Approaching storm

This is the final completed of a piece I have posted related development for in the past. It is commission for a patient client since it is horribly late in delivery.

I titled the piece "Approaching storm" for two reasons. First there is a weather system approaching which promises to bring rainy weather to the area in a few hours. Second the sky is crisscrossed with the contrails of a recent bomber raid and the fighters that went up to intercept them. This is the storm that will eventually engulf all of the Third Reich.  This piece is set roughly in early May of 1944 in Nazi Germany. The Luftwaffe has not yet been forced to abandon its airfields for the forests of Germany, but already the airfield is starting to show the signs of recent visits from USAAF fighters returning from their escort missions.

In the background can be seen the smoke burning fires denoting where aircraft, either Axis and Allied, have met their final demise, and yet in spite of all this carnage we still find two individuals able to spend sometime together and forget about the war even if for just a moment.

When I took this commission I had rather mixed feeling about it. I did not want create a piece that could be viewed as being supportive or sympathetic to the Nazi ideology, and yet I did not want to have the piece full of one-dimensional cardboard villains. In the end what I wanted to show was two individuals trying to maintain their sanity in the midst of the greatest conflict in recorded history.

The piece is done in my usual colored pencil, marker, technical pen and gouache on vellum finish Bristol Board. The image size is roughly 16"x 24". I will post more about this piece in the future.