WIP: Killer Canary

[gamary]

I thought I'd show some of the very early stage of my T-6G. I'm intending to draw mostly Arm?e de l'Air T-6s, hence the "Killer Canary" comment:



However, for the moment the best reference I have is TA-983, so I'm giving it an American livery for the time being.



This is interesting to draw: I'm experimenting with shading on yellow. It has to be reddish shading. Greyish yellow looks unnatural and ugly.

I'm also intending to use this profile to work on light reflections on the underside. (Help me Blowhard: you introduced this! ). If you look on the underside of the engine cowling, you'll notice a failed first attempt at rendering that...

I'm interested in your c&c. You might notice that there are still lots of things missing, like the air intake behind the cowling. That's because I'm drawing a "raw" fuselage, to which I'll add later on the missing stuff. This way I can easily mirror the image to make the starboard profile.

I'm working on my usual 30 cm width at 300 dpi: 3543 x 1427 pixels.

[santynus]

very nice subject mate
is one of my favorite aircraft
do you thin to do some italian's T6 too???

[Jesters-Ink]

I aways think working from indoor photogrphs makes the job far harder than needs be. Too much bonced reflected light and not very bright in the first place.
I do hope this is not all you have to go on, or its going to be a headache and a half.

Still, you have made a good start and it is a good look AC.

[gamary]

Fortunately, I have other ref pics: the T-6 is still widely used so it's relatively easy to get good pictures of it. I hope to do French models, and also some rarer liveries (Spain, Germany, Italy... mostly European ones).

Any suggestions for specific aircraft are welcome. Any tips on reflected light on the underside would also be welcome.

[Jesters-Ink]

Blow is ya man for the reflected light

[anadc4]

The reddish shading on the hangared T-6 is due to light coming through (dirty?) glass and bouncing around the inside of the hangar. It's an illusion. Strongly suspect the concrete floor has a big role in the shadow colour. Move the plane outside onto the grass on a sunny day and it will a different colour.

[BLOWHARD]

Help me Blowhard: you introduced this!

You mean Help me Blowhard-Kenobi: you're my only hope!

Sorry, I couldn't resist :P
Everything said here so far about the light and the color is true.
But, there's one thing that has been overlooked or at least not addressed. Is it yellow? To me it's got a LOT of red in it.

In the photo you'll notice the reflected part is more the color of the concrete, it's dull and less saturated. That's not so important here as Anad points out. But, it's pretty boring if you use only 1 color plus black and white IMHO.
Here's a quick over-paint I did, just an idea of what the reflections can do to make the fuselage more round-

What you do with the color is up to you. Remember that color saturation or de-saturation and color hue can be used as shading too, light and dark are only half of it. Red, especially cool red has a LOT of weight pictorially while cool blue will recede some. A touch of red, or at least a richer yellow tone will really fatten up the fuselage shadow area. Even if you don't have any reflected light, or do it very subtly you can make the lower edge recede back in space by making it just a little less saturated.

Here are a few examples of reflected light I found-


And a REALLY reflected version

The polished aluminum serves at least to inform where the reflections and shadows are, albeit in a VERY unsubtle way

BTW, sorry it took my so long to reply, I missed this somehow

[gamary]

Help me Blowhard-Kenobi: you're my only hope!

Yes, Master. Order, and your padawan shall obey!

Here's the wip as of yesterday evening: I've made the panel lines and (part of the) riveting more discreet and natural, I've added some shading and lighting. Front instrument panel has also been added, and some various details.



There are still a million things to work on. You are right about the yellow - I just slopped on the first yellow I found in my palette without checking exactly what it was supposed to be.

Remember that color saturation or de-saturation and color hue can be used as shading too, light and dark are only half of it. Red, especially cool red has a LOT of weight pictorially while cool blue will recede some. A touch of red, or at least a richer yellow tone will really fatten up the fuselage shadow area.

I am experimenting with that already: the red on the fuselage is not "normally" applied red but black shading in Overlay mode. However, I know very little about the various PS modes so I'm mostly testing for the moment.

I think I should lower the level on the main light reflection to the middle of the fuselage (right now it's a bit above the centerline). I believe that's what you've done on your Zero, and the rounded shape comes out better thanks to that.

I'll also make a new attempt at the underside reflection. I agree with you anadc4 about the colour of the whitish/greyish reflection coming from the concrete. As you point out, over a grass runway, the reflection would be different. It would also be different over water or other surfaces, so I figure white is safe-play. Somebody seeing greenish or bluei-sh tones on a profile might wonder why they're there. The mind probably wouldn't even register it on a picture, but it would on an no-background drawing.

BTW, sorry it took my so long to reply, I missed this somehow

No problem. Mieux vaut tard que jamais. I've been working on this on/off for several weeks, so a few hours won't kill me .And I'm very grateful for your help. Hope I can be useful to you in return.

[GiantFlyingRobots]

Jeez, its a tough crowd in here, I'm a little frightened to post here anymore.

Most of the suggestions submitted are things that I never even consider when I work on these things, I guess I better start thinking a little harder about what I am doing from now on.

Oh, and nice progress on what is not your typical subject matter for a profile, its usually the glamorous front line types.

[Jesters-Ink]

You got no worries in here GFR, none of us really know what we are talking about