Lockheed P38

**gray** · 15 February 2008, 05:34 PM

Another aircraft. Since I've been posting old work I thought I'd better post something new. This is a mixed graphic type. The background and aircraft are created with Xara vectors. All colour blocks are layed out first in individual layers in vectors. The layers are then imported into a raster paint program and painted to complete the process. This is still a WIP. I usually let it sit for a few days at this stage while I note all the corrections I need to do to complete it.

**steve.ledger** · 15 February 2008, 07:02 PM

Originally Posted by gray

AThe background and aircraft are created with Xara vectors. All colour blocks are layed out first in individual layers in vectors. .

Gray your skyscapes/clouds amaze me!

Please consider a tutorial on (at least) creating such realistic clouds.

**handrawn** · 15 February 2008, 07:08 PM

yes I will second that - lovely drawing

**ss-kalm** · 15 February 2008, 07:27 PM

Thirded ......... UMM ........ !!!! I'll second that again ...... Oh heck!

Yes, I'd like to see a tutorial too. Amazing work Gray.

**Ron Duke** · 16 February 2008, 12:03 AM

Gray,
These planes of yours are truly art. Fantastic.
ron

**pauland** · 16 February 2008, 12:10 AM

Amazing work.

Paul

**raynerj1** · 16 February 2008, 03:06 AM

I've been waiting for a P-38 from you. You haven't disapointed me yet... Great job!

**gray** · 16 February 2008, 03:41 AM

Thanks for looking Sledger, Steve, Keith, Ron, Paul, John.

I didn't keep all the work files for this one Sledger, but I'd be happy to do a more complete tutorial on clouds for the next skyscape I do.

Although I don't have all the work files for this I can at least list out the main steps in it's construction.

The base sky is formed of two shapes with gradient fills of the colours I want. The smaller shape has an elliptical transparency added to it. #1 shows the two shape outlines and #2 the colours used. #3 has more shapes added with varying degrees of transparency and feathering to give some depth to the clouds. Steps #1 to #3 are all done in Xara. I then export the file to my paint program as a PNG file. I paint the clouds in the other software to soften them up and add more depth to them. There may be many layers of paint to create some depth. I then export this back to Xara as a PNG file. Since I wanted to have land showing through the clouds I painted a small patch of land shown in #4. You could also use Xara to create this land if you wished. I export this to Xara and place on a layer below the skyscape. applying an elliptical transparency to the skyscape in the corner allows the land to show through the clouds. The finished image is 20"x16".