P-40C Warhawk

The Curtiss P-40C Warhawk located at Chino Planes of Fame, California. The P-40, developed from the P-36, was America's foremost fighter in service when World War II began. P-40s engaged Japanese aircraft during the attack on Pearl Harbor and the invasion of the Philippines in December 1941. They also were flown in China early in 1942 by the famed Flying Tigers and in North Africa in 1943 by the first AAF all-black unit, the 99th Fighter Squadron.

The P-40 served in numerous combat areas -- the Aleutian Islands, Italy, the Middle East, the Far East, the Southwest Pacific and some were sent to Russia. Though often outclassed by its adversaries in speed, maneuverability and rate of climb, the P-40 earned a reputation in battle for extreme ruggedness. At the end of the P-40's brilliant career, more than 14,000 had been produced for service in the air forces of 28 nations, of which 2,320 were of the E series.

Huge collection of Walk-Around photos by me, FREE to Use!

Here is a collection of walk-around photos for all of you. I offer all my photos freely for use for your aviation art projects, scale modeling, etc... If you'd like to see many more, please visit my StratoArt library on Flickr. There you'll see an ever growing collection of walk-arounds. Enjoy!!

Planes of Fame (Chino):http://www.flickr.com/photos/stratoart/sets/72157631816240120/

Yanks Air Museum (Chino):http://www.flickr.com/photos/stratoart/sets/72157631822336387/

Battleship Iowa (Los Angeles):http://www.flickr.com/photos/stratoart/sets/72157631922654629/

Miramar MCAS Airshows:http://www.flickr.com/photos/stratoart/sets/72157631815886649/

March Field Air Museum (March ARB):http://www.flickr.com/photos/stratoart/sets/72157631735170101/

March Air Fest (March ARB):http://www.flickr.com/photos/stratoart/sets/72157631563746065/

Clouds & Skies:http://www.flickr.com/photos/stratoart/sets/72157631104827934/

Star Wars exhibit:http://www.flickr.com/photos/stratoart/sets/72157629392160937/

~Dale

Sheprador Puppy

Her name is "Bella"

She is a black Labrador and Australian Shepherd mix, also known as a Sheprador. A friend of ours also called her a Lepard (Labrador Shepherd.)

She is about 12 weeks old now. We rescued her from a shelter. She was the last of her litter, all her siblings were purchased and she was the last one, and I think she's the best!

We are considering raising her to be a therapy dog and my jogging partner as she grows to maturity. She's very gentle, full of energy and obedient. She learns tricks very well.

prints here: http://fineartamerica.com/featured/sheprador-puppy-dale-jackson.html

"You can't buy loyalty, they say,
I bought it though, the other day;
You can't buy friendship, tried and true,
Well just the same, I bought that too.
I made my bid, and on the spot
Bought love and faith and a whole job lot
Of happiness, so all in all
The purchase price was pretty small.
I bought a single trusting heart,
That gave devotion from the start.
If you think these things are not for sale,
Buy a brown-eyed puppy with a stump for a tail."

Anonymous

And that fits our cutie, Bella, so well.

My Planes of Fame Walkaround collection FREE!

If you like planes like I do, and are in need of a some good walk-around photos for free to use in your projects, or for reference, please check out my Flickr collection.  I keep this collection updated and add more planes each time I visit the museum.

FREE to use!

Collection is here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/stratoart/sets/72157631816240120/

Enjoy!

Page stats

Just to show you what's happening today because of that new rollout for Blogger/G+ commenting.

I'm nowhere near the level of audience that many blog masters have.















It went from 46 to 202!

Thanks everyone! I'll be more diligent in producing quality posts.

:)

Google Blogger and Google Plus comments coming together

It looks like my favorite social media is going to make things easier between blogger and Google Plus.

Yonatan Zunger, Chief Architect of Google+ says this:

"I'm excited to announce something else we've been working on: Google+ Comments, launching today on Blogger. This provides you with some features that you won't have seen in other commenting systems; my own favorite is that it brings the conversation from G+ into your blog, so that the social media conversation doesn't get segregated from the comment thread.

This is a purely opt-in launch for blog owners: if you have a blog and want to try it out, follow the instructions in this post. We'll be rolling it out over the course of today!"

http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2013/04/bringing-google-comments-to-blogger.html

https://plus.google.com/+YonatanZunger/posts/ejD5hY7xdKa

My Fine Art America gallery

Here is my Fine Art America gallery/store

Fine Art America

Sorry for the long delay in posts. I mostly post on Google Plus now.

I will try to update here more often.

Meanwhile...

Famous Aviators - the Series - WIP1

I'm involved with doing a large amount of realistic portrait work in pencil style.

However I'm doing them digitally, with my Wacom tablet and stylus and my pencil toolset in Photoshop (my favorite app to draw in.)

Working digitally like this is really no easier than working traditionally. It's just a different tool. In fact, it is a challenge in itself to create something that looks like authentic pencil work while using digital tablet & stylus. So working digitally has it's own unique challenges as does any kind of art.

Drawing these portraits is very challenging to me because I don't consider myself a master of portrait or figure artist. I mostly draw and paint aircraft, vehicles, and landscapes both traditionally and digitally. Yet, I really need to do this as a challenge for myself, so I can jump that proverbial hurdle in my way.

I've put other pieces of art on hold in order to do this series. I've done so, because my brain really functions better when it is on a singular track. Though I've been known to hop and skip about on subjects that I paint or draw, I really want to settle down and crank these out. So, please be patient with me. :)

What I will be doing is a series of famous aviators throughout history, from old times till now. This series will be portraits of  famous aviators and the planes or craft they piloted.

I'm working digitally, on toned background. The look and feel of the art will be on a neutral tan background that I will have a texture to it. I will be working with pencil presets that I've collected and modified to my own liking.

For starters, here is the rough sketch start of my first "Aviator" I'll leave him un-named for the moment, so that as I show the progress, you may see who it is and guess his name.

What you are seeing, which isn't much, is what I started working on late last night and will post more progress later tonight.

It does look a bit robot-ish, but it isn't. This is the real basics of drawing a person's head and face. I have to get the proportions just right so that I can hit the likeness well.

(yes I am still doing the "Sabre Break" oil painting, and yes I am going to finish it)


Very basic layout of the proportions of the head and face.

Stearman Engine

"Stearman Engine"