Lockheed P-38 Lightning

Our brief was to develop an accurate illustration of a Lockheed P-38 Lightning in perspective. The focus was on building a deeper understanding of both perspective and the workflow for taking a technical illustration of this kind to a high level of finish.

Process

The illustration began with a rough sketch to find a suitable angle (criteria for a good angle were: clear view of a majority of the plane, avoiding tangents, and ease of planning in perspective). This was followed by setting up an accurate perspective grid to match the angle of the chosen sketch, finding a true cube at the plane's location, then the construction phase.

Construction started with a flattened breakdown of the plane measurements on the ground plane, which was then extended up to the desired height and a vertical dimension measured out for the fuselage and engines. From this point I constructed the plane's primary and secondary forms from simplified shapes, found the angle of the wings, and once this simplified construction was in a satisfactory place I developed more complex forms to accurately reflect the reference. At this point I was ready to clean up the linework & add details.

I approached rendering in greyscale, with colour added using separate overlay layers set to Hard Light so I could work on the form non-destructively & tweak colours/layers of 'paint' without affecting the form. For my final touches I added logos & painted decorations, did some colour grading to increase the appeal, added colour variation and glow to sell the metal highlights more, and added subtle atmospheric scattering on the farther side of the plane to give it a bit more depth.