Pardon My Trench is a combination traditional illustration and Photoshop practice piece. I went to an airshow a few years ago and took a photo of a plane and two reenactors, one of which appeared to have just cracked a joke. The image stuck with me, and I decided to do a line sketch to capture what it might have been like during WWI, on the airfield without crowds of people snapping photos. While I was pleased with the finished sketch, I decided to take the photo into Photoshop and see if I could make a similar effect digitally, and better capture the subtle humor of the soldier. I had to custom make a few brushes to mimic charcoal and graphite, and decided to add color to the two soldiers to help draw attention to them rather than the biplane. The final piece ended up with a lithographic quality to it, reflecting a media that would have been available during this time period. My passion for history fuelled this experiment, and someday I hope to create a series in this style.
