B17 film

Am waiting for the jacket (Lady luck) to arrive from the states. Should be soon.

Bought a film called Fortress. It's about B17's in the med during the war.
Not one real 17 in the film. All CGI. But, I really liked it.

Still, the best film, is 12 O clock high. This stars Gregory Peck as a commander sent to take over a demoralised 'hard luck,' bomb group. This film is more about the huge stress placed onto crew flying missions and it's effect on the different characters in the film.

Have a look at the synopsis on Wiki.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twelve_O%27Clock_High

Back to work

I've been a bit quiet recently, as my company cut a few people (due to recession), myself included. So I have been running around looking for work. So now I'm working as a freelancer designing identities and brochures and have some stuff lined up.

So, things are a bit more stable in my life and I'm going to start on the new jacket commissioned from someone in the US. This jacket will be called 'Lady luck.'

I will hopefully be painting early December.

And another!

From the States.
From a lady no less. Hope you manage to get your jacket soon K.
I have found a good piece of reference.

Another possible commission

Slightly different request. This time they want to have nose art added to an old Motorbike brand. Should be a bit of fun.

Thank you Texas

For the highest hits again this month, according to Google analytics.
If anyone is working on a jacket, it would be nice to see the progress.

I've been thinking about making this into a website. Rather than just blogging.
This means I can have more info on A2's, paint materials, reference etc.

It would also allow other people to post thier stuff as well.

There are numerous sites out there with free templates.

Another inquiry!

This time it's to put nose art on a bike jacket.

Done!

Finished the new Jacket "Jezebelle.' I'm very happy with how it turned out.
This is also the first one to have a bomb group and squadron painted on as well.

Jezebelle jacket

Some progress pics of the new jacket.
This is dedicated to a crew of the 91bg,324Sqn (requested by the jacket owner).

Liberty Belle

What a great shame. At least no one was hurt.

Jezebelle

Is the name chosen for the commissioned jacket. I started work on it at the weekend.
This has to be ready for the end of July. I strongly recommend using the carbon type paper to trace down the artwork. Make sure that the colour of the paper is strong enough to be seen on the white base coat when tracing down the pin up. I used red.
I'll put up images of the progress.

Onwards

The Commissioned jacket has arrived.
They want to call it Jezebelle and add 91st BG.

There is a nice Gil Elvgren image i've been thinking of using for a jacket.

By the way. has anybody painted a jacket yet?
It would be great if someone did.

Nearly finished

Just needs some tidying up and another shadow layer on the text. Then I'll get some better images taken. After that, I'll put it on ebay and hope someone likes it.

I just got a commission. So it will be straight on to the next jacket, which will arrive soon. This is a bit scarier as it's someone else's jacket.

Development

Did a bit more at the weekend.
Worked on the face a bit and the chocolate box. Also the hands.

Work in progress

Far from finished.
The skin tones on her back still need the highlights put on. Looks like she has sun burn at the mo. Happy about the hands too. Fingers and toes can be a real pain, when you are trying to paint something quite fine on the leather grain.

Add detail

I thought this time, I would start with painting the head. To me, this is the hardest bit. I still think it needs some work on it though.

There is a danger however of thinking,'maybe, if I just tweaked the eyes..' and then you undo all the work and end up with a wonkey eyed pin-up.

Still. Here it is so far.

Fill in

Now I have a white base coat, I can start to fill in flat areas of colour. This was done by placing the carbon paper (mentioned in an earlier blog) under the trace paper. It worked out really well. The advantage of this, over using a softer lead pencil rubbed onto the back, was it was easier to see the image on the trace.

Alternate

I just got some graphite paper from the art shop. I'll give it a go and see if it's better than using chalk.

A while ago, I tried some carbon-type paper. The type Tailor's use when cutting patterns on material. This would not take to the leather.

I hope this new stuff works. It cost about £7.00 ($11.41).

New jacket

So. I started painting the new jacket (Heavenly body) yesterday. I think this one is going to be trickier, as the text runs across the image. This means I have to paint the pin-up first and then paint the text over her. Wish me luck.

I applied the chalk to the back of the tracing paper and went around the bombs and pin up image. There must be a cleaner way to do this.

I filled in the mission bombs and put down a white base for the pin-up.

As with the other jackets, this one is dedicated to a crew who's plane had no name.
B17 43-38000 (91st BG 324 sqn) 2LT l Reese crew (for that mission) lost over Germany 16th Aug 1944. One survivor (tail gun).

All sorted

Been in contact with the guy who used one of my images on his A2 custom jacket website.
Seems to be a genuine mistake. So fair enough.

New jacket soon

i found another A2 on ebay. This should be with me next week.
So I can make a start on either this one or the other next week.
Going to call it 'Heavenly body.'