Another thanks to the Today’s Inspiration Group. Here’s a rough of a pilot figure by well known commercial artist Joseph Christian Leyendecker (1874–1951) from the Great War period, before the US entry into the war, when fashion catalogues would still be around. The detail in the final image detail dates to 1917 (the…
Sketchy
Watermarked by the modern Flight Global, this artwork dates to the 1936 ‘Flight’ magazine. Featuring sketches of details from the 1936 Society of British Aircraft Manufacturer’s products at the S.B.A.C. show of that year. These kind of pen and ink sketches, as well as being engaging illustrations, also are an effective way of the art…
London’s Aerial Derby
Today’s Poster. A very cluttered illustration today, showing the brief post-Great War revival of the Aerial Derby that had been incredibly popular and successful pre-war, when aviation was exiting and major newspapers, here the Daily Mail, would it worth sponsoring. The ‘A Fleeting Peace’ website and the Wikipedia page here give excellent detail to the…
Spitfire Racers – Pastiche
Today’s Poster. Almost believable, this poster is in fact a pastiche period design, in part intended to showcase Decade Type Foundry’s Reckless typeface. The process is explained in this tutorial here. It’s fascinating to see the effort gone to for ageing, or for an accurate period map of London – while on the other hand…
Polish Knights
Today’s Poster. The invasion of Poland in September of 1939, by Nazi Germany and soon after, Stalin’s Soviet Russia, was the start of what became known as the Second World War. (China and Japan had been fighting in 1937, and the attack on Pearl Harbor by Japan brought the USA into the war in 1941.)…
Miss Icarus
Today’s Cover. An Art-Deco style cover of US magazine ‘The Alexander Aircrafter’ from November 1928, artist signed ‘Olsen’. The figurine, initially seeming to be a spirit or goddess, has wings held on by straps, implying a more human origin – in theory. I doubt the intent is she was to follow the original Icarus’ fate….
Big Kid Ride
Today’s art is very different. A fairground ride spotted at the Tivoli fair in Copenhagen, Denmark, which featured a range of neat biplanes. But not just any old biplanes… A great deal of effort had been taken to give them real schemes; here as Curtiss P-6 Hawk of the 17th Pursuit Squadron of the US…
January Roundup
Let’s take a look at all of January’s feature images. That’s quite a selection! Looking to even more variety of media in February, including sculptures of aircraft, and aircraft as sculptures, and some guest spots from friends and colleagues. Note: I’ve (as yet) been unable to link the images to the page, so in the…
Empire Boat Cutaway
Our last post of January, and a special one. It’s a copy of an original of a well known image from the very brief era of the Imperial Airways and Qantas Short C Class flying boats. This original example was available from Christies, the auctioneers in 2012, sold for £2,500! There’s several things about this…
Spanish Bridge
Today’s Poster. There are many ways of advertising airline flights, and safety, ease and secure comparisons are popular. Here’s one from Iberia, the ‘Lineas Aereas Españolas’, and the Spanish text reads “Vuele confiado come si pasara el ocean sobre un solid puente – garantia de seguridad”. A rough translation would be ‘Fly with confidence, crossing…
A Year of Aviation Illustration & Art 