If you’ve got a firefighter in your life, then this may be of interest to you! Firefighters have an extremely tough job with a lot of physical and mental stress which can sometimes overlap into their personal lives. I know a lot of firefighters, and everyone of them has been a stand up person in […]
Today is Remembrance Day. I hope you find a moment of silence today to honour the men and women who gave up all of their moments for us to live a free and peaceful life. These are the last 2 sketches. They just scratch the surface of the immense reference material I had to use […]
My great-grandfather and my grandfather were in WW1 & WW2 respectively. They both returned but were not the same. My great-grandfather had lost his leg and was given a wooden one that he hid his paper money in. Arthur Henry March Sr. My grandfather was one of the men who stormed the beach on D-Day, […]
Still playing with different poses and the subtle nuances of body language. You can see in the smaller thumbnail on the first page the Vimy Ridge Canadian Memorial. I loved the clean, powerful imagery of the monument in front of the Canadian maple leaf. I opted not to include it because I didn’t want to […]
I came very near to using the background soldier in this first sketch. I liked the strong and compassionate look, and the rifle pointing upward in a relaxed and ready, but non confrontational manner. It felt more Canadian to me. I could not have successfully completed this project without help. I was fortunate enough to […]
Two more from my sketchbook. Modern day terrorism demanded new skills from our soldiers. Urban settings became the new battleground. In the first sketch I was looking for a way to show how our soldiers adapted to these new warfare tactics. On the second page I’m beginning to think of the larger composition as a […]
In recognition of Remembrance day next week, I thought I’d open my sketchbook for the next 7 days and show the process behind my military painting ‘Canada’s Proud’. These are very rough sketches for my purposes only, so the emphasis is on composition and subject matter, not drawing accuracy and detail. I use a thicker […]