Pilot Femme 6

Another "Pilot Femme" piece, based on a sketch I posted awhile ago, (panspec.deviantart.com/art/Pil…).  This piece started out as a preparation sketch for an oil painting, but I ended up rendering it more and more over the line sketch while deliberating on the painting process. Right now, I'm not sure I want to paint it.

The original sketch made me want to set the piece in the early jet era of the 50s, maybe even in the 40s, but one thing led to another and I ended up with another jet. Sadly, so many things evolved on the page without much forethought, so the image is riddled with construction lines and attempts to pull the drawing out of the fire. I'm lucky that the paper I used managed to put up with the abuse without buffing out the tooth.

The canopy design was a major sticking problem and I broke the number one rule ("Kill your darlings") since I liked the shape of the forward canopy rim on the right so much that I really didn't factor in how the rest of the canopy (open above) would be shaped, or how it would appear in perspective. At one point, I was going for a WW2 style canopy that slid backward along a rail (pictured at the left side of the image, by the ladder), but that precluded the fin sticking up on top. Eventually, I "rationalized" (shop speak for "bullshitted") that the canopy folded flat and then slid a short way forward along the rail to match perfectly the canopy rim. At first glance, it seems to work, but I doubt it really would.

Ah well, its all a fantasy anyhow.