Hi, Jim and Jeanette here at the Old Rhinebeck Aerodrome in rhinebeck New York
the American Society of Aviation Artists is here today so we thought we'd drop in and do a painting
well i'm russell smith i'm a professional artist of about 20 years i am past president of the
american society of aviation artists i'm out here by with my buddy mark poole this weekend teaching
a workshop uh at the Old Rhinebeck Aerodrome we're entitling it the color of flight workshop
uh but yes this is uh being sponsored by the american society of aviation artists
another one of their educational events we usually have a forum each year in different
parts of the country but the past couple of years unfortunately conditions being what they are the
pandemic and quarantines kind of shut us down just like everybody else so this is really uh the first
time we've been able to get together and do some instructional learning do some painting and it's
really just terrific to be out here and i'm i'm my personal specialty is world war one aircraft so
i'm at home out here i love being here so it's really neat this is my first time teaching a
workshop and i'm learning just as much as these the students are and i'm just enjoying the heck
out of it but yes we we are the American Society of Aviation Artists and look us up it's i've
learned so much from these folks people who have been working hating for decades and decades and
experience under their belt i learned far more from them than i did in art school well this is a
very complicated scene so i'm just going to start with the center of what i'm looking at which is
don meadows doing his painting and i'll start by drawing him in and then build outward from there
i have a variety of watercolors and gouache and just to make sure i have the main colors covered
and what i want to do is figure out that pale violet color of dawn's t-shirt and lay that in
usually when i start with watercolor i end up laying down colors that are
darker than they may appear but they end up looking about right when you finish
what i'll try to do is put down the area for the whole shirt and while it's wet lay in the shadow
now i'm using a long flat brush
and let's go for the shadow side quite a bit darker than the light side
but not quite black either
that's too dark
but while it's wet i can lighten it up a bit too add a little more water
there's the plain break on his shoulder which i can soften a bit while it's wet
and then we've got these folds swinging up from the left hip to his middle of his back
and he's standing in kind of a contrapposto pose meaning the left hip is up and the left
shoulder is down his hole is right-handed so he's holding his right arm upward while he paints
while i have the blue on the brush i can paint his hat
look at those folds those are fantastic i really like painting
real people doing things rather than a model posing
artist painting make a great subject because
they hold still or at least they return to the same poses
now occasionally Don puts his arm left arm down while he's holding his rag
and I love the uh the way his elbow looks
I laid in the light side
and now i'm just putting in the shadow side of the arm
I'm really drawing it with the brush as you can see i didn't really draw it first with a
pencil because i don't know how long i'm going to have here before they all break for lunch
Don has a nice sinewy arm muscular
and you can see the structure of the bone coming down from the ulna.
Yeah my name is Marc Poole i'm currently the the secretary of the American Society of Aviation
Artists i'm an artist fellow in the organization i've been a member as an associate since 92
and uh as an artist member 2001 and um or it was founded by greatness: you know, Keith Ferris
R.G Smith Ren Wicks, Bob McCall in 1985 as an organization to perpetuate the education of you
know solid art skills uh with a love and passion for aviation and aviation history using classical
type techniques and a full range of influence from the artists that have that participate
amateurs to professionals we we all come up from a range of different experiences and professional
opportunities i'm a civilian participant in the marine corps combat art program and have
the opportunity to create historical narrative work for the marine corps and um it's just a
wonderful opportunity to commiserate with artists like-minded folks to meet legends like yourself
and as you said just talk shop and share um if it's plein air if it's background uh just you
know obviously we're focusing on airplanes but it's a fraction of what makes up what we do.
I'm building this outward with mostly transparent paint kind of like a jigsaw
puzzle where you have three pieces to start with and you build it outward little by little.
And i'm thinking about what's light against dark what's dark against light
and quickly dropping in shapes on the outside of the picture that are
less important to the focus on that main figure in the center
Oh you sketched the artist too. Yeah I figured i i'm gonna have trouble with this incredibly
complex airplane so i did another artist Barbara who was standing in front of me
and it's it's easy to do an artist because they keep returning to the same pose yes and
they don't mind artists never mind if you sketch a fellow artist you really got a posture and then
there's Russell behind her in his uniform. Yes he's in the deep shade uh but at first he was
not in the deep shade so this is this is happy for him it's really hot and humid today, great nice.