Time to Reflect

It had been a while since I’d used Gouache to paint aircraft with – I’d got well out of practice. I used to have a love/hate relationship with the medium as it dries VERY quickly (not good if you want to blend with graduation, but great if you want it to dry so you can paint over it! Also, some colours dry darker, some lighter than when you mix it. So you need to get to know the medium well.
I was looking for a suitable subject and while I was ‘surfing’ online I was stopped in my tracks when I saw a friend’s photo of a VERY special warbird! This is the Fighter Collection’s G-RUMM, Grumman F8F-2P Bearcat, based at Duxford.
I started my painting by laying a flat wash for the sky and let it dry. The aircraft started as a solid block of blue, then I built up the areas with increasingly small detail. There comes a point when you just know that it’s finished.
I hope you like it!