Days Seven, Eight, Nine and Ten

Well, I've been so very busy between painting and shoveling snow that I've neglected my duties as a blogger. But, having burned myself out, I present to you, the reader, my finished painting. I am varnishing it in between typing, and have just finished submitting in time for the Pensacola show. Now I bite my nails for three weeks while I wait for the letter.

Curtain Call, Acrylic, 18 X 32"

Detail of U-853

Detail of Bradley

The brief description submitted, which will hang on the wall next to the painting if I'm juried in:

Curtain Call
On 5 May 1945, just days after Germany's capitulation, Ensign John Bradley was flying a TBM-3E Avenger at low level on a training mission over Block Island Sound when his radioman, ARM-2 Clifford Brinson, spotted the distinctive "laundry-basket" conning tower and angular hull of a type IX-C U-boat, U-853, as it breached the flats off of Montauk Point. Observing strict radio silence, Bradley turned and sped at wavetop height to Quonset Point NAS, where he reported the sighting. It is unclear why no immediate action was taken, but late that afternoon the collier Black Point was torpedoed in shallow water. Three destroyers in the area quickly responded and intercepted U-853, dropping over 200 depth charges and sinking it with all hands. It was the last U-boat sunk in American waters. Today it lies in 120 feet of water just off of Point Judith, RI, and is a popular but treacherous dive site. Bradley went on to fly Mariners and Marlins for the Navy, retiring as a Commander, and resides in Rhode Island.

Onward! I've got a surprise project laid down and lined up for painting, and then two or three really good ideas to be developed. Stay tuned.

Days Five and Six

Well, yesterday was a bust. Which is fine, really since I had a lot of other things to do. If I were to paint every single day, I might wind up getting really good, and we can't have that now, can we?


Today was not so much of a disaster, and although I only got in slightly less than a half-day I'm pleased with the amount of work done. Form continues to be turned, and detail work continues. I made some small corrections to Ens. Bradley's headgear. Hoping to have the whole form turned on the plane tomorrow and most of the detail work done so that I can let it sit for a couple of days before I scan it.

Painting days left: 4.

Day Four

Finished the second pass on the water today, though it needs at least another to really bring it into line. After that was done I blocked in the major areas of the plane.


Once the blocking was done I moved on to the beginnings of form, and went much further than that with our man Bradley. The area needs some cleaning up but is mostly where it needs to be, with the intrepid ensign leaning over the top to keep U-853 in sight.


Should I have started into small work so early? Probably not. But I needed to turn my attention off of the big areas for a while to satisfy my impatience. To that end, I've put the sub tentatively where I want it, judgment pending.

Day Three

Second pass nearly finished on the water, and some found edges on the plane. Blocking-in of the Avenger comes next.

Day Two

Late start again (not my fault this time). I've finished the second pass on the sky, and laid down undertones for the water. Tomorrow looks better, as usual....

Day One

Got a late start today, mostly on account of my late finish last night. I've blocked in the whole sky and am now doing the second pass, working left to right. Tomorrow after I finish that I move on to the water, which takes up most of the canvas.


I did get a bit of the water blocked in, right where the U-boat sits. It's the brightest area of the painting, so I put it in for reference. It's much easier to keep the mids in control this way.

Earlier start and more productivity tomorrow. Stay tuned!

Nothing But Paint Ahead

1:15 AM: Got the canvas stretched and all marked up. Painting commences in the morning. This leaves me with 10 days to paint in time for submittal. I love nothing more than a good deadline. I'm wicked excited.

Okay, going to bed now. The promise of infinite cool neutrals is on the wind.

Update: 1 Canvas stretched, 18 x 32". Knuckles blistered: 0. That's right, zilch. Eat that, Friction.

Corrected DG and Color Study

Fixed the perspective the other day. New SP at 54.5, x; -135, y; 33, z. New VA at 16.5 deg. Result:


Feeling much better about my method after Keith Ferris outlined his personal process for me the other day and I realized just how much of it is estimation and do-overs.

Color study, 17.5 x 10 in.

Also finished the color study this morning. Painting inclement weather is always fun because the light source is diffused and infinite. The Avenger, of the ASDS, is the standard gloss deep sea blue. I'll be stretching the canvas tonight, and probably priming and transferring tomorrow.

Tonal #1

Back from the NE Regional and tired. Tonal drawing, though fairly small at 5 X 8.75", is finished and looking good. I'm pretty comfy with it, though I'm going to try and bring out the U-boat a little more.

Currently working the second DG plot, which is looking much better. Progress post tomorrow.

A Bit of Local History (Art Resulting)

For those of you who haven't heard: There was a Battle of Point Judith.

Das Boot in question was U-853, a Type IXC-40, seen at right in port. The date of the incident was 5 May, 1945. Berlin and Hitler had been overrun by Russians the week before, and new Fürher Karl Dönitz had sent the word out to the 49 U-boats still patrolling the world's oceans to cease hostile action (many had been sent across the Atlantic to American coastal waters in the last weeks of the war to disrupt shipping with an eye towards better surrender terms). Whether the crew of U-853 ignored the message out of fanaticism--or, more likely, simply missed the call--is still hotly debated. But the answer went to the bottom with the crew; the facts remain that on 5 May U-853's crew made a reckless decision to torpedo the collier Black Point in shallow water, and less than ten miles from the Atlantic Fleet's Destroyer Headquarters in Newport, their immediate and thorough destruction resulting. U-853 was the last U-boat sunk in American waters, and one of the last sunk, period.

But our story doesn't end here. Well, okay-maybe it ends here, but there's some more stuff in the middle.

On the morning of 5 May, then-Ensign John Bradley of VC-15, who was on detachment at the time with Anti-Submarine Development Squadron Atlantic at Quonset Point NAS, was piloting a TBM-3E Avenger at low level near Montauk Point, training American sub crews, when his radioman, Clifford Brinson, spotted the long, low form of a submarine. It was 4 or 5 miles off the right wing, where it shouldn't have been. Taking a closer look, they suddenly realized that it was the distinctive "laundry basket" conning tower of a Type IX U-boat they were seeing, heading east towards Block Island.

Observing the strict radio silence protocol then in effect, Bradley made a beeline on the deck for Quonset to report the sighting. He recalls that, typically of Rhode Island weather, the visibility deteriorated quickly as he flew up the coast; heading up the West Passage only minutes later, he noted that the upper half of the old Jamestown bridge was obscured by fog. He landed at Quonset and reported to the Detachment commander, then walked back outside to find the base completely socked in.

It seems that in spite of Bradley's actions nothing was done, and in fact no records remain of the report. Perhaps it was dismissed, or maybe the lousy weather kept the destroyer fleet from mobilizing and hunting down U-853 before the Black Point was torpedoed.

This year marks the centennial for naval aviation, and also the 25th for the ASAA, so it's kind of a big year for aviation art. To this end our annual exhibition and forum is being held this year in Pensacola at the Naval Aviation Museum. With this in mind, I've been looking for a good naval subject to submit. Not only does this fit the bill perfectly, but also it happens to be a moment of pertinent and interesting local history, which satisfies the Rhode Islander's native inferiority complex. Now if only I can get it done by the sumbmission deadline, 1 February.

Progress so far: Into and out of thumbnails (see below). Selecting the moment was pretty straightforward: Bradley, keeping one eye on the boat, has begun to turn towards Quonset, only 100-150 feet off the waves. The cloud cover at the time was reported as overcast with low scattered, which gives me some freedom in balancing the cloud masses.

As the refinement process went on, I decided on a wide-format painting. Eventually I came up with a balance I liked, and enlarged it slightly (seen below):


I've done the DG plot, but I may need another. With a station point 33.6ft aft, 86.3ft port, and 22.9ft above the spinner, and therefore an azimuth span of 26 degrees, the viewing angle is pretty wide, as is the 60-degree picture plane. Expect to see another early next week.

In the meantime, I have the full tonal drawing to execute. I have two weeks to get this sucker painted. Can I do it? Stay tuned to find out.

Hey- it looks like a painting!

I come before you slightly embarassed that I've gone seven months without posting. But worse than that is the fact that this painting is still unfinished.

Almost there....

Although it's starting to really, actually, kinda take shape now, it's been pickling for far too long. I'm no Van Gogh for productivity. Granted, enough other projects have been running alongside this to keep me busy. But I'm glad it's not a commission, since I'd have lost the job long ago.

So the whole thing's been gone over again tonally. Major errors in line have been corrected, and parts of the painting have even been brought up to a near-finish. Of course, the grisaille still pokes through in places, most notably in the terminal windows. The necessary renovation of the terminal building itself looms ominously in the near future. And let's not overlook the extra importance of nailing the figures in this narrative self-portrait. Updates coming shortly, as soon as I can safely re-enter the cave.

Found the Airplane!

Got in a couple of hours' worth of time in tonight. The deep background is finally (finally [finally {finally!}]) nearing completion. Little by little by little.

Some big hops forward have been made, though it doesn't show readily: The sky has been put back in check, the treeline's done, we're closer to the right shade for the side of the hangar, I've started to recover the airplane from the gigantic mess I made, and various other bits have been nudged in the right direction. Some things are obviously in need of fixing, i.e. the warped steel roofing and the split-level roadway on either side of the vert-stab, and we'll just see how many more of them pop up during the rest of the process. But that's what paint is for, after all- to cover up all the mistakes you made with the last layer of paint! The grayscale version below shows the values holding up okay so far.


More to come soon.

Productivity, In Whatever Form

Had an evening of painting and crepes with G and E last night. Below is an unfinished oil sketch I did of the artist at her [humongous] canvas.

The Artist At Work, Oil on foamcore, 6x8"

Turns out it's much more productive for both of us to work with company and so stay tuned for the many adventures and projects to come.

Some More Paint

Spent some quality time with my painting today (though I'm not certain that either of us is any better off for it).

Seems to have gotten a bit out of control again. A new sky is apparent, the third repaint since the last update. Still about three hues too cool. Worse, I've lost the lines of the airplane under the generous beginnings of my rough color overlay. I'll be days fixing this one. Stay tuned, folks.

Progress In The Unmistakable Form Of Color

Well, I've finally made the decision that has needed making for weeks and broken out of my umber world, having found myself in something of a mire. I've already worked the sky over twice; the first attempt, subject to miscalibrated lighting, produced a moody, oversaturated cloudscape that would look about right over a moonlit ocean but, needless to say, is a bit out of place for the occasion.

So I mixed out the blues a bit and it looked much better but, still lacking proper lighting conditions, it looks as though it may still be a little bit too deep. The plan is, as it stands, to take another look at it tomorrow and, should it actually need the amount of revision I think it does, to turn tail and hide myself behind a wall of art books.

Forum 2009: A Debriefing

Did far too much stuff last week to write about in depth. Suffice it to say that I had a grand old time and walked away with a head full of ideas and a renewed drive to git-'er-done. Did some sketching and painting en plein air in workshops. This one, an low-angle oblique segment of Stearman wings (they have a very pretty static Kaydet on pedestals), was the first shot with my new W&N water-soluble oils.

PT-17 Kaydet, 11x14", Oil, 2009

Also did a whole lot of figure drawing. In one workshop we sat in the gallery where ongoing restoration work is taking place on a landmark B-17G, City of Savannah, and tried to get the essence of figure movement as the invariably aged and portly (retired) workers went busily about the business of bringing the big bomber back up into pristine conditon; she came out of the works just too late for combat and was then used for decades as a fire-bomber in Canada before being pickled in a hangar for thirty years.

Gestural Studies, 8x10", graphite, 2009

I also made mischief into the wee hours of the morning with, and got some very sound and encouraging feedback from, the greats. We airplane geeks sure as hell do know how to have a party.

Gestural Studies, 8x10", graphite, 2009

Check back for more progress on my big painting later this week, after I've had time to recover from it all.

Off to Geeow-gia

Off to Savannah and ASAA Forum 2009. I wanted to have my painting completely finished in time to bring it, but though I've painted where- and whenever I could, it falls markedly short of completion. I did get a good chunk of my progress covered in the latest issue of the ASAA journal, Aero Brush, which is very exciting and has added fuel to the fire under my posterior.



So here's what I've been up to. The sky, treeline and terminal have been frustratedly worked over and over again; each has at least six layers of paint at this point. I'm happier with the cloud cover now, though it still needs work. I had intended to push the darks pretty far in the background though now I think I may have sent the terminal just a bit too far. I've since also blocked in 50A and turned a large part of the form, though it is less than finished, and I had also blocked in the figures before I painted them over in a fit of rage at the first-story windows (I was pretty close to slicing off my ear at the time). Obviously, they need correction.

Okay. Off to finish packing.

Slightly More Paint Than Before, But Not Yet Enough

Well, it's pretty self-explanatory, but for the sake of having a well-rounded entry, complete with narration: I've got almost the whole canvas covered now, and the very beginnings of wet-tarmac reflections are showing themselves. Some of the windows are framed, though they need to be brought into order; they're way out of control. After all the background is corrected I'll get to work blocking in the figures and 50A, and finish off the reflections. Again, excuse the poor off-angle shot-- Wet Paint.

A Bit More Paint

Didn't have as much time as I'd thought I would today, but I got in an hour or so this evening. Still trying to figure out this whole grand-scale thing--particularly the proper homogenization of value over the relatively broad areas--though after having a look at some of Annie's truly large stuff this evening (see http://www.anneblazejack.com/) am inclined to feel like a bit of a complainer. Please excuse the corrupt perspective; I was having trouble lighting properly as some of the paint is still wet.

En Garde!

As I stumbled about trying to get a decent shot with minimal glare, I knocked my brush cleaner off the table. It flipped once and landed with flourish more typical of a swashbuckler than a plastic cup, spilling only a couple of drops and ejecting a single #9 flat right at me. It's the little things that make life worth living.