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 to be sure that I made no mistakes in uniforms, machinery, weapons, equipment etc., because military purists and historians would be all over me if I goofed anything. I’m happy to say I got whatever is portrayed in this piece right!
Although I did get a very ominous phone call from the Canadian Military after I released the final painting asking who helped me and where I got my information, reference material and so on for this piece. There was particular emphasis on wanting to know how I got the technical accuracy of the Leopard Tank kicking up dust in the background of my painting. For some reason I should not have had access to something included on it at that time. If you are Tanker, or a tank enthusiast, perhaps you can enlighten me. I’d love to know.
Also, you may have noticed the Maple Leaf in the background of sketch page 2 is sideways. I felt that it held more significance this way as it was pointing forward to the future of peacekeeping, and fit very well compositionally in the final image. It was, however, brought to my attention that this is how the flag is presented on the coffin of a fallen soldier. I received many emails and phone calls thanking me for the subtle imagery honouring those who have fallen. I cannot take credit for that or claim that was my intent, but I am absolutely pleased that it holds such powerful significance.
Anyways, thanks for taking the time to check out some of my concept sketches. They are no more than rough thumbnails, but I hope you found something interesting hidden amongst them.
You can see the final painting here.
#remembranceday, #canadianmilitary, #soldiers, #blueputtees, #newfoundlandregiment, #afghanistan, #WW1, #WW2, #newfoundlandsoldier, #canadiansoldier, #poppy,#leopardtank
