My latest... "The War Artist"...

[bwildfong]

Hi all,

Another one recently completed - this one's a simple conversion of an Ultracast tank crewman into a Canadian war artist serving with the 1st CDN Div. in Italy c. 1944. It was inspired by the recent passing of two of Canada's foremost WW2 Official War Artists, Alex Colville and Bruno Bobak. Of course, a War Artist needs a subject and so I used the old Italeri church window ruin, slightly modified and with stained glass made from a colour image printed on to clear acetate sheet:

























In my next post, I'll try and find some actual photos of Colville and Bobak et al. and their work.

As always, comments and advice much appreciated.

Cheers,

Brian

 

[bwildfong]

Hey again,

Here's a few shots of Canadian war artists (and an example of their work) that I used for inspiration:

Charles Comfort and "The Hitler Line":

Bruno Bobak and "Tank Convoy":

Alex Colville and "Infantry Near Nijmegen":

Lawren P. Harris and "Battle Ground Near Ortona":

I used bits and pieces from all of these shots to build up the details in the vignette.

Cheers,

Brian

 

[Colin_Fraser]

Simply superb Brian. Glad to see the artists and their awesome works too. As I understand it, Canada led in dispatching war artists into the field in both world wars.

Colin

 

[chris1]

Wow Brian,
what a neat idea.any photos of the build itself and where did the painter come from.

Its just neat.



Chris

 

[Huw63]

Very original idea superbly executed. What was your palette fir this figure?

Cheers

Huw

 

[samson]

Awesome work really great looking

 

[Ferris]

That's a great vignette! Simple, but so effective! Like that you used that old Italeri church. Best I find the overall composition and little details such as the blue of the chair. Excellent!

Adrian

 

[NickM]

It's always really refreshing to see an unusual subject portrayed like this. Beaut vignette, Brian - an original idea and wonderfully painted.

 

[bwildfong]

Wow Brian,
what a neat idea.any photos of the build itself and where did the painter come from.
Chris

Thanks Chris - glad you liked it.

The artist started out as a 1/35 Ultracast Commonwealth Tanker. I replaced the head (again Ultracast) and re-engineered the arms and added new hands (Hornet). The wellies/sea socks I got from a Wee Friends Royal Navy figure.

Unfortunately, I was under some time pressure to get this one done and didn't take any in-progress shots. Be happy to answer any "construction" questions you might have though.

Thanks again for looking!

Brian

 

[bwildfong]

Very original idea superbly executed. What was your palette fir this figure?

Cheers

Huw

Thanks Huw,

The trousers were a custom-mixed olive/khaki from Lamp Black + Yellow Ochre (W&N oils), shadows had Raw Umber added (and straight Lamp Black in a few spots), highlights were the base khaki lightened with a bit of White and Naples Yellow.

The BD blouse's khaki was mixed from Burnt Umber + Yellow Ochre + a bit of Black, if memory serves - shadows and highlights same as the trousers. I wanted to keep trousers and blouse from looking too similar/monotonous.

Thanks again for looking in!

Brian

 

[bwildfong]

Colin, samson, Adrian, Nick:

Thanks very much again gents for the very kind comments - much appreciated!

Colin, we can thank Lord Beaverbrook (Sir Max Aitken from New Brunswick) for the sheer volume of Canuck war artists - he was instrumental in getting the programs in both wars started.

Adrian, I'm glad you noticed the chair - the khaki uniform almost disappeared when I put the figure into the groundwork, so I needed something to draw the eye towards the actual subject of the piece! There's a small bit of another blue chair buried in the rubble as well.

Thanks again for looking all!

Brian

 

[ChaosCossack]

Another beautiful piece... very strong image overall. Perfect in it's execution.

If you can remind me, I have a book of work from the Canadian war artist of both wars, I'll bring it to the next meeting. There's some really beautiful and emotional pieces and short bios on all the artists.

Fantastic work Brian

Colin

 

[ghamilt1]

Really nice work Brian! Beautifully executed in composition, sculpting and painting.

Have to share a story with you...My wife and I went to the Canadian war museum in Ottawa 2 summers ago, which was just a few months after Colville's passing. Of course, the museum had a number of his original war paintings on display in the main entrance hall. What I was shocked about was the bright beams of direct sunlight running across the canvasses! Can you imagine that? What kind of curator displays original art work in an area exposed to direct sunlight??!!! I talked to a couple of the museum staff and wrote a letter to the person in charge of collections, but I never heard back from them.

Well, your fine vignette brought that story back to mind.

 

[sd0324]

Nice work, you are on quite a roll lately! Keep it up!




Steve Deyo

 

[tonydawe]

Excellent subject matter Brian. The scene is poignant and well executed. tells a great story

 

[Ulrich]

Excellent and very well executed. Gratulations

 

[ChaosCossack]

I really like Harris and Comfort... I dig the hard edged, crisp, almost comic book style... very strong. Almost harsh. Even a bit of the propaganda poster feel.

Colin

 

[megroot]

Great idea and awesome executed.

marc

 

[arj]

A beautiful vignette. It draws you in from every angle.
Very well done.

Andrew

 

[swralph]

Very nice little scene.
Ralph.