Sunday 7 September 2008

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.

5 comments:

Keith Kerstetter said...

Looks great!

Mukpuddy said...

It looks awesome bro! Thanks for the comment on the ol' seacow episode! Yip we most certainly got the Young One here in NZ dude, we all grew up on a steady diet of British comedy!!

Kev Levell said...

That's the business! I really love the natural media feel you've got. Great stuff!

Chris Kennett said...

Love it! I'm glad you chose a more stylised version of the plane, it just fits so perfectly with the whole tone of the piece.

Thanks so much for your kind words about the alpha monsters and I love your idea about getting the kids to draw their own takes. Although we discovered tonight my daughters preferred medium is lipstick on carpet!

damon said...

rad stuff

love your style