Having accidentally painted a Typhoon for my first 'serious' project, I determined to make amends with painting an actual Spitfire. The back story is that my first Airfix kit was a Spitfire - and one of my earliest 'serious' pencil drawings was also a Spitfire. Why break with tradition?

 

As before, I sketched out the shape and back-painted' it in a mid tone. In retrospect, I should have used the darker grey; it'd have saved time later, but I wanted to see the sketch layer.

The drawing is from another desktop image I once downloaded. The source is a photograph of a Spitfire that like me, was passed around between different homes quite often. She was built in Castle Bromwich around June 6th, 1943. She was soon off to Casablanca, and then Florence to see action over the then Yugoslavia, and then to Brindisi. She then transferred over to Israel to become a 'Yorek' and helped train pilots in simulated combat. By 1955 she was fighting against Kuomintang guerrillas in Burma! Sadly, she then became only a gate guardian.

But now, resplendent and rebuilt by Brendan Deere, she soars to thrill the public at air displays and ANZAC commemorations based in New Zealand! Brendan is the close relative of New Zealand Battle of Britain Spitfire pilot, Alan Deere who was shot down twice, but not without shooting down nine enemy aircraft. The Spitfire is now in Alan's livery, which is depicted here.

She's PV270.

I purposly created the file at a much larger scale than for the Typhoon, having learned that painting with a 2px brush is problematic. This also gave me the opportunity to add more detail. The photograph was OK, but I needed to use some artistic licence to fill in the gaps - particularly around the cockpit and wing.

I draw cartoons of people but I was wary of painting the pilot in a 'fine-art' setting. He looks a  little startled, and I cheated by applying an oxygen mask to cover most of his features. His wide-eyed expression fitted the period I was aiming to convey and gives the painting its name: "Bandits! Ten o'clock ascending!" But to be honest, I don't need to name it: it's meant to enable the observer to offer a possible narrative. The bomber traces in the sky suggest interception, but it really is up to the individual, I think.

Whilst a work in progress, the sky was only my second attempt, which is an improvement on the Typhoon's moody storm backdrop's multiple iterations. There's the final details to put in place and some clean up, and of course the nose cone and props need adding, but I am again really pleased with the outcome using the Wacom Cintique.

The Mac Book Pro doesn't seem capable of enabling touch consistently. Honestly, I moved to Mac on advice of its suitability to graphics, but it just seems to breath more than it should and act like it's about to blow up. On the other hand, I wouldn't return to PC :)

And then one evening after a couple more hours faffing around with shading and rivets, I sat back and announced, "Finished!" But perhaps, with a little more research I really can turn a rather generic study of a Spitfire into a portrait of PV270? I think she deserves it.

I'm keen to find out more about this aircraft I've spent so much time with. I hope to paint a Mosquito soon too, as my uncle flew those in an anti-submarine roll: something I failed to learn before he died in 2000. It'd be great to add some more detail from the old girl too to be sure I do her justice.

"Bandits! Ten O'Clock!". Corel Painter 2016 and Wacom Cintiq; digital pencil and acrylics.