Paintings

Baseline Painting

JJ VanDerGinst “Military Demonstration” 

9” x 12”, Acrylic paint on canvas, 2025

My idea for my first painting was to make a F/A-18 Super hornet, a fighter jet used by the U.S. Navy. I got the idea to create the painting because of airshows that I go to. I got my inspiration from these past airshows with these specific jets flying overhead and snapping pictures of them. 

I started my process of this painting by painting the background of the canvas a light blue for the sky and then traced the picture of the jet onto the canvas. Once that was done I used various colors ranging from white, light/dark gray, and black. I mostly used flat tipped brushes for straight lines. When I was done with the paint part I used a paint marker to make the small details like numbers and some different color variation. 

My intention was to create a fighter jet using a reference image and get it to look remotely close to the actual picture. The meaning of this painting is showing the power of the U.S. Navy and military in general. I hope the audience can know what it is just by looking at it. 

The most difficult thing for me to do during this painting would be doing the shading. Getting to blend all those colors right was my biggest fault in the painting. I tried my best trying to shade but I also asked my teacher for tips on how to blend the colors together. If I were to start this entire painting over I would change the colors of it. I think the primary gray of the jet was a little too dark and just didn’t look like the color from the picture.