People
sometimes ask me "where do you get your ideas for a diorama". Well the
last two,the Neiuport and the Jenny ,actually started with the figures.
The pointing figure in the Neiuport diorama and the
Billy Bishop,thumbs
up, laughing figure that will be the central point of the "Memories of
Flight School "diorama are both examples of this..All of the ensuing
ideas came from those two gestures.
The above pics give you an idea
of my style of painting.The commercial "stand on its own style" is
overpainted for my purposes.In diorama work I like to let the light
work for me.The pic of my figure is taken with a light overhead as
would be the case when it is finally installed in the hangar.If I
painted it like the free standing model it would appear in the diorama
as being overdone ,in my opinion.
The uniform colors were from
pictures and museum artifacts so they are debatable.Keep in mind also
that in addition to fading over time and the differences in the camera
lens,it seems that in those day different dye lots produced different
shades of color.So a little licence I think is acceptable here.
My
figure is headless because being part of a group I cannot glue down the
heads until I determine how they will relate to one another in the
group setting.
It has been said
that the difference between a "pilot" and an "aviator" is that a pilot
is a technician,and an aviator is an artist in love with flight.