I started in on a 30x40 oil painting called Combat Takeoff.

I thought I might work on these things on video, but I truly do not enjoy that at all. I can do it for some stuff, but when I am really trying to work something through it makes me feel like I’m using half my brain for art making and half of it for performing, and as a result both things are half as good as they could be otherwise.

Initial Charcoal sketch for “Combat Takeoff”.

I had planned to hold off a bit on this because I hadn’t done a drawing of an A-10 from beneath, and that meant I wasn’t really ready to get into painting the plane yet. But I want to make some of the choices spontaneously, and I’ll never do that if I spend weeks mapping out every single millimeter of the canvas.

The first days lay-in of clouds and sky.

All I’ve done here is slap some paint down with some galkyd lite to speed up the drying process. I’m still not sure about the broken tree and the hay bale, but I do like the giant cloud in the back left a lot. I don’t know what, if anything I’ll put on the little girl’s sweatshirt when the time comes. I added a heart initially, but it seemed too leading to me. I don’t want these to be the kinds of paintings that make people feel bad for the kids in the pictures. The kids are supposed to be innocent and the weapons of war in the images are supposed to be what they are as well; they are not supposed to just be bad.

I am hopeful that one day soon I’ll be able to get out to the military honor park and do some plain air work on a cannon and a helicopter so that I don’t just do A-10s for every single painting, but I have always admired that plane for it’s aesthetics and for the mission it serves.