Bon Voyage Monsieur B - final.

I'm pretty happy with how this has turned out. As I said, for once I haven't been too finicky over planning on this illustration. I just went where the image seemed to want to go. It looks like Louis seagull companion made the whole journey with him rather than hitching mid channel... the history books never record the co-pilot do they.

I must admit in my youth I was (OK still am) a bit of an aeroplane anorak (I never went so far as to plane spot though, only airshows and the odd book or two...I can handle the addiction :). Throughout I was fighting a desire to be accurate with Bleriot's plane but in the end I simplified and modified for the sake of what I hope is quirky clarity. For the interested the toy plane the French nipper is holding is very loosely based on the Antoinette IV which was flown by Hubert Latham, Bleriots rival for the channel crossing prize. He tried both before and after Bleriot's to fly the channel, both attempts had a soggy ending for unlucky Berty. The eagle eyed may spot that I have tweeked things slightly from how I depicted the plane and Louis B on the previous 'foggy' image so I'll have to bring that one up to date. Continuity is a never ending curse don't you find...? I did experiment with various handwritten lettering / digital text saying "Bon Voyage" in the space on the middle to bottom right of the image but it added nothing to the overall effect. I think this space is best left for copy text (my original intention) should I ever write a story/caption to go along with the image.