Bon Voyage Monsieur B.

Down to brass tacks as they say. Louis B has finally taken to the skies. Here's my rough underlay for the first image of his journey. I've placed a watercolour sky backdrop under the sketch to see how it sits for use in the final piece.

I was originally intending to do a triptych (France - channel - England) but as I sketch things out it may well turn out to be more like 5 or 6 illustrations. Unlike my normal way of working I'm trying not to plan things too rigidly with this mini projectette but see where the journey takes me.

I'm sure there is a book sequence with this topic...(I'm keeping this in mind when I thing of the dimensions for each illustration) in point of fact I see that the wonderful team of Alice & Martin Provensen have already been and done it with their children's book "The Glorious Flight: Across the Channel with Louis Bleriot". I'm avoiding looking at their work until I've finished my own. It will be really interesting to see how they interpreted the same events and characters.

I'm thinking it might be appropriate to tell the story of the journey in pictures alone, trying to capture that over cranked 'movie reel' flavour of old silent film footage. Maybe just have a suggestion of title cards or a narrator with a, "Now here is the plucky little French man Mr. Bleriot, about to embark on is aerial jaunt across the channel to England. Best of luck Monsieur, or should we say Bon Voyage, and we will have a cup of tea waiting for you." (this last delivered in stiff upper lip British tones).