WWI Aviation books cover art

[Bruno Stachel]

Originally Posted by jastaflieger

The cover of the child's book by Gene Gurney is especially nostalgic for me as it was the first book on the topic that i ever actually owned, and still have it with me- i guess it is my rosebud! no matter how many other books i manage to collect: so Dan , Greg and others what would be your rosebud from your collections? Rosebud referring to Citizen Kane remembering his sled, despit all of his other lifetime of wealth and power.

Thank you jastaflieger. Flying Acess of World War I was my first aviation book as well. I ordered it from a catalog provided by one of my grade school teachers. Unfortunately my copy is long gone.

Great thread guys. Please keep 'em comming.

[FliegerJG1]

Originally Posted by dpolglaze

I have plenty more to come when I can get to it, including some more red triplanes for FliegerJG1.

Dan

Hi Dan...thanks for posting some more red triplanes! Such a difference in style....would make for an interesting piece on aviation art.

FliegerJG1

[dpolglaze]

Well, I'm on vacation in the lovely Napa Valley of California, but I brought a few pictures just in case there was some down time.

one more triplane - the hardcover edition of They Fought for the Sky, by John T. McCoy


and the counterparts to the British Fighter unit books, these two also by Michael Roffe. They're front and back, so put back on the left and view side by side for the full effect:




Dan

[Kirk R. Lowry]

Originally Posted by dpolglaze

One more triplane - the hardcover edition of They Fought for the Sky, by John T. McCoy


Dan

Bonjour Dan!

I have a first edition copy of They Fought For The Sky by Reynolds but without the jacket which I had never seen before ... Merci pour ça!

Salut!
Kirk

[Rolex5513]

I really like those old Osprey covers.
Who is doing the new Osprey WWI covers?

[Gregvan]

Hi,

Osprey has one in-house artist on contract to do all the cover art for their "Aircraft of the Aces" and "Aviation Elite Units" titles. He is Mark Postlethwaite, a very well-respected British aviation artist. His WWI work may not always impress everyone, but he's a very hard-working and productive guy; Osprey has him doing F-15's one week, then Japanese "Bettys" the next week, and D.H.2's the next. Thus, he really has to crank these things out and cannot really do in-depth research (that's the author's responsibility) or spend months doing composition and revisions.

Jim Laurier has, I believe, done the cover art for the "Duel" titles and I've always really liked his stuff.

Greg

[Russell Smith]

Originally Posted by Gregvan

Hi,
Osprey has one in-house artist on contract to do all the cover art for their "Aircraft of the Aces" and "Aviation Elite Units" titles. He is Mark Postlethwaite, a very well-respected British aviation artist. His WWI work may not always impress everyone, but he's a very hard-working and productive guy; Osprey has him doing F-15's one week, then Japanese "Bettys" the next week, and D.H.2's the next. Thus, he really has to crank these things out and cannot really do in-depth research (that's the author's responsibility) or spend months doing composition and revisions.

Mark is a tremendously talented artist, but his Osprey covers, IMO, are not where one would see the best examples of his work. To further emphasize how prolific he is - in addition to being able to crank out work for Osprey at breakneck speed he also regularly produces his own WW2 themed aviation art originals and prints, and it is with these images that Mark's talent really shines. Many of his images are really stunning. He painted what is perhaps the best Dambusters painting that I've ever seen. Here is his site:
Posart.com - The Aviation Art of Mark Postlethwaite GAvA

Russ

[jastaflieger]

I would have to agree with both Greg and Russ, Mark's artwork is reall very, very nice and i offer two examples here: the Gotha piece was one that Mark sent to me about 1+yr ago to include in my book project and the Spitfire piece is the cover work from Flight Into Darkness: a book of several histroical fiction tales of WWII RAF action written by Wing Cdr Tom Neal and the book is illustrated throughout by Mark, i can highly recommend this book to everyone for the great stories and the wonderful artwork by Mark P. I believe the book can be ordered via his website .
I thought that the Gotha piece shows Mark's wonderful sense of using varying shades of light to highlight details in his artwork. He also knows his subject, for example notice the light on St Paul's Cathedral and one is , at least i am, to remember that in only a couple of decades that very catheral will be seen in a immortal photo, arising from a dense cloud of smoke surrounding it after an attack by the Luftwaffe.

[jastaflieger]

it seems i had some trouble getting my image files over to the post above,so here are the two images by Mark Postlewaite that i had mentioned

[Frederic Mason]

Talking of Osprey cover art, another fine artist is - Iain Wyllie - who did many of the early-mid series books. I admire his fresh spontaneous brushwork with dead-on color. FM