When I was in science I used to visit the Canadian Aviation and Space Museum regularly. It wasn’t because I was in science but rather because I’m an airplane fanatic airplanes and I worked at a research lab that was only a 90-minute drive to the museum.
I mention this because I’ve been sketching for three years and until Dec 01, 2014, I had never drawn a single airplane, in spite of my passion for them. Why? Cuz I can’t get excited about drawing from photos and there isn’t much airplane activity in Quebec City.
But now that my daughter is living in Ottawa, I have an excuse to go there so I finally got to sketch at this museum. It’s a museum of significant size… airplanes are big and they have dozens of them under their roofs. The main building (photo) is quite large and there’s an equal-sized building just to the right of the photo. Both are packed to the gills with airplanes. It’s a wonderful place, at least I think so. Besides, if you’re old like me you can get in for $10 and they let you sketch to your hearts content.
I showed up shortly after opening time – at 10:30 and I quickly found a spot and started sketching. I was in ‘detail’ mode that day, which meant I was concentrating hard on proper shape and proportion as, well, you know – airplanes are just supposed to be drawn “right”, don’tcha think? You would if you were an airplane fanatic like I am. Anyways, I used a pencil to draw the large shapes and then moved to my Pilot Falcon filled with DeAtramentis Black. I was working in a Stillman & Birn Alpha (10×7) sketchbook – my favorite working surface.
I spent about one and a half hours getting the ink done and then took a break to have some coffee and relax. While I was in the restaurant I added the color (Daniel Smith) to the sketch. I was pretty pleased with the results but also a bit fatigued so I kicked back, enjoyed the coffee, which was no longer hot, and then spent a few minutes wandering around the museum.
It was almost 12:30 by the time I decided to draw this T-33. It’s always been a favorite and I could sit in an out of the way place and draw. I needed to get on the road back to Quebec City by 1:30 so I quickly laid out some shapes and guidelines and went to work with my pen. By 1:30 I had created this sketch and decided I’d better add color when I got home so I snapped a couple photos for reference.
I’m really bad about adding color to sketches and have a lot of them that ‘I’ll color it later’ never happened. This was, almost, one of those sketches as I forgot all about it until I started to do this blog post. Here’s the sketch with some color added. I can’t wait to return to that museum. Did I mention that I like airplanes (grin)?
Good to see you finally got to an aviation museum! Great sketches!
Hmm and we have the Canadian Warplane Heritage Museum less than an hour away in Hamilton.
I think I should add it to the ‘Winter Sketching Locations”
Thanks for the inspiration.
I particularly liked the way you have the T33 jutting out of the ‘frame’ very effective
Alan
The Hamilton museum is more military-oriented than I like (I’m a sucker for airplanes from the beginnings of aviation and Canadian bushplanes) but absolutely that museum (all museums) would be a great place to sketch. Wish I could go with you (grin). I suspect I’ll make another trip to Ottawa before winter is over.
Cheers — Larry
Great drawing, Larry!
Thanks for stopping by Michael. Glad you like my airplanes 🙂 I hope you and the rest of the Stillman & Birn gang have a great holiday season and a profitable 2015.
Cheers — Larry