Watercolors

[rcleary171]

Here is a monochrome study of a soldier's portrait.

 

[rcleary171]

Trench Portraits

 

[rcleary171]

 

[rcleary171]

Here's a test of my portraiture talents - who can name this famous person?

 

[MontyB]

Well this could be embarrassing but I will go with Eisenhower.

 

[senojekips]

Yeah,... Me too, probably because Ike is such a famous figure and instantly recognisable. The Scot in his Tammy, is also a very good character study.

Your style reminds me of the art in a series of books bought out after WWII and sold by the Returned Servicemen's League. As a kid we had a couple of dozen of then, but somewhere along the way they were misplaced or sold off when we moved.

 

[rcleary171]

Well this could be embarrassing but I will go with Eisenhower.

Yep - it was my attempt at Ike. I'm glad you saw the resemblance.

 

[senojekips]

Yep - it was my attempt at Ike. I'm glad you saw the resemblance.

I feel that it was an excellent representation of him especially in his later years.

 

[MontyB]

Yep - it was my attempt at Ike. I'm glad you saw the resemblance.

Oddly enough it was the eyes and neck that gave it away along with the shape of the face, the one area that had me guessing though was the hair I though Eisenhower in later life had a "higher forehead".

 

[rcleary171]

Oddly enough it was the eyes and neck that gave it away along with the shape of the face, the one area that had me guessing though was the hair I though Eisenhower in later life had a "higher forehead".

Good observation - it's these little details that will make or break a portrait.

 

[rcleary171]

Here's an impressionistic sketch of a WWI British Captain.

 

[rcleary171]

This is an interesting piece of WWI armor.

 

[MontyB]

It is a WW1 tank drivers protective face mask.
Drivers of the early WWI tanks outside view was via vision slits. Unlike WWII and later tanks where there was either a thick replaceable bullet proof block of glass behind the slit, most early tanks did not have that and rounds and fragments could easily blind the driver. This gave some protection against light fragments.

The top half was leather and the bottom section chain mail.

 

[rcleary171]

Thanks for the information - (I see that I got the color of the leather part wrong). A very interesting piece of equipment.

 

[MontyB]

Yep, it looked like a retro step but it was a crude solution to problem.

It would have been difficult to get the colours right not knowing what it was, when I first saw one I thought it was an armoured gas mask.

 

[rcleary171]

A quick study of WWI trench soldiers.

 

[MontyB]

It amazes me that anyone could spend any length of time in those masks, trench warfare must have been absolute terror once gas was in use.

Oh and your colours are not all that far out with the mask...

 

[Zakhar2]

hi! you can draw the Soviet military if it is possible for you, certainly?

 

[rcleary171]

hi! you can draw the Soviet military if it is possible for you, certainly?

I looked back over my archives and I found two sketches; one of a WWI Russian soldier and one of a Soviet soldier fighting in Stalingrad.

 

[rcleary171]

Three medics with a stretcher