Shipbucket

I posted this earlier in the FD Scale forum, without realizing that it was not up to the standards, so I went back and improved on it. I would really like some critique so that I can improve my work moving forward.

The Pitcairn PA-5 Mailwing was an airmail plane used in the US during the 1920's, and was the first aircraft acquired by Eastern Airlines in 1926.



The US Navy took 6 Sopwith Camels for Testing in 1917, this was one that was stationed on the USS Texas.

_________________
- Dan

Work List:
Eastern Air Lines Fleet History
Around the world challenge
US Attack Aircraft History

Not a bad start at all on the Mailwing.

My comments for improvements are;
Remove the overlapping pixel on the bottom line of the lower wing, that will show the curve better.
Same with some of the panel line details, you should never have zig-zag joins between the lines
Add shading, I don't know the cross-section of the fuselage but I'm guessing at least the top decking will be curved so the upper surfaces should be shaded in a lighter shade. Lower edge should be a darker shade, probably no more than 1-pixel thick in both cases, the engine cowling perhaps 2-pixels thick.
Add shadow beneath the upper wing and the tailplane
The engine and propeller look perfect.
The wheels don't seem to be symmetrical from the top and bottom sides, I know its hard with small wheels but try to avoid the steep stepped effect if you can, for example look at the wheels on the Camel.
Maybe add some more detail on the tailskid, the Camel skid can give you inspiration here too.

This looks a long list but its a really a case of finishing touches.

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Hood's Worklist
English Electric Canberra FD
Interwar RN Capital Ships
Super-Darings
Never-Were British Aircraft

Oh my... here we go again.

In February You posted the previous version of this drawing (http://shipbucket.com/forums/viewtopic. ... 90#p187190), I commented on it and somehow You managed to ignore almost everything I wrote except for the engine and wing struts. (http://shipbucket.com/forums/viewtopic. ... 03#p187203)

(on the enlarged elements black has been replaced with green, double black lines are marked red, everything else is marked blue)

0) As it seems, not everything that's supposed to be black (contour) actually is black.
1) It still has no shading except for the bottom part of the wings. If I were to believe these modeller's plans (http://www.airplanesandrockets.com/airp ... 0x1700.jpg) then shade along rear-bottom part of the fuselage is not necessary (because that part has rectangular cross-section), but it definitely IS needed along the top contour and below the wings and horizontal stabilizer (that is: that area of the fuselage upon which they cast shadow)
2) Engine and propeller - engine "looks perfect" as Hood put it, because it's my work, but propeller has still same faults as before - first of all, propeller blades are not symmetrical - it's two-bladed prop, so the blades simply must have identical contour - yours not only have different contour (and width) but are also of different length plus the have double black lines - tips ought to be 1-pixel thick (that part was actually better on previous version). And what's that (double-black-lined) thing on top of the propeller hub?
3) WHEELS! First of all, they are not symmetrical. But what's most important - THEY ARE STILL ALL BLACK (that is: "multiple black line"). The one and only way to draw rubber tyre is: black contour (1 pixel) - grey filling (the rubber - as wide as necessary) - black contour (1 pixel). Doing them they way You did is completly, absolutely, utterly, indisputably unacceptable. At least on Shipbucket.
4) This is verbatim copy of the point 5) from my previous critique of your drawing: Even a passing look on a photograph would tell You that fairing behind the cockpit doesn't create a flat surface with the fuselage, but it's a bulge "standing out" of it;
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/ ... ton_DC.jpg
5) I believe that leading edge and trailing edge on bottom wings were straight - way You draw them makes them looks somewhat elliptical.
6) I suggest this rigging I marked purple should be made in some shade that stands out bit better from background.
7) Hood already pointed out that, and so did I ten months ago: http://shipbucket.com/styleguide#21
7a) and looking at the photographs makes me think that these two lines are actually flight control lines
8) Why is this panel line ending in the middle of nowhere?
9) Indeed, the tail skid could be made better.
10) Could You decide on thickness of these struts? Are they 3 or 4 pixel thick? (contour-color-contour or contour-color-color-contour) And You could try to draw the places where contours of several of them overlap bit cleaner.
11) Leading edge of the vertical stabilizer could be made more smooth, esp. in the bottom part.
12) Also, the drawing misses some small details, especially on the front fuselage etc. (http://www.flugzeuginfo.net/acimages/pi ... 895_kp.jpg)

Hood, thanks for the notes.

Eswube, thanks again for sharing your notes. I will do better to heed them this time, and really improve my work.

I think a lot of the errors I am getting are based on how I draw. I don't have access to MS Paint as a Mac user, so I am using Sketch, which is a tool that is for UI prototyping. I draw the aircraft as a vector image, then export it to Adobe Illustrator so that I can remove the anti-aliasing, and then I try to clean up the resulting .png as much as possible, pixel by pixel.

_________________
- Dan

Work List:
Eastern Air Lines Fleet History
Around the world challenge
US Attack Aircraft History

Dude, just use Photoshop. With the right settings it's a really powerful and straightforward pixel art tool.

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USN components, camouflage colors, & reference links (World War II only)

Hopefully this is an improvement?

_________________
- Dan

Work List:
Eastern Air Lines Fleet History
Around the world challenge
US Attack Aircraft History

Well, this is an improvement, but You're still not there.

1) There are still some double black lines (I didn't noticed all of them, sorry - but I'd say YOU should take care of searching for them ),
2) Now in turn there are som places where the black is missing.
2a) And that circle separating rubber from central (metal) part of the wheel needs to be outlined in black too - not mentioning that now this wheel is more-or-less properly circular at the top, but square-ish at the bottom.
3) Please, check how exactly these lines go - and they need to be straight lines, not waves.
4) These need to be properly straight lines too, so the number of pixel in each "step" should be regular (not necessarily identical, due to limitations of the style and pixel sizes, but forming certain regular pattern).
5) IMHO the leading edge should form a one line all along, without that "step"
6) Try to look and eliminate such heavy corners.
7) Shading... on top there's a small tutorial that perhaps will help You understand the idea of FD shading a bit - mind that You shouldn't take it too literally as it's only an simplified example and I haven't really bothered to check the exact fuselage shape of this plane.
Btw. try to check wether the "ribs" on the fuselage are actually running so randomly, or should they be more parallel?

And general advice: most common way of drawing FD (SB too) drawings is based on tracing the properly-scaled source drawing. But literal tracing is not the way to make a good (or even decent) drawing, because during scaling etc. the source drawing will typically become slightly distorted (because it needs to fit into fewer pixels). Therefore point is not to literally "draw (follow) what is there (on the source drawing)" but "what should be there".

Okay, did my best to make the changes you outlined. I also took some of those techniques and made this:

_________________
- Dan

Work List:
Eastern Air Lines Fleet History
Around the world challenge
US Attack Aircraft History

That 757 is nice.
As for the Mailwing... I have one question: what's Your definition of "straight line" and of "circle"?

Thanks!. Do you think the Sopwith and 757 would be ready to move to to the FD Scale aircraft thread?

I straightened the panel lines, because they got screwed up when I removed the anti-aliasing from the original vector file. As for the control cables near the tail, I did my best to straighten them out, but according to the photos you linked, the bottom one has a 90 degree turn into the horizontal stabilizer, tried to capture that as best I could.

As far as the wheel, I caught my mistake after I posted that, and just fixed it best I could. Its not 100% circular, but I don't know if I can get it any better.

_________________
- Dan

Work List:
Eastern Air Lines Fleet History
Around the world challenge
US Attack Aircraft History