LEARNING FROM THE MASTERS - How vintage model box art impacted my own artwork over the years.
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- čas přidán 8. 12. 2020
- Nothing was more inspirational to a young artist in the 1950s than model box art, and here's how those images affected my artwork years later.
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New (retired RCAF) viewer. I absolutely LOVE your work. My knees would shake looking at box art in the late 60s and 1970s. Thanks for making the channel. It is FANTASTIC! What a great find at Christmas!
Appreciate the comment Rob and thanks for watching the channel. Happy Holidays!
I remember buying Revell's model kit of the USS Ranger purely for the dramatic box art by John Steel. Good to finally learn the artist's name.
Thank You Mike, you are great!, what an artist!!!... details, composition, backgrounds, view angles, colors... fantastic!
Many thanks Piero!
Another great video. What is amazing is how vibrant all the colors are on the old box tops are.
Thanks John, and yes, those colorful illustrations certainly did the job!
A model maker when younger, I appreciate that past decades took a more dedicated approach to model box art and that some of these models must be really collectable just for their art.
Same here, and thanks for watching.
Fantastic love the colors Thanks for posting
Sweet..I love these
Another great one Mike.
Really nice to get the back/rest of the story on the artwork. Those kit covers bring back a lot of good memories. Thank you!!!!
So glad you enjoyed the video!
Your work on these videos is so entertaining, educational and just plain great fun to watch and rewatch. Thank you.
Appreciate the comment, thanks!
Loved it!
Mike, that is awesome the way you incorporate your box art influences into commission pieces. Not only does it look amazing, but it's also a tip of the hat to the guys that you looked up to and in some cases helped you on your aviation art journey. By the way, I'd buy that Revell F-107A just to have your art work!
Thanks Adam!
I was privileged to view the F-107A at the Pima Air Museum near Tucson AZ. Gorgeous.
This is excellent.
Thanks Tom!
Very interesting and well done!
Great video Mike. As a lifelong modeler and vintage kit collector, this one is very near and dear to my heart.
Thanks Glenn, and nice to be able to finally share these stories after all these years.
Beautiful and instructive video again!
You mentioned the monumental Bob McCall. I do think that he would deserve a full long range video!
Here you go. Enjoy! - czcams.com/video/pvDVjbEOPI8/video.html
Great content and explanation of thought process during creativity. I enjoyed the use of the word diaphanous, and that inspired me to "look it up". Always a treat and education to experience your summaries. Top drawer!
Thanks Kent, and 'appreciate the comment. Hope you're having nice Holidays!
Great video!!!
Great work. The Beverley is my favourite. As model box art I would impulse buy just to look at it.
Many thanks!
Very nice artwork. Never realized how it was done, background first. Thanks for posting this history lesson.
Glad you enjoyed the video!
Fantastic episode! Beautiful artwork and theory behind it.
Many thanks!
Mort Kunstler is also know for his Civil War art too.
Good point, thanks!
The operating name of United was "United Air Lines" until about 1974 when the tri-colored cheatlines replaced the Friendship color scheme. The makeover included changing the operating name to "United Airlines" as it is today. The legal name of United stayed as "United Air Lines, Inc" until the Continental Airlines merger. After the merger was completed, the company was legally renamed "United Airlines, Inc". So the building in the back predates 1974 and no one changed the lighted signage as it probably cost too much and was unnecessary.
Fabulous! Great detailed explanation on the airline's name, which all makes sense in the ever-changing world of commercial carriers. Many thanks!
tistThis was entertaining AND informative. Mort Kunstler was especially interesting as I know his work from his Civil War paintings. And he is the only one of these artists who have there own Wikipedia page.
Mike, I still don't get you illustrators. I'm "fine artist" and took an illustration class at the University of Cincinnati -- the other UC -- I didn't do well in that class despite the fact I was really good at 2D renderings of 3D. I did a rendering of a bathroom and there was a plant in the illustration that cast a shadow in such a way that it "confused" the image so I moved the shadow and de-emphasized it. The tub and fixture were clear but it drove the professor nuts. He asked me why I did it that way and I said that it confused the faucet with shadow so the faucet wasn't clear so I moved it. There were students who gasped literally when I said that. The prof was livid. Now I would have just said something smart like, "there was too much data," which would probably worked then. (One of the problems with college art classes is that you have to get really good at the BS to defend your point of view.)
As a "fine artist" -- I hate that term -- I don't see the problem with the illustrator moving the cockpit off center line or bending the tail fins so that one could see NASA on it. That approaches what art does better over a photograph. In these model illustration, there are things going on in part in what Picasso was doing or Cezanne. Some of this also reminds me of stuff in comic art, too. The thing they were going for was the visceral excitement and beauty of the aircraft which has to go beyond photographic adherence. Like Frank Frazetta depiction of men and women are over the top, but I've spent hours in my younger days looking at them with the same fascination of looking at Da Vinci.
I guess the point of this long note is to ease up on these illustrator or instead of seeing their poetic effort as flaws but as something approaching "real art" -- another term I don't care for either.
Appreciate the comment, and agreed on categorizing our artwork. I went through similar moments in my fine art painting classes. However, to me personally it's all about how the art is to be used. A gallery or museum exhibit demands different criteria for art than a magazine cover, movie poster, or model box top. Totally different requirements. Then there's this quote from a favorite art teacher regarding the issue of fine art vs. commercial illustration: "Commercial art is bought before it's made, and fine art is bought after it's made. Good art will always be good art."
Very interesting video and thank you for creating it. Would you know whom to contact with regard to submitting artwork for present day kits?
Thanks for watching, and I wouldn't know who to contact other than the Advertising Agencies those model companies use. Different industry today.
@@celebratingaviationwithmik9782 thank you, I will try to track a few down.
So when I got to your B-52 art work something went off in my head. Like maybe I saw that before on a model box? Well that was in December and I went on to other things a few minutes later. So roll the time to today, March 29, 2021, and lacking anything new to read, I went into a closet and randomly pulled one of my old aviation magazines from a storage box. And what did I pull out was a pristine copy of the Airpower July 2006 Volume 36 No.7 issue. The cover was your B-52 painting. Well sorta. The cover has it climbing where the one in this video has the B-52 in more or less level flight. It looks like you used the above painting on the contents on page 4.
So what's the background on the climbing version of the B-52? What came first. Was it in the same medium? The sky colors on the magazine are a lot softer and not as vivid. Was that the result of the printing process or did you change it up some when painting it? And which version came first. I think the magazine cover was more dramatic.
I still miss Airpower and Wings. Funny, when I read you editorial just now, I hear your voice saying the words.
Wonderful comment, Jim, thanks, and here are the answers to your great questions! The B-52 painting as it appears at 06:35 in this video is the original oil-on-canvas artwork, presented to the U.S. Air Force Documentary Art Program in Washington DC in 1994. As owner of all rights, I'm able to legally use that art any way I want, and we morphed the bomber and background into the July 2006 magazine cover to highlight the Dennis R. Jenkins B-52 feature story in that issue. Appreciate the the kind words on the magazines, and 'hope you're enjoying the channel - today's video version in a sense!
@@celebratingaviationwithmik9782 Cool! So it was the same painting and you some how did a cut and paste of the original. What I enjoyed about the magazine was each photo caption told a bit of the story. I always wondered where you managed to get such a huge library of photos. Nice thing about those magazines about old aircraft is that in five or ten years down the road, the planes are still old, and but the content is still good. And yeah, the channel has a lot of look and feel of the magazines. Plus the models bring back a lot of memories of the planes I tried to build ... some turned out ok, some were disasters, but all good.
Incidently, Mort Kunstler’s last name means “Artist” in German…
I've been thinking recently about the artist's freedom of expression to depict an aircraft on the box top, using somewhat unnatural colors or perspectives to great effect and appreciated by all, but...hmmm....that approach does not necessarily sit well with onlookers when the model builder has used similar exaggerated effects to evoke his personal impressions. How many of us have been guilty of a rather hypocritical double standard in judging someone's build? ...Awesome, far out box top and love the green sky, but "that isn't how the model is supposed look"..."he went overboard on the paint job"..."I'm not into that kind of finish". In the era of Covid where we are "boxed in" more than enough, a little more artistic expression might be a good thing, especially if it was good enough for the box art.
Really excellent point! It's also an amazing experience to revisit these images as adults so many decades after we first saw them in hobby shops. Thanks for your comment!
Silly maybe, wondering if then we all could enter the dream with pencil and paper..today, cg design is fun but cold, lifeless...no romance. The key to so much is idle dreaming. Thatswhenreachingfor the stars means to me
Agreed John, and thanks for the comment!