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I started Strange Flight In the summer of 2008. After making several small paintings over the course of two years, I felt ready to try something larger and more challenging. My goal was to make a vast landscape painting on a scale several times the size of anything I had done before.

This painting was made with Corel Painter X, a Wacom tablet and Photoshop. I do all my drawing in Corel Painter. I use photoshop mostly for color correction.

Here is a picture of the pen tablet I use. This device takes the place of a mouse and allows me to draw on the computer.

I wanted Strange Flight to have a smooth look with no brushstrokes showing. The image below shows some of the brushes and settings I used.

My initial idea was to make a vast landscape with an airplane as the focus. I used a picture I took out of an airplane window as a temporary background. The picture only had a few parts I liked so I ended up blending another picture into it. What you see below is a mix of 2 images along with some preliminary painting.

I sketched out some ideas for the shape of the airplane. I also wanted to include some abstract 2d elements. At first I made the 2D elements into a border coming out of the painting.

After a lot of painting I had a much better idea of how everything would be arranged. The abstract 2D shapes were now 3D. I also made the airplane, clouds and sky more solid. I was still considering different shapes and sizes for the buildings at this point.

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