of the 4th FG, he was one of the real characters of the group…..if only Corgi or the others could produce a model of ‘Salem Representative’, as great as they are, I’m a bit tired of seeing ‘Old Crow’ and ‘Big Beautiful Doll’ in the die cast collections all the time.

This work is coming along nicely Wade, you do the 4th FG proud with your paintings, looking forward to seeing the finished article…..do you intend to produce some prints from it to sell?

Very nice 🙂

I like it very much. I do hope that prints will be available in the fullness of time!

I really like this Wade, yes it is unusual to see the aircraft flying out of the scene but it seems rather natural all the same, as your point of view is that of someone on the ground, watching them go off to war, so to speak. Great stuff.

Interesting composition to have the subjects flying ‘out’ of the picture, quite unusual really.

Thx … not that I strive for the unusual 🙂 , but rather this is a scene I would have loved to witness, and decided to commit to canvas. This *is* a dangerous composition – art teachers worldwide may go into shock at some of the compositional elements, but I still like it.

I know you have not exactly invited comment, but seeing as you have posted it I will just mention that I think the subjects would be largely silhouetted, as the primanry light source (sun) seems to be just above the hut

Duly noted, and appreciated. If this were a photograph I took, the subjects would be almost “black” in silhouette (you’re right in that regard). However, the eye is infinitely more capable than the camera lens, and isn’t as easily confused by backlighting. For that reason, photographers avoid backlighting in general, and artists (like Keith Ferris, for example) relish it because it allows us to throw all those wonderful atmospheric colors in the (larger) shadowed areas.

. . . at least if you project the shadow angles on the UC legs, they loosely converge there.

The gear “leg” shadows converge at the horizon directly underneath the sun (or close as I could get with my loose brushwork!). You can’t continue the gear leg cast shadow line to the sun itself. Why? Since the object (the gear legs/the planes/etc.) are planted on the ground, the ground comes into play and “intercepts” the falling [cast] shadow and bends it upwards. This phenomenon can be observed by the cast shadow of a very tall tower next to mountains … the cast shadow of the tower will go down and up and up and down on the undulating terrain depending on the height of the ground “intercepting” it as it “falls”.

This is different than if a baseball, for example, were suspended magically 10 feet in the air … in that case you could draw a line from the shadow through the baseball and to the sun.

Wade

Just amazing!

Thank you for keeping us up to date with your progress.

With kind regards,

Mark

Interesting composition to have the subjects flying ‘out’ of the picture, quite unusual really.

I know you have not exactly invited comment, but seeing as you have posted it I will just mention that I think the subjects would be largely silhouetted, as the primanry light source (sun) seems to be just above the hut , at least if you project the shadow angles on the UC legs, they loosely converge there.