"Sketching Up On The Roof"... Number Two!

Certainly, not one of my better takes!

With a Stearman type biplane in the background, I decided to try my hand at capturing the entire right side of the museum hangar. This was maybe too big to tackle and the finish leaves much to be desired, but it was the second sketch from above in the museum loft and I was starting to perspire...

No, actually, I was starting to sweat!

I believe I made my first mistake trying to count windows behind the biplane, and one can easily see that I miscalculated the distance it would take to complete the entire wall. From there, it was fake your ass off, which worked in the foreground, but not with the Stearman and its surroundings.

All in all, it is not that bad, but not up to par with other drawings I did on this trip. But, the concept of this blog,"SketchieThoughts" is to show the good with the, sometimes, not so good.

I won't get all lofty with that, "It's a process" thing, but I did create it, and for whatever reason, it wasn't working for me the moment I couldn't fit the entire wall of window panes into the sketch. I'm showing it to say, hey, I am not too old to realize my mistakes, and learn from them.

I guess...

Copyright 2014/Ben Bensen III

Sketching, "Up On The Roof"... Just Me And The Drifters!

A DeHavilland trainer?

Developed just after World War II, the was the first aircraft designed by de Havilland of Canada to replace the de Havilland Tiger Moth as a single-engine basic trainer. The Chipmunk first flew on 22 May 1946. Initially, 218 Chipmunks were built for the Royal Canadian Air Force, followed, after a change to the Gipsy Major 8 engine, by 735 planes for the RAF’s primary pilot training bases.

Well, that's what "Wikipedia" and "PilotFriend Aircraft DataBase" have to say about this aircraft that I sketched from the vantage point of a storage loft at the Allen Airways Museum in El Cajon, CA. Before I even looked for the info on this chromed beauty, I knew it was a DeHavilland product from the vertical stabilizer design. They all look alike at DeHavilland. 

Consider the plywood versatility of the "Mosquito," for example. The "rudder" is almost exactly the same! Someone once told me that rudders ( vertical stabilizers ) on an aircraft is more about a company's logo, than it is about aerodynamics. I wonder...

I probably shouldn't have been up there, but in my career as an artist, I found that you do what you have to to get the best angle that helps sell the product... Whatever that product might be. 

Oh, the stories I could tell... "When this old world starts getting me down,

And people are just too much for me to face.
I climb way up to the top of the stairs,
And all my cares just drift right into space.

Up On The Roof!"

I wonder if that's how pilots sometimes feel!

Unfortunately, the price I had to pay was the heat. It wasn't horrible, but it was clear I wasn't gonna spend too much time high above everyone else... sketching for fun. This took me about forty minutes to complete, I guess.

Copyright 2014/Ben Bensen III

"Sketching At The Chino, "Planes To Fame" Airshow"...

The Seversky P-35... I think!

It was hot, and I was wasted after three hours of being outdoors in the Santa Ana heat of Chino, CA. A friend said it was around 97 degrees around noon, but out on the tarmac, it was more like 105. For
me, too Swedish for my own good, it didn't take much to send me back into a cool of a aircraft
hangar.

I love the Chino Air Show, and I miss it "big time" now that I'm living in 'da Bayou. I enjoyed it so much that I used to have a membership. The same climate that affects me so negatively, is the same climate that is so perfect for protecting anything metal. Anyway, I had to make the best use of my time, so after polishing off a bottle or two of "Planes of Fame" water, I decided to stay inside and draw until I gained my strength back, or the growl of P-51's and '47's extract me from my cool seat.

I managed to sketch a Boeing P-12 (F-4B) and this Seversky P-35. The P-35 was basically a precursor of the P-47 Thunderbolt of WWII fame. It's competitor for top spot in pre-WWII aircraft  competition was the Curtiss P-36, which basically was the big brother of the Curtiss P-40.

I did have to move from my cool seat up against stacks of water bottles to sketch this piece. A friend, NASA test pilot, and drone fanatic, stole my identity, by taking this picture of me while sketching the F4B.

Eventually, I did hear the growl of the Rolls Royce engines which compelled me to hastily boogie out to the flight line to take in some great fly byes. Later,  in the comfort of a patio chair around the Crowne Plaza hotel pool, I faked in the "tone" of the P-35.

Copyright 2014/Ben Bensen III