CH-53 Super Stallion

This piece was done prior to deployment for a neighboring unit fundraiser.  A pilot friend of mine asked for some help raising funds for his unit's ball and wanted to use my artwork as a selling point.  The results were exciting as roughly forty copies were sold in profit.  A few were customized with numbers on the nose of the aircraft and several encouraging comments came from the whole process.  I always feel like I am the one who walks away blessed when I'm given the chance to use my gift to help others.  Below you can see one of the pilots who honored my work amongst his career decor. 

Welcome Home!

After 6 months at sea, it's great to be home! And our return was just in time for Christmas 2016 (which was not the original timeline).  Deployments in the Marine Corps are dynamic compared to other branches of service. We pride ourselves in being able to perform all aspects of warfare (land, sea, air) in what we call the MAGTF (Marine Air Ground Task Force).  The Marines trade size and attrition for speed, flexibility, and skill. In its purest form you will find the Marine Corps infantry one of the leanest and fiercest forces on the planet.  The Corps' ability to quickly respond to just about any crisis in the world, and it's constant readiness to do so, is what inspired this next piece.

While deployed I interacted with the infantry units and witnessed the dedication and willingness to be propositioned first hand.  Below is the step by step of my recent work in commemoration of the Corps backbone, the United States Marine Rifleman.

From a photo reference, a pencil sketch on 11x14in watercolor board.

The first wash was put on to begin isolating the highlighted areas.

The focus here was to begin deepening the values for the rest of the shadows and weapon.

An additional layer to further darken the values.  This was probably the fourth or fifth wash, beginning to focus on the darkest values and shadows.

I used white gouache to highlight the finished 'white' areas.  The cheek, helmet and shoulder are the areas I tried to emphasize the sunlight.