How to Paint a Jet

Painting a jet plane is a fun and challenging project.

Jet aircraft make excellent subjects for paintings with their aerodynamic and streamlined contours. The lines of jets are aesthetically pleasing and, as any school kid knows, jets are cool. They're fun to draw and paint. There are many different types of jets to consider painting. Accurately detailed paintings of historical and contemporary jets help to visually document aviation history. A successful jet painting depends on good drawing. Jets are complex pieces of machinery that must be drawn in proper perspective and proportion. A convincing painting of a jet is based on well observed and measured draftsmanship.

Things You'll Need

• Camera
• Pencil
• Drawing paper
• Model jets
• Artist's paints
• Paint brushes
• Smock
• Canvas
• Gesso
• Sandpaper

Instructions

1. Observe as many jets in real life as you can. Visit aviation museums and airports. Study the structure of jets and sketch pictures of them. Take photographs of the planes for later study. Look at reference photos of jet aircraft in books and on the Internet. Get a model of the jet you want to paint and observe it from all angles. Practice drawing the plane realistically from different perspectives.

2. Using your preparatory drawings and photos, finish a final compositional drawing. Make the drawing the same size as the final painting. Show the jet in the air, surrounded by clouds. Frame the jet with landforms on the distant ground. Draw the contoured outline of the jet. Block in the basic forms using triangles and cylinders. Use foreshortening to correctly render the jet in perspective. Add the details in the body of the aircraft.

3. Prepare a canvas by priming it with gesso. Apply three coats. Make each layer thinner by adding water. Sand the surface smooth between coats. Transfer your finished drawing onto the canvas. Lay in broad flat washes of thinned paint to block in the negative space around the jet. Use blue hues for the sky, and earth colors for the ground.

4. Establish a light source in your painting and keep it consistent for correct placement of cast shadows. Use graded washes to define the volumes of the jet. Set up the value structure of your picture with the first coats of underpainting. Modulate the tones of paint to suggest the reflection of light off the jet's metallic surface and the glass over the cockpit.

5. Use large brushes to paint in the background, using atmospheric perspective to make it recede into space. Use a pointed brush or a filbert to paint in the components of the plane, including insignia or logos. Follow the contours of the jet with your brushstokes building up a volumetric affect. Fill in the details of the jet using your smallest brushes. Add in the final accented highlights last of all.

Tips & Warnings

• Look hard at the jet, your level of drawing is determined by your level of observation.

• Wear ear protection when jets are landing and taking off, they're really loud.

References

• Google Books: How to Draw and Paint Aircraft Like a Pro
• Google Aircraft: How to Draw Aircraft Like a Pro
• Drago Art: How to Draw a Fighter Jet

Resources

• Aviation Art: My Latest Efforts