Henschel Hs P.135 (Work in Progress)

I'm hoping I can do a WIP from start to finish on this illustration. Some new Xara users may be interested in the steps I use in drawing up these kinds of illustrations. If I'm in the wrong place the moderators will hopefully send me packing to the right spot.This is a 1944 German design that never went into production. It was an interesting aircraft and I thought I would like to see what it would have looked like. I don't have the skill to draw these complex compound shapes free hand so I knock off a quick wire frame 3D to give me the basics. I often draw the 3-view in Xara vector, which I did for this project. I then like to lay out the background colours in vector so I stay in the same tones for the plane subject. So I'm showing the 3-view drawing of the plane I used vector for. I've then laid out the basic background colours I'm using. I've placed the wire frame over the background and I will now start drawing out the aircraft shapes in vector. Sort of the vector version of paint by numbers. The aviation guys like accuracy, so it helps incompetents like myself to draw something that is recognizable.I'll try and post each step as I go along.

I'm impressed Gray, I also like what you wrote about the steps you used. When it's finished I'm sure it will be awesome. I find how you did the clouds so far to be interesting.

So you do a wireframe in a 3D program and use this to build the vector drawing?

Larry, I build the clouds in vector first, then I use a digital brush to finish them off. Just seems to work best for what I want. I used 6 different layers for these clouds so far.
Gary, yes I do create a 3D wire frame first to work from. It allows me to be creative as to the subject and composition I want to use. I do some real odd ball machines at times, which can have little or no photo examples to work from, such as this German plane.

Fascinating, Gray, thanks for showing this.

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So you do a wireframe in a 3D program ....

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What 3D program do you use for this Gray?

Thanks Penny for having a look.
Egg,I use a very simple 3D program that is very limited in what it can do, but is very quick, which works just great for what I want. It's called RCcad. I've also used Blender in the past but RC cad is quick and dirty.
The next step I've done is to draw the shapes for the plane using linear fills to round out or give them depth. I use separate layers for everything and already have about 16 layers. A light line on the front of each wing gives them some sharpness, each wing and fuselage having their own layers. Stubby looking little thing isn't it? A long way to go yet to get this looking like it should. Eventually it will have a camo paint scheme.

Some added work to the wings in the form of camo paint job. I feather the edges of all the shapes to soften them up a little. The camo are linear fills. To give the wings a little texture I use the transparency tool with a layer of fractal cloud and a layer of fractal plasma. All surfaces have a texture to them. Both layers are adjusted to high transparency. Next will be the fuselage camo and texturing, done the same way.

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Originally Posted by gray

Some added work to the wings in the form of camo paint job. I feather the edges of all the shapes to soften them up a little. The camo are linear fills. To give the wings a little texture I use the transparency tool with a layer of fractal cloud and a layer of fractal plasma. All surfaces have a texture to them. Both layers are adjusted to high transparency. Next will be the fuselage camo and texturing, done the same way.

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Gary that's great! Thanks for sharing Your steps. I draw my watches after I took a photo of them and then all the little thinks I draw as vector on many lyears too.

Cheers.

Thanks, ernie-f. Yes indeed, layers are my friend.
A little more work on the camo and detailing. All the shapes are feathered and linear filled. Still have to add texture to the fuselage with the transparent tool, just like the wings. More paint work is also required to match the type of camo it is. Since this aircraft was never built, you do get some leeway in details.

Great to see the progress. A master class.

Thanks Gary, getting there slowly.
Some more progress on details. The air force marking on the fuselage and wings are drawn, then the mould tool is used to get them to match the surface shape.
I will then finish off the background by transferring the background (PNG File) to a paint program in layers. I won't show those steps since they are not vector. After I finish the background in a paint program I will transfer it back to Xara. I'll post as each step is completed.

Been busy but had time to get a little more work done. More shapes drawn for the plane. Use a slight feather and transparency on each new shape. I'll post as I add more to this illustration.

Looking excellent. It would be awesome to see a slide show with fades to see the progress from start to finish.

Gray,
thats great. Thanks for let us be in process.

Not a bad idea at all, Gary. I'll look into that.
Ernie thanks, I'll get this finished yet. Been out in the yard at the moment since we're getting such great weather.

Looking fantastic Gray, I love seeing how you go about this love the camo paint job. The only part that bothers me is the landmass that looks like it's touching the wing, That kinds gives a false impression of aa model plane mounted on a stand.

Thanks, Larry. Still quite a bit of work to do on the landscape. I'll see what it looks like as it progresses. It's supposed to rain later in the week, I'll get back at it then. At the moment I'm enjoying being out in the sun. Good thing no one has to pay me for my time now. I wouldn't make it 10 minutes before I was fired.

Made a couple of changes on the plane (it's getting close to complete). Been doing a little more work on the background. The background is just as important if not more important and usually takes much longer to do than does the main subject. Another week of spare time should finish this little WIP project.

OK, I'm going to call this small WIP done. Just created it to show any new members how I do these types of illustrations. I hope it helped in some small way to get others to create and post their work. It was just a few hours in between other work. Now get creating and posting.

Wow! Wow! And Wow! This turned out great.

My dos centavos.

The clouds farther away could be softer or slightly blurred.

The line drawings detract from the illustration.

I am not sure if there is a reason for the font you used, historic? but I think fonts with caps and small caps and old style numerals are more classic and elegant.

Thanks Gary, for your constructive comments. My only excuse is it was a quickie demo and I spent little time on refining it. I did make the changes you suggested though. Thanks again for your input.

Those that can do. Those who cannot, critique. :)

Gary I look on your advice as coming from the master. I appreciate your help. That's the only way we improve.

:)

Have you ever considered to do it the other way, work in 3D software and use Xara for drawing texture maps?

That way finished image would retain that same feel, but you could view the plane and create images from different angles without any extra work. It would be an easy transition when you are already using 3D model as a reference image.

Hi theinonen, I had thought about it in the past, but I just like the drawing part of the illustrations. There are some fantastic modelers around, and I've marvelled at some of the work they produce.