Drawing Aircrafts

The Art of Drawing Airplanes
Gregory A. Goodwin
A Seven Step Process for Drawing Realistic Airplanes
All images and text © 2016 By Gregory A. Goodwin
All Rights Reserved
To my wife and children for always loving and supporting this airplane junkie.
Table of Contents
Preface
Lesson 1: Scaffolding
Scaffolding Example for Drawing an Airplane
Using your Artist Vision
Review of Scaffolding
Lesson 2: Seven Steps to Drawing Airplanes
Introduction
Step 1: Draw a Scaffold Based on a 3-View Drawing
Step 2: Draw a Foreshortened Reference Grid (FRG)
Step 3: Transfer the Scaffold onto the FRG
Step 4: Use Projection to Adjust the Scaffold
Step 5: Outline and Shape the Fuselage
Step 6: Outline and Shape the Wings and Tail
Step 7: Clean up and Final Details
Summary
Lesson 3: Drawing a Scaffold from a 3-View Drawing
The Reference Grid
Scaffold Example 1: Supermarine Spitfire
Scaffold Example 2: The F-86 Sabre
Transferring the Scaffold onto a FRG
Summary
Lesson 4: Drawing the Foreshortened Reference Grid
Introduction
Cartesian Coordinates: Drawing Three Dimensionally
Using an Oval to Foreshorten Lines
Using an Oval to Draw the FRG
How Long is the Z Axis?
Understanding the Aspect Ratio
Aspect Ratio and the Foreshortened Z Axis
Three Simple Rules for Foreshortening the Z Axis
Adding the Z Axis to the FRG
Summary
Lesson 5: Drawing the FRG in Perspective
The Oval in Perspective
What is Perspective?
Drawing with Perspective Lines
Using Perspective to Draw an Airplane
Human Central and Peripheral Vision
Drawing with Perspective Lines the Right Way
Zoom vs. Wide Angle Views
The Oval in Perspective Part II
Drawing the Reference Grid in Perspective
A Method for Drawing the FRG
Drawing the Z axis
Convergence of Lines around the Z axis
Summary
Lesson 6: Transferring the Scaffold and Adjusting it Using Projection
Introduction
Review of the Spitfire Scaffold
Step 2: Drawing the Spitfire FRG
Step 3: Transfer the Spitfire Scaffold to the FRG
Step 4: Adjusting the Spitfire Scaffold Using Projection
Review of the F-86 Sabre Scaffold
Step 2: Drawing the F-86 FRG
Step 3: Transferring the F-86 Scaffold to the FRG
Step 4: Adjusting the F-86 Scaffold Using Projection
Summary
Lesson 7: Outlining and Shaping
Introduction
Step 5: Outlining and Shaping the Spitfire Fuselage
Shaping the Fuselage: Drawing the Cross-Sections
Shaping the Fuselage: Drawing the Silhouette
Step 6: Shaping the Spitfire Wings and Tail
Shaping the Wings and Tail: Drawing the Airfoils
Shaping the Wing and Tail: Drawing the Spitfire Airfoils
Step 5: Outlining and Shaping the F-86 Sabre Fuselage
Step 6: Outlining and Shaping the F-86 Wings and Tail
Summary
Lesson 8: Drawing the Piper Cub
Putting it All Together
A Closer Look
Step 1: Draw a Scaffold based on a 3-View Drawing
Step 2: Draw the FRG
Step 3: Transfer the Scaffold to the FRG
Sketching the Piper Cub
Shading, Light, and Reflection
The J-3 Grasshopper
Drawing a Spinning Propeller
Lesson 9: Drawing the P-51D Mustang
A Classic WWII Fighter
A Closer Look at the Mustang
Step 1: Draw a Scaffold Based on a 3 View Drawing
Sketching the Mustang
Drawing Bare Aluminum
Checkertail Mustang
Lesson 10: Drawing the F-4 Phantom II
Introduction
A Closer Look at the F-4E Phantom
Sketching the Phantom II
Composition
Using Thumbnail Sketches
Lesson 11: Drawing the Sukhoi Su-27
Fourth Generation Fighters
A Closer Look at the SU-27 Flanker B
Sketching the Flanker
Drawing Glass Canopies
Russian Knights
Epilogue
Preface
This book has been a labor of love of mine over the past several years, and I have to
acknowledge all of those who have contributed in various ways to its creation. Probably the
earliest influence on my artistic talents was my paternal grandmother, Greta. If there is a gene
for artistic skill, it was surely passed through her to my father and me. She and her sister were
talented painters. I still have vivid memories of the art lessons she gave me on her visits with
my family. I am also indebted to the many great artists who have inspired me over the years:
Robert Taylor, Keith Ferris, R.G. Smith, William Phillips, Fredrick Remington, John Singer
Sergeant, Winslow Homer, Edward Hopper, Tom Lea, and many more. I can’t count the hours
I have spent pouring over their amazing paintings. Finally, I must thank my parents, family,
and friends whose love and support have made me who I am.
Lesson 1: Scaffolding
As a young, aspiring artist, I spent many happy hours copying pictures of airplanes. I
would practice drawing them over and over until I could do them from memory. With an image
to copy, I didn’t have to think about how to position and foreshorten all the parts of the
airplane. The image showed me exactly what it should look like. Something that always
frustrated me was that I didn’t have any way to figure out what the aircraft would look like from
other points of view - points of view for which I didn’t have a picture.
That’s why I developed the method described in this book. It is an intuitive process for
rendering an airplane accurately from any point of view. The foundation of this method
involves creating something I call a scaffold. The scaffold is made of simple lines and shapes
that show you how to accurately foreshorten and align the parts of an airplane in your
drawing. The process of using a scaffold to do a drawing is called scaffolding.
Scaffolding Example for Drawing an Airplane

Below is an example of a scaffold I have created to draw a WWII Japanese Zero fighter.
You can see that it is made of simple geometric shapes. Though it resembles and airplane, it
doesn’t look like a Zero just yet.
My scaffold shows me how to foreshorten and align the parts of the airplane. By using it
as a guide, I am able to refine the shapes of the wings, tail, and other parts of the airplane as
you can see in the image below.
Finally, I erase the scaffold and add details and shading for the finished drawing – the
beautiful Mitsubishi A6M Zero Fighter.
Using your Artist Vision

In this book I use a concept I call artist vision. Artist vision is the artist’s superpower.
It may not be quite a cool as x-ray vision, but it comes close. Artist vision is what artists use to
visualize the final drawing on a page. If you’re a new artist, this can be the hardest part of
doing a drawing. Fortunately with practice it gets easier. A scaffold is something that artists
use to help their artist vision.
Look in any “how to draw” book and you’ll see some type of scaffolding technique. The
idea is to start with simple geometric shapes like lines, circles, or squares to approximate the
major parts of whatever you’re drawing. Then you fill in details and refine the shapes. No
matter what you are drawing, and no matter how good of an artist you are, scaffolding is a
technique that makes it easier. Below I’ve used scaffolding to draw a portrait.
In the first panel (A), I have drawn a simple stick figure to define the head, shoulder, and
arms. This is my scaffold. In the second panel (B), I have noted the shape of the hair, the
location of the eyes, nose, and mouth, and the shape of the torso. In the third panel (C), I
have refined details like the eyes, lips, and hair. Say, she’s kind of cute!
Starting with a scaffold is important because it is much easier to make corrections to a
simple stick figure than it is to a detailed drawing. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve spent
hours drawing something only to realize that it was too big or too small or too close to the edge
of the frame. The only thing to do at that point is start over. Ugh!
At first it can be hard to visualize the final drawing based on your simple scaffold.
That’s just something that takes practice, so don’t get discouraged if you have trouble at first.
I have faith in you because I know that you are no ordinary person. You are an artist, and you
have artist vision. This book will help your artist vision to grow stronger.
Review of Scaffolding
To review, scaffolding has several advantages:
· It helps you to visualize your final picture quickly.
· It enables you to spot errors or adjust your composition before you spend a lot of time
working on the drawing.
· It provides a step by step approach to drawing so that you will have more consistent
results.
Okay, now that you have an understanding of what I mean by scaffolding, let’s take a
closer look at how to apply it to drawing airplanes.
Lesson 2: Seven Steps to Drawing Airplanes
Introduction
So Grasshopper, what I am going to teach you is a seven-step process for drawing
airplanes. Although I describe this as a way to draw airplanes, you’ll find that it is just as
useful for drawing cars, boats, buildings, and any other three dimensional object you can
imagine.
This lesson will provide you with an overview of the seven steps. It will help you to
understand what you will do in each step, and the remaining lessons in the book will show you
how to do them.

My process for drawing airplanes starts with the creation of a scaffold using top and
side view drawings. These kinds of drawings are widely available and are called 3-view
drawings.
Below I have drawn a scaffold for the top and side views of the P-40B Warhawk. This
plane was made famous by the American Volunteer Group, also known as the Flying Tigers. I
have placed the side and top views on a reference grid and drawn my scaffold around them.
The reference grid will help me recreate my scaffold in perspective later on. The scaffold is
drawn with simple geometric shapes like lines and rectangles.
Step 2: Draw a Foreshortened Reference Grid (FRG)
In the second step, I create a three-axis reference grid in perspective. I call this a
foreshortened reference grid or FRG. This will help me recreate the scaffold in perspective.
The image below is my FRG.
Step 3: Transfer the Scaffold onto the FRG

Once I have drawn the FRG, I use it to recreate the scaffold using locations that
correspond to my reference grid drawn in step 1. The drawing below shows what the scaffold
looks like when transferred to the FRG.

After I transfer the scaffold to the FRG, I need to adjust the location of some of its parts.
Below I have projected the wing scaffold down and horizontal tail up a little.
With my scaffold drawn in perspective, I draw the outline of the fuselage and then shape
it by drawing some fuselage bulkheads as seen below.

In the image below, I have used my scaffold to draw the outlines of the wings and tail
and then shaped them by drawing the airfoils.
The last step involves erasing all the guides and adding final details to the drawing like
panel lines and markings. As you can see below, I have drawn it with the markings of the
Flying Tigers.
Summary
I hope you can see that these seven steps will enable you to draw any airplane from
any point of view. All you need is a 3-view drawing of the airplane. Some photographic
references are also helpful for getting all the details right. With practice, you can accomplish
all the steps in a freehand drawing.
Lesson 3: Drawing a Scaffold from a 3-View
Drawing
The Reference Grid
To create my scaffold, I first create a square reference grid. Since I usually have a
digital 3-view drawing of the aircraft I’m going to draw, I make the reference grid in Microsoft
PowerPoint and then size and position the airplane drawing inside the grid. The image below
is an example of a reference grid.
Three-view drawings are widely available in books and on the internet. Be aware that not all
3-view drawings are created equal. Some are definitely better than others. Take the time to
find good quality references for your drawing.
Scaffold Example 1: Supermarine Spitfire

Below is a 3-view drawing of a one of the most iconic fighters from WWII, the
Supermarine Spitfire. It is not just its beautiful design that makes the Spitfire such a beloved
airplane. The Spitfire holds a special place in the hearts of the British because of its role in the
Battle of Britain. After the defeat of France in 1939, the German Luftwaffe waged a bombing
campaign against Britain. About 2,500 RAF pilots, flying the Spitfire and other aircraft, held off
the German attackers. This led Winston Churchill to proclaim, “Never in the field of human
conflict was so much owed so many to so few.”
Starting with the top view scaffold, I place the top view drawing in the reference grid as
you can see below. I use a square reference grid because a square is easier to foreshorten
later when I draw the FRG.
Next, I create a scaffold using this top view as you can see in the image below. I’ve
used rectangles to represent the wings and tail and a line to represent the fuselage. The two
dashed lines indicate the widest part of the fuselage.
To help you see the scaffold more clearly, I have removed the top view in the image
below. You can also see my estimates of the locations of the scaffold lines relative to the
gridlines.
One thing you will notice about our scaffold is that the wingspan is longer than the
length of the fuselage. This is very typical for propeller driven aircraft. The opposite tends to
be true of fast jet aircraft where the wings can be quite a bit shorter than the fuselage.
How you draw your scaffold is up to you. The purpose of the scaffold is to have a
simple structure on which to make your finished drawing. For that reason, your scaffold should
be composed of straight lines and simple geometric shapes like rectangles or triangles.
I make my side view scaffold a little bit differently than the top view. That is because
from the top, most airplanes are symmetrical around the center line. From the side view,
however, they are usually not very symmetrical. Below is the side view of the Spitfire in a
reference grid. You will want to make sure that the side view drawing is sized the same as the
top view. If you don’t, the side and top view scaffolds won’t line up.
As you can see in the next image, I draw this side view scaffold using a line for the
fuselage and a rectangle for the vertical tail and rudder assembly. I have added dotted lines as
a reference for the top and bottom of the fuselage and the canopy. You can add as many or as
few of these reference lines as you like. In most cases, the side view scaffold will only require
one row of grid squares above and/or below the fuselage centerline.
Removing the side view drawing, you can see the scaffold clearly below. Again, you
can see how I have estimated the approximate location of each of the scaffold’s parts using
the reference grid. I will use these estimates when I transfer the scaffold to the FRG later.
Scaffold Example 2: The F-86 Sabre
The F-86 is an American beauty that became famous during the Korean War. It was the
first U.S. fighter jet to have swept wings. The look of this plane even inspired the design of
many automobiles in the 1950s. In a dive the Sabre could exceed Mach 1, and it boasted an
impressive 10 to 1 kill ratio over Russian made fighters during the Korean War. Below is a
3-view drawing of this famous jet. So, how would you draw a scaffold for an aircraft with swept
wings?
Below is my top view scaffold drawn on the reference grid. Notice that the F-86 fits
neatly inside of a square. Its fuselage length and wingspan are nearly the same.
Below is the scaffold with the top view removed. Use your eyeball to estimate the
location of key points so that you can reproduce this on a FRG.
And below is my side view scaffold. However you decide to draw your scaffold,
remember to keep it simple and base it on straight lines or simple geometric shapes.
In the next image I have removed the side view drawing. Look at my estimates for the
locations the scaffold parts and see if you would agree.
Transferring the Scaffold onto a FRG

In the next lesson I am going to show you how to draw the foreshortened reference
grid. The FRG is a drawing of the top view and side view reference grids in perspective.
Below is an example of a blank FRG.
Using the corresponding lines in the FRG, transferring the scaffold is not too difficult.
Just use your artist vision to estimate where the lines of the scaffold should be. Here’s what
the Spitfire scaffold looks like after transferring it to this FRG.
Below is the F-86 Sabre scaffold transferred onto another FRG. Do these scaffolds help
you to visualize these planes?
Summary
You may be thinking after seeing these scaffolds that they don’t look very much like the
airplanes on which they are based. Remember what I told you about artist vision. The key is
being able to visualize the final drawing based on your simple scaffold. That is something that
will get easier as your artist vision grows stronger.
Lesson 4: Drawing the Foreshortened Reference
Grid
Introduction
In this lesson I’m going to show you how to draw a foreshortened reference grid
orthographically, that is, without perspective. In the next lesson I’ll explain how to add
perspective. I’m going to use Cartesian axes to explain how to draw the FRG. If you’re not
familiar with them, the next section will tell you all you need to know.
Cartesian Coordinates: Drawing Three Dimensionally

Way back in 1637, almost 250 years before the first flight of the Wright brothers, a very
intelligent man by the name of René Descartes was laying in bed watching a fly walk across
the ceiling. The story goes that as he watched the fly moving about, it occurred to him that he
could describe the fly’s location using three coordinates or numbers. Now, René Descartes,
just like some rock stars today, decided he wanted to be called by a different name, and so he
signed his papers Renatus Cartesius. I’ll admit it’s not as cool as Sting or Slash, but back in
the 17th century it probably passed as a cool name. This is why we refer to his fly-inspired
coordinate system as the Cartesian coordinate system. The three coordinates are known
today as X, Y, and Z coordinates.
Two dimensions describe a flat plane like a piece of paper or a photograph. It has a
width (X axis) and height (Y axis), but no depth (Z axis). Look at the image below and you’ll
see what I’m talking about. The fly on the graph is described with two coordinates or numbers
(3,2) because it is three units over on the X axis and 2 units up on the Y axis (mathematicians
always list the X axis coordinate first and the Y axis coordinate second).
Let’s consider a point in three-dimensions: width, height, and depth. The picture below
shows a fly in three dimensions. It is three units over on the X axis, two units over on the Y
axis, and three units up on the Z axis. It is written as (3,2,3) because the coordinates are
always listed in the order of X, Y, then Z.
Something else you should notice in this three dimensional drawing is that the Y axis is
drawn shorter than the X axis. Artists call this foreshortening. Foreshortening refers to the
way that lines appear to shorten as they point towards (or away from) our point of view.
Why the geometry lesson? Because these geometric coordinates give us artists a
useful way to talk about drawing three dimensional objects. For example, the reference grid
can be thought of as an X-Y coordinate grid as in the image below.
Using an Oval to Foreshorten Lines

We need a tool to help us figure out how to foreshorten lines of equal length. The tool
we are going to use is an ellipse or oval. The image below illustrates what I mean. Imagine
the circle below is a pizza viewed from above. It is sliced into eight pieces. Each slice or line is
the same length. They are all equal to the diameter of the circle. Now imagine viewing the
pizza from one side (known as an oblique angle or obliquely). The oval on the right shows
you how the pizza would look from that point of view.
When viewed obliquely, you can see that the cuts are foreshortened to different
degrees. Cut C isn’t foreshortened at all. This is because cut C is perpendicular to our point
of view. Cut B is foreshortened a little and A, parallel to our point of view, is foreshortened the
most. When we see the oval as a foreshortened circle, any line through its center is the
foreshortened diameter of the circle. Next, I’ll show you how to use this principle to draw the
FRG.
Using an Oval to Draw the FRG

Below I have added a circle to the reference grid. Notice that the circle just touches the
midpoints of the sides of the square. These are called tangent points, and they are also
where the X and Y axes intersect the sides of the square. You should also notice that the X
and Y axes both mark the diameter of the circle.
To draw this foreshortened X-Y reference grid, we start by drawing an oval and finding its
center using its major and minor axes. It might help to imagine drawing a rectangle that is just
big enough to fit the oval inside. In the image below, you can see the major and minor axes are
parallel to the sides of the rectangle and intersect at its center.
Next, we will draw the Y axis. I always align the fuselage with the Y axis in this book.
This line simply needs to cross the center of the oval. The direction that it is drawn is entirely
up to the artist and should be based on how you want the final drawing of the plane to be
oriented. In the image below I have drawn the Y axis, but as you can see, it is not clear how
we should draw the X axis.
Recall that if we draw two lines parallel to the Y axis, we can use the tangent points to
get our X axis correctly aligned. The next image shows you what I mean.
Below I’ve added all four sides of our foreshortened square with the X and Y axes
drawn inside. You’ll also notice that I have drawn the Z axis. As it turns out, the minor axis of
the oval tells us how to orient the Z axis. You can see our oval is getting more useful by the
minute!
All that is left to do is to draw some gridlines which will subdivide each axis into four
even parts. An easy way to do that is to draw diagonals to find the centers of each of the four
smaller squares created by the X and Y axes. Using those intersections, you can draw the
minor gridlines as in the image below.
Below is our FRG so far. We have drawn the X-Y reference grid, and we know the
orientation of the Z axis. Throughout this book I will use the X-Y reference grid for the top view
scaffold. The next thing we need to do is to add a reference grid for our side view.
As you may have already guessed, I use the Y-Z reference grid for the side view. We
already have the Y axis properly foreshortened so all that is left to do is to figure out how to
foreshorten the Z axis.
How Long is the Z Axis?
Just like the X and Y axes, the Z axis needs to be foreshortened. The drawing on the
left below is an example of a Z axis that does not need to be foreshortened because it is
almost perpendicular to our point of view. The drawing on the right below shows a Z axis
coming towards the viewer, so it is foreshortened much more.
First, let’s consider a situation where the Z axis does not need to be foreshortened.
Remember our pizza example above? The one line that wasn’t foreshortened was drawn
along the major axis of the oval. In other words, the length of the major axis of the oval is the
unforeshortened length of each of our three Cartesian axes. The image below illustrates this.
You can see that the Z axis is the same length as the major axis of the oval. Once again our
oval comes in very handy!
The good news is that in many cases, you won’t need to foreshorten the Z axis very
much as long as you are drawing the airplane from a little above or below wing level. If you do
need to foreshorten the Z axis, I have some rules of thumb to help you.
Understanding the Aspect Ratio
My rules of thumb for foreshortening the Z axis are based on something called the
aspect ratio of the oval. The aspect ratio describes the ratio of the length of the major axis to
the length of the minor axis. The aspect ratio is written as two numbers separated by a colon.
For example an aspect ratio of “3:1” is read “three to one” and it means that three minor axes
are equal to one major axis. The oval in figure below has a 3:1 aspect ratio.
A high aspect ratio oval is one in which the major axis is many times the length of the
minor axis, like 6:1. A low aspect ratio oval is one in which the minor axis is almost the same
length as the major axis, like 1.25:1. This is illustrated in the figure below.
If you think of the ovals in the image above as oblique circles, you can see that as your
point of view moves higher above the circle, the aspect ratio of the oval decreases (When an
oval represents a circle drawn in perspective, I will call it an oblique circle in the remainder of
this book). As the aspect ratio gets smaller (closer to 1:1), the Z axis gets smaller too (more
foreshortened). In the next section I will show you how the aspect ratio and the length of the Z
axis are related.
Aspect Ratio and the Foreshortened Z Axis
Take a look at the figure below and imagine what it would be like to view this object from
the side and front. Both the “side view” and the “front view” people will see oblique circle A as
a straight line (see the thought bubbles in the figure below). Now, imagine how they will see
oblique circle B (containing the Z and Y axes). The side view person will see oblique circle B
as a circle, but the front view person will see it as a straight line. Now imagine that we rotate
this object around the X axis in the direction of the arrow. As we do that, the front view person
will see oblique circle A as an oval with a steadily decreasing aspect ratio and a foreshortening
Z axis. The next several images illustrate what I’m talking about.
In the image below the object was rotated around the X axis in the direction of the
arrow. You can see what our side view person would see and what our front view person
would see. In this case, the front view person would see an oval with an aspect ratio of 6:1.
Notice that at this aspect ratio, the Z axis is hardly foreshortened.
If we continue to rotate the object around the X axis till the front view person sees an
oval with a 4:1 aspect ratio, the Z axis will have only foreshortened about 5%.
Rotating until the front view person see an oval with a 2:1 aspect ratio, the Z axis is only
foreshortened about 15% as you can see below.
Rotating till the front view person sees an oval with a 1.5:1 aspect ratio foreshortens our
Z axis by about 25%.
In the final example, with the front view person seeing a circle with a 1.25:1 aspect ratio
oval, the Z axis is foreshortened to about half its original length
Three Simple Rules for Foreshortening the Z Axis
My guess is that this section has put your artist vision to the test. Hopefully it all makes
sense to you. Just try to remember three easy rules of thumb.
1. Most of the time, the Z axis will only need to be foreshortened a little.
2. The Z axis won’t be noticeably foreshortened until the oval is at an aspect ratio of about
2:1. Even then, we only need to shorten the Z axis by 15%.
3. The Z axis doesn’t dramatically foreshorten until Oval A is very close to being a circle (e.g.,
an aspect ratio of 1.25:1).
Adding the Z Axis to the FRG

Picking up from where we left off, you can see our oval has an aspect ratio of about 3:1
in the image below, so we will have to foreshorten the Z axis by about 10%. Recall that the
side view reference grid only needs to be one grid square above and below the Y axis.
One quarter of the major axis of the oval is equal to the unforeshortened side of one
grid square. So, I have to measure that distance on my Z axis and then foreshorten it by 10%.
I use a square (drawn with dashed lines in the image below) with sides equal to one quarter of
the major axis to help me measure this. Next, I draw a mark that is about 10% below the top
of that square to add the right amount of foreshortening.
By drawing lines parallel to the Y and Z axes, I can now complete the side view
reference grid as in the image below.
Summary
How you draw the FRG determines the point of view from which your plane will be
drawn. The FRG also insures all the parts of the airplane are properly aligned and
foreshortened in the final drawing. If you found this lesson confusing, just practice drawing a
couple of FRG’s yourself and it will start to come together.
In the next lesson, we are going to add perspective to our FRG. You will see that
everything I have told you about the FRG in this lesson still holds true when you add
perspective.
Lesson 5: Drawing the FRG in Perspective
The Oval in Perspective
The image below is a reference grid drawn in perspective. As you can see, this does not
look like the reference grids we’ve been drawing so far. In this lesson I’m going to show you
how to use the oval to help draw the FRG in perspective. Before I do that, however, I want to
talk about how perspective affects the “zoom” level of an image.
What is Perspective?
The picture below is a classic American landscape. Elementary art teachers use this
landscape to illustrate how perspective works. The principle is quite simple. Parallel lines will
converge at a point on the horizon, just as the railroad tracks do.
Another principle of perspective is that things get smaller as they get farther away.
Notice the how the railroad ties (the “ladder rungs” that cross the tracks) get shorter and closer
together as they approach the horizon.
Drawing with Perspective Lines
The picture below uses these two principles to draw a grid on the ground. The point
where all parallel lines meet is called a vanishing point which is on the horizon. Normally, the
horizon is where the land and the sky meet, but for perspective drawing it is better to think of it
as eye level. For example, if you were looking straight up at the sky, the principles of
perspective would work the same way even though you wouldn’t be looking at the horizon of
the earth’s surface.
We can also use perspective lines to draw three dimensional shapes. The picture
below shows how you might draw a cube using vanishing points. Because there are two
vanishing points, this is called two point perspective. The two vanishing points are 90° apart
because they align with the sides of a square.
If we were above the cube looking down, you could imagine that all the parallel lines of
the cube would have different vanishing points. Below you can see that a cube has three sets
of parallel lines (corresponding to the X, Y, and Z axes). Because each set has a different
vanishing point, this is called three point perspective.
You can probably already imagine how we can use vanishing points to add perspective
to the FRG, and I will get to that shortly. Before we look at how to add perspective to the FRG,
however, I want to show you how perspective can affect a drawing.
Using Perspective to Draw an Airplane

Let’s take a look at what a simple airplane scaffold would look like if we drew it using a
vanishing point and horizon. The wings and tail are parallel to each other, so we know those
lines will go to a single vanishing point. The picture below shows us how it might look.
YIKES! That looks a little strange. It almost looks like the plane is bent in the middle.
The wings are going one way and the tail is going another way. So what happened? We used
our principles of perspective correctly, didn’t we?
Even though we did everything right, it looks funny. Take a look at the drawing below
and you’ll see the same issue. Everything looks bent and warped. Why do you think that is?
Human Central and Peripheral Vision

To understand why using perspective lines can make things look bent when they should
be straight, you have to understand how we visually perceive the world. Right now, you’re
focusing on this page, but you can also see things around you. In fact, you can probably see
things that are way off to the left and right of your head without even moving your eyes. Take a
minute to notice the difference between what you “see” when you look directly at something,
like the words on this page, and what you “see” to the left and right of your head.
You should have noticed that you see a lot more detail when you look directly at
something. This part of your visual field is called your central vision, and it is where you have
your greatest visual acuity. Everything around your central vision is your peripheral vision.
To get an idea of the size of your central vision, try fixing your gaze at the dot in the
string of letters below. Without moving your eye (you’ll have to really concentrate to do that),
see how many letters around that single dot you can clearly see.
nmlkjihgfedcba•abcdefghijklmn
At a distance of 18 inches (a normal reading distance), your best acuity is a circle 0.3
inches diameter (between the “b” and “c” on either side of the dot). You can see with fair
acuity to a circle with a 1.5 inch diameter (out to the “f” on each side of the dot). Beyond that,
your acuity drops off dramatically in your peripheral vision. Remember, you can still see what is
in your peripheral vision, you just can’t see in much detail.
To give you an idea of the size of your central and peripheral vision, look at the diagram
below. It shows the visual field for the right eye as seen when looking straight down from the
top of someone’s head (the nose is pointing towards the top of the page). The clearest part of
your central vision is actually only about 1°, but you can see fairly well out to about 5°. Your
peripheral vision extends 60° towards your nose and 100° towards your ear.
Are you surprised at how small your central vision is? The reason we don’t notice our
central vision is so small is that our eyes constantly move around when we look at the world.
Most of the time, our eyes move automatically. This is why you had to concentrate to keep
your gaze focused on that dot.
Drawing with Perspective Lines the Right Way

Have you ever seen artists or photographers hold their hands up to make a box in front
of their faces? Now that you understand central and peripheral vision better, you can
understand what they are doing. They are blocking out some of their peripheral vision. They
do this because it helps them frame a part of the scene that they want to paint or photograph.
Let’s go back to our perspective drawing and see what this might look like. The frame
below shows you what happens when you block off some of your peripheral field of view.
Notice that the perspective lines don’t spread out as much within that frame.
Zoom vs. Wide Angle Views
Most digital cameras have the ability to zoom in and out. Did you also notice that when
they zoom in, they cut off more of a scene? Now that you understand perspective lines, you
know that this means perspective lines spread out less and less the more you zoom in. The
picture below shows you what I’m talking about. The zoom frame (the small, inner one) shows
you what your camera would capture if you zoomed in more. The wide angle box shows you
what your camera captures when zoomed out. Notice that in the wide angle box, the
perspective lines converge much more than in the zoom frame.
When we look at the world, even though we perceive a very wide angle, we primarily
focus on a very small area in the center of our field of view. In other words, we normally don’t
see sharply converging perspective lines. This is partly why it can look strange when we try to
capture really wide angle views in a camera or in a painting - like the drawing of the cockpit
above. That doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t draw pictures using a wide angle view. All
pictures have some degree of zoom. So, let’s take a look at some drawings to see how zoom
and wide angle views differ from each other.
Below is a drawing of an F-16 using a wide angle view. I have added some gridlines so
that you can see how much the perspective lines converge.
The drawing below is a zoomed-in view of an F-16. Notice that the perspective lines in
the reference grid don’t converge as much as in the wide angle view. What differences do you
see between these two drawings? You should notice that in the wide angle view above, the tail
is much smaller relative to the nose than in the zoomed-in view below. Although the wide
angle view is more distorted, it gives the impression of being much closer to the aircraft.
Here are a couple examples of the A-10 Warthog, one of my favorite aircraft. You
should be able to tell that the first drawing below is a wide angle view.
Just as with the F-16 drawings, the nose is much larger than the tail. This gives you the
sense that the nose is looming in front of you. Contrast that with the zoom view below. In the
wide angle view, you feel like you are standing only a few feet in front of the A-10, but in the
zoom view, you get the sense that you are standing much farther away.
Zoom views look less distorted and wide angle views can make things look closer to the
viewer and more three-dimensional. Which one you choose to use depends on the story or
feeling you’re trying to convey in your picture. When you look at photographs or paintings of
planes (or anything for that matter) see if you can pick out the perspective lines and notice how
they affect the way the picture looks.
Now that you understand the concept of perspective, and how it relates to the “zoom”
level of the image, we can discuss how to draw the FRG in perspective.
The Oval in Perspective Part II
Let’s look at how we would draw our FRG in perspective. To review, the image below is
a FRG drawn using the process I showed you in lesson 4.
Now compare the drawing above to one drawn using a wide angle perspective below.
Notice that the tangent points of the square still show us where the X and Y axes intersect the
oval.
In the image below I have drawn the major and minor axes of the oval in dashed lines.
Notice how the center of the oblique circle is different from the center of the oval. This is one of
the effects of perspective. As things get farther away from us they get smaller.
Remember the railroad tracks that were drawn in perspective? The ties of the railroad
tracks get closer together as they recede into the distance. Below you can see that an oval is
still a useful tool for helping us determine how to draw a FRG in perspective.
Now take a look at the zoomed view of a reference grid in perspective below. As you
can see, the lines converge less. You can also see that this causes the center of the oblique
circle and the center of the oval to be much closer together.
Below you can see how the railroad tracks would look using a zoomed view. The
vanishing point is much farther away, outside of the boundary of the drawing.
Drawing the Reference Grid in Perspective

Below is an example of a FRG drawn using two point perspective. As you can see, this
creates a very wide angle view. In fact, most of the time when you have all your vanishing
points within the frame of your picture, you will have a wide angle view.
Because some or all of the vanishing points may not be inside of the frame of a drawing
(especially for zoom views), the next section will show you a method for drawing the FRG
without needing to find vanishing points.
A Method for Drawing the FRG

In the first step, draw an oval and its major and minor axes. Then choose an intercept
point on the minor axis. The further this is from the major axis, the more you will produce a
wide angle view. In this example I will draw a zoomed in view. Once you have chosen that
point, draw a line through it. This will be the Y axis.
In the second step, draw lines that are tangent where the Y axis intersects the oval.
In the third step, you will draw the X axis line so that it crosses the Y axis at the
intercept point. You will have to use your artist vision to estimate the alignment of the X axis
between the other two lines.
In the fourth step, draw lines that are tangent where the X axis intersects the oval.
In step 5, we will add additional gridlines. Just as we did in the previous lesson, we can
draw diagonals across the four squares to find their centers.
Diagonal lines are also useful to check that you have everything aligned correctly. If the
long diagonals of the reference grid don’t cross at the same point as your X and Y axes, then
you need to adjust the alignment of the edges of your FRG. Don’t worry if they don’t coincide
perfectly. As long as the diagonals cross close to the X-Y intercept point, you’re final drawing
will look great.
In step 6, we add the minor gridlines, just as we did in the previous lesson. Notice how
they converge a little bit due to perspective.
Drawing the Z axis
In step 7, we draw the unforeshortened Z axis just like we did in lesson 4. The only
difference is that we have to measure from the center of the oblique circle, not the center of the
oval. This is illustrated in the image below. Recall that one grid square is one quarter of the
length of the major axis.
In step 8, foreshorten the Z axis using the rules I showed you in lesson 4. In this case
the oval is about a 3:1 aspect ratio so we will foreshorten about 10% as illustrated below.
In step 9, I have drawn the top and bottom gridlines of the side view reference grid.
Remember, they are parallel to the Y axis. By using the gridlines in the top view FRG, it is easy
to estimate convergence of the top and bottom gridlines of the side view FRG.
In the final step, I have added lines to enclose the side view reference grid. These are
drawn parallel to the Z axis. I’m drawing this with two point perspective, so I won’t worry about
convergence of these lines. Because this is a zoom view and because the Z axis is nearly
perpendicular to our point of view, there isn’t enough convergence of these lines to make it
worth the effort to use three point perspective.
Below is my completed FRG. I have just filled in the minor gridlines on the side view (Y-
Z) reference grid.
Convergence of Lines around the Z axis

There are some instances when you will need to account for convergence of the Z axis
(i.e., three point perspective). The main reason, as you may have guessed, is when you use a
wide angle view for your drawing.
One way to visualize convergence of lines parallel to the Z axis is to add smaller ovals
inside of the top view FRG. The minor axes of those ovals will reveal the amount of
convergence around the Z axis. This is shown in the images below. In the first image below,
there is very little convergence of those lines because this is a relatively zoomed in view.
Below is a wide angle view. Notice how much more the lines parallel to the Z axis
converge as compared to the image above.
Below is another example of convergence with a wide angle view below.

In the zoom view below, convergence of the lines parallel to the Z axis is hardly
noticeable.
The bottom line is that when using a zoom view, there really isn’t enough convergence
of the Z axis to worry about. For those cases you can use two point perspective. When using
a wide angle view, you might need to use three point perspective, especially for lower aspect
ratio ovals.
Summary
This was a long lesson and I hope it doesn’t seem too overwhelming to you. Although I
gave you a lot of steps to follow, don’t feel like you have to memorize them. I have described
all of these steps to make it easier for you to understand. With practice, drawing a FRG will
become second nature. In the end, it is more important to have an understanding of how
perspective works and how it influences your final drawing than it is to memorize a bunch of
steps.
Now that you can draw a FRG in perspective, we are ready to move on to the next step
which is transferring our scaffold to the FRG.
Lesson 6: Transferring the Scaffold and
Adjusting it Using Projection
Introduction
In this lesson I am going to show you how to transfer the scaffold to the FRG (step 3)
and how to adjust it using projection (step 4). Transferring the scaffold is just a matter of using
the top and side view scaffolds we created to draw corresponding lines on the FRG.
Projection is used to move some parts of the scaffold out of the planes of the top or side view
FRG when necessary. Let’s keep developing our Spitfire and Sabre Jet examples and you will
see what I am talking about.
Review of the Spitfire Scaffold

Take a minute to review the top view scaffold of the Spitfire below and the estimates for
the location of the lines. Though you may be tempted to take out a ruler and actually measure
these distances, you really don’t need to. The final drawing will look great just using
estimates.
Below is the side view scaffold for review.

Step 2: Drawing the Spitfire FRG
I’m going to draw the Spitfire from above looking down with the nose of the airplane
pointing to the right. In my FRG below you can see that my oval has an aspect ratio between
2:1 and a 1.5:1. Because of this, I need to foreshorten my Z axis by about 20%. This will be a
relatively zoomed in view so I have done this using two point perspective.
Step 3: Transfer the Spitfire Scaffold to the FRG

Next, I transfer my scaffold onto the FRG. The image below shows how I have
estimated the locations of its parts. The gridlines in the FRG make it pretty easy. This is
where a simple scaffold really pays off. The top view is in the X-Y plane and the side view is in
the Y-Z plane. Next, we will project the wings and tail into position.
Step 4: Adjusting the Spitfire Scaffold Using Projection
Although I don’t need to create a front view scaffold, I have drawn one here to make it
easier to see how the wings and horizontal stabilizer will need to be projected. Below is the
front view of the plane on a reference grid.
Below you can see how we will project the center of the wings to the bottom of the
fuselage and we will project the scaffold for the horizontal stabilizer up about 1/8 of a square.
Below you can see how I have projected the wings and horizontal stabilizer on my
FRG.
Below is the finished scaffold and FRG for the Spitfire.

Review of the F-86 Sabre Scaffold
Next, let’s look at how we would transfer the F-86 Sabre scaffold. Below are the top
and side view scaffolds that we created in Lesson 3.
Below is the side view scaffold.

Step 2: Drawing the F-86 FRG
I’m going to draw the F-86 coming towards the viewer using a wide angle perspective.
The viewpoint will be slightly above the jet. My top view scaffold is below.
The oval is about a 3:1 aspect ratio so we will foreshorten the Z axis by about 10%.
Even though this is a wide angle view, I use two point perspective to draw this FRG since the
Z axis is almost perpendicular to our point of view, as you can see in the image below.
Step 3: Transferring the F-86 Scaffold to the FRG
Below I have drawn the lines of the scaffold using the corresponding gridlines in my
FRG. By using straight lines for the scaffold, I can quickly draw it by estimating key locations
on the scaffold.
Step 4: Adjusting the F-86 Scaffold Using Projection

Take a look at the front view of the Sabre below. The X-Y plane is above the wings and
below the tail, so I will need to project the wings down and the tail up a bit.
The image below shows you how much everything needs to be projected. Notice that
the wings have a little dihedral so the center is projected down more than the wingtips. The
horizontal stabilizer also has dihedral. I only need to project the ends of the horizontal
stabilizer scaffold up.
Below you can see how I have adjusted the scaffold on the FRG.
Below is my finished F-86 Sabre scaffold.

Summary
We have now covered the first four steps of the process for drawing airplanes: creating
a scaffold from a 3-view drawing, drawing a FRG, transferring the scaffold to the FRG, and
using projection to adjust the scaffold.
At this stage, the scaffold should be starting to give you an idea of what the finished
drawing will look like. In the next step, the final drawing will really begin to take shape (hint,
hint).
Lesson 7: Outlining and Shaping
Introduction
In this lesson I am going to show you how to do steps five and six of this seven-step
process. These steps entail outlining and shaping the fuselage, wings, and tail of the airplane
resulting in a drawing like the one below.
Step 5: Outlining and Shaping the Spitfire Fuselage

The first thing we need to do is to draw the outline of the fuselage using the scaffold.
The drawing below shows what this looks like. You will need to refer to the side view drawing
on the reference grid to draw it accurately. You can see that I have used my scaffold reference
lines to make sure everything is in the correct position.
The Spitfire is challenging to draw because it has a lot of curved lines. As your artist
vision grows stronger, you will be able to visualize and draw curved lines using the scaffold on
the FRG, but if you are having trouble, there is a simple trick you can use. Draw a grid inside
the part of the scaffold that is giving you trouble then note where the outline of the 3-view
drawing crosses the lines of the grid.
Look at the image below and you can see how I have done this for the vertical stabilizer
in the tail. The dots indicate where the outline of the stabilizer crosses the lines in my grid.
Next, draw the same grid on the scaffold in the FRG then mark the corresponding
points. You should be able to connect the dots and draw the outline accurately.
Next, I draw an outline of the top view. Since it is drawn with straight lines it isn’t too
hard to do.
Shaping the Fuselage: Drawing the Cross-Sections

To shape the fuselage correctly, we have to examine the cross-sections of the fuselage.
These cross sections are also called bulkheads. Below are some examples of different types
of bulkheads.
As you can see, fuselage bulkheads can have many different shapes. To make matters
even more complicated, in most airplanes, no two bulkheads are the same.
Below you can see the bulkheads of the Spitfire. I have not drawn every single
bulkhead in the actual aircraft. For this drawing we just need to draw enough to get an idea of
the shape of the fuselage.
To help me visualize the bulkheads, I draw crosses that mark the height and width of the
fuselage where the bulkheads will be drawn. Each of the crosses is centered on the fuselage
scaffold line. They are drawn parallel to the Z and X axes in the figure below.
Use your artist vision to visualize the shape of the bulkheads using the crosses in the
figure above. If you are having trouble, remember you can use the same trick I showed you
earlier. Start by drawing a grid around the bulkheads in the 3-view drawing and note where the
outlines cross the grid lines.
Next, add the grids to the FRG using the crosses as a reference.
Then draw the bulkheads using the grids as a reference.
Shaping the Fuselage: Drawing the Silhouette

The final step in shaping the fuselage involves drawing the silhouette of the fuselage.
Using the inflection points of the bulkheads, I can visualize the edges of the fuselage from
my point of view. I just have to connect the dots using those points. The inflection points are
the places where the bulkhead shapes change direction. The arrows below show you the
inflection points.
Below I have drawn the silhouette around the nose. You can see how I have connected
the dots so to speak. You will also notice that I had to use my artist vision to judge the
curvature of the silhouette in some places. A plastic model and/or some reference
photographs are very helpful for getting the silhouette just right.
Below you can see the silhouette for the entire fuselage. In the tail section, the outline
and the silhouette are almost the same. The bottom edge of the fuselage does extend a little
below the fuselage outline from our point of view.
Step 6: Shaping the Spitfire Wings and Tail
Once you have shaped the fuselage, shaping the wings and tail is a piece of cake. You
follow the same steps that you did to shape the fuselage. First draw the outline of the wings
and horizontal stabilizer and then draw the cross-sections or airfoils. From our point of view,
the silhouette of the wings and tail will be the same as the outlines.
The Spitfire’s wings and tail are tricky to draw because they are elliptical. This means
you have to visualize the foreshortening of curved lines. This is a good time to use the grid
method if you are having trouble transferring this shape to the FRG. Below I have drawn a grid
for the horizontal stabilizer.
And in the image below, I have used this grid to draw the horizontal stabilizer on my
FRG. It is definitely easier to do this way.
If necessary, do the same thing to draw the outline of the wings. Below you can see the
outline of the wings and horizontal stabilizer. Our Spitfire is coming to life.
Shaping the Wings and Tail: Drawing the Airfoils

The cross section of the wing and tail is called the airfoil. There are many different
kinds of airfoils and each one has advantages and disadvantages. Below are examples of
some different types of airfoils. The first example below is a Flat Bottom airfoil. These have
curved upper surfaces and flat bottoms. You will see these airfoils on many private aircraft.
They produce a lot of lift without producing too much drag.
The second example below is a Deep cambered airfoil. These produce more lift than
flat bottomed airfoils at low speeds, but they produce much more drag. The Wright brothers
used this style of wing as did most early airplane designers.
The third example below is a Flat Bottom Airfoil with Flaps. Flaps are most common
on the trailing edge of wings, but they can also be on the leading edge. Swept wing jets
usually have leading edge flaps. When the pilot lowers the flaps, the wing functions like a
deep cambered airfoil. This allows it to fly slower without stalling during takeoff and landing.
The fourth example below is a Symmetrical airfoil. These airfoils produce less drag but
don’t produce lift at a zero degree angle of attack as other types do. They do have the
advantage of performing the same when the plane is flying right side up or upside down. This
makes this airfoil ideal for planes that need a lot of maneuverability and speed, like jet fighters
or stunt planes.
The final example below is a Semi-symmetrical airfoil. These are a blend between
symmetrical and flat-bottomed airfoils.
Shaping the Wing and Tail: Drawing the Spitfire Airfoils

The Spitfire wings have a semi-symmetrical airfoil. Since we are viewing it from above,
we only see the upper surface of the wing, but I have drawn the whole airfoil so that you can
visualize what it would look like. First, draw simple reference lines at equal intervals along
each wing as I have done below.
Next, draw the airfoils along the reference lines as in the image below.
You can do the same for the horizontal and vertical stabilizers. As you can see below,
these both have symmetrical airfoils.
It is important to note that these shaping lines are only to help you visualize the shape
of the wings and fuselage. Most of them are not going to remain in the final drawing. Below I
have cleaned up my drawing so that only the foreground lines are showing. The airplane has
taken shape.

The true shape of the final aircraft is conveyed by the panel lines, shading, and
markings on the aircraft. Below is my final sketch showing a Spitfire with markings of no. 118
Squadron. It was stationed at Ibsley in the U.K. and was flown by Pilot Officer Alec S.C.
Lumsden. I’ve done a lot in this step, but you can see how it is all built on the shaped drawing
that I completed above.
Step 5: Outlining and Shaping the F-86 Sabre Fuselage

In this section I’ll demonstrate how to outline and shape the F-86 Sabre. I’m going to
move through the steps a little faster since you are now familiar with these techniques. Below
you can see my side view outline of the F-86 fuselage. By observing my scaffold references, it
is not difficult to draw.
Next, I add the top view outline. Below you can see I drew a couple of dashed lines to
help me draw it to the correct width. Remember you can use the grid technique to help you if
you need to.
Now we’re ready to add the bulkheads to determine the shape of the fuselage. The
image below shows you the shape of the bulkheads along the Sabre’s fuselage. The F-86 had
a wide body because the engine was housed inside.
Below I have created some reference boxes to help me draw the bulkheads correctly
just as I did with the Spitfire fuselage.
Below I have drawn the bulkheads. The boxes help me to get the size and shape of the
bulkheads right.
Next, I draw the silhouette. The inflection points of the bulkheads are indicated with
arrows below. I used reference photographs to help me estimate the curvature of the fuselage
between the inflection points.
Below I have added the canopy and engine intake. It’s starting to look like a Sabre Jet!
Step 6: Outlining and Shaping the F-86 Wings and Tail
The Sabre’s wings and tail have straight edges making them much easier to draw than
the Spitfire’s. The wings have semi-symmetrical airfoils, but since we only see the upper
surfaces, I have only drawn the curvature for that surface as you can see in the image below.
Below you can see my fully outlined and shaped drawing of this iconic jet fighter.
Remember the bulkhead and airfoil lines are only there to help me visualize the shape of the
airplane. They won’t appear in the final drawing.
Adding light, shadow, reflections, and markings are what ultimately convey the true
shape of the airplane we are drawing. In my final sketch below, I have drawn the F-86 flown
by Major James Jabara of the 334th fighter squadron, stationed at Kimpo Airbase during the
Korean War. Major Jabara was the first U.S. jet ace. Not only that, he finished the war as a
triple Ace!
Summary
Okay Grasshopper, you should now have an understanding of the first six steps I use to
draw airplanes. In many ways the first six steps are technical. The last step, adding all the
final details, is a step that requires all your skills as an artist. The remaining lessons of this
book focus on teaching you the artistic skills you need to draw realistic airplanes.
Lesson 8: Drawing the Piper Cub
Putting it All Together
In this and the remaining lessons, I will show you worked examples from start to finish
with a focus on the final step. The final step will make or break your drawing. There is more to
getting it right than in all of the other steps combined.
In this lesson we’re going to draw the J-3 Piper Cub. The J-3 was first built in 1938 as
an affordable private plane. It has a high wing which makes it easy to fly and it is designed to
land and take off from grass airstrips. During the Second World War, thousands of Army pilots
were trained in the Cub. The Cub even saw service in WWII as the L-3 observation plane.
The Piper Cub is one of the most popular airplanes ever built and many versions are still
produced today. Below is a 3-view drawing of this famous little airplane.
A Closer Look
Before we begin to draw the J-3 Cub, we need to do a little homework. Drawing any
airplane correctly requires that you understand its form and function. I always find that the
more I study an airplane I am drawing, the better I can “see” it. At first glance, I often overlook
small details or may even misinterpret the shape of some component of the airplane. After I
spend some time reading about its design and studying drawings and photographs, I am
always much better prepared to do my own drawing.
The Piper J-3 cub is built primarily of welded steel tubing and is covered with canvas.
Because of this, there are no rivets or seams as is the case on modern, metal-skinned aircraft.
The stretched canvas tends to reveal the underlying framework. In the 3-view drawing, most
of the lines represent places where the frame is visible as a ridge or bump under the canvas
skin. For example, in the top view you can see the lines where the wing ribs are visible. An
aluminum sheet covers the leading edge of the wing, so the rib lines are only visible behind the
sheet.
A system of pulleys and cables transmit the Pilot inputs on the stick and rudder pedals
to the control surfaces. Those control cables can be seen where they pass through openings
in the canvas to connect to the aileron and rudder horns. You can’t see any cables for the
elevator because they are concealed inside the vertical stabilizer.
The J-3 Cub is powered by several different engines and almost all of them are in a
“flat-four” configuration. That is, four cylinders, two on each side, all in the same plane. In the
top view you can see that the cylinders are actually offset slightly. The left side cylinders are
slightly in front of the right side cylinders. That was done so that the pistons can each attach to
a different point on the crankshaft. The cylinder heads extend out of the nose cowling giving
the J-3 one of its most distinguishing characteristics. These engines produced between 40 –
65 horsepower.
In the top view above, you can also see the small skylight located between the two
wings. In military versions of the Cub, built during WWII, the skylight was enlarged to span the
entire space between the wings. It also extended behind the wings, as did the side view
windows. If you see a Cub with a skylight that covers all the space between the wings, it is
probably a military plane that was converted back into a civilian Cub.
Looking at the front view of the Cub above, you can see that this is an aerodynamically
“dirty” plane. By that I mean that it has a number of struts and wires, not to mention its landing
gear, all of which create a lot of drag. For this reason, the Cub does not need flaps to slow
down on landing.
If you look carefully at the front view, you can see that there is some wing dihedral.
According to the service manual for the Cub, a string stretched between the two wingtips
should pass about 2 3/8 inches above the center of the fuselage. Admittedly, that’s not a lot of
dihedral. It becomes slightly more pronounced in flight because the wings are not
cantilevered. Instead, they attach to the fuselage and are supported by wing struts.
The Cub has a simple suspension system. The main wheel struts are attached to the
fuselage by hinges. These are held in position by telescoping struts that are held closed by a
bungee cord. This allows the wheels to spring outward a little bit when the plane lands,
helping to cushion the landing. The bungee cord is covered by black canvas or vinyl covers.
Because of the way the suspension works, the wheels are spread apart a little further on the
ground than they are in the air. In our front view, the wheels are shown in an in-flight
configuration. On the Cub wheel brakes are optional. The plane lands at about 35 knots and
with a slight headwind, rolls to a stop very quickly. Being a tail-dragger, brakes can be a
hazard. Applied too strongly, the plane will flip onto its back. This version is drawn without
wheel brakes, but in many photos you will see brake lines extending under the fuselage to
brake drums on the wheels.
The Cub has a 9 gallon fuel tank just behind the engine. To counterbalance this weight,
the pilot sits in the rear seat. This keeps the center of balance under the wings. When
drawing the J-3 Cub in flight with only the pilot, make sure you put him in the right place! Later
versions of the Cub, including the military version of the J-3, moved the fuel tanks to the wings
so that the pilot could sit in the front seat. The fuel gauge is simply a graduated stick that
pokes through a hole in the fuel tank cap. The bottom of the stick has a floater so that as the
fuel is used up, the graduated stick moves down. By looking through the windscreen at the
marks on the stick, the pilot can determine how much fuel is remaining.
The control cable for the ailerons runs from the bottom of the fuselage through eyelets
along the back of the forward wing strut. At the top of the strut is a small exposed pulley. The
cable loops around the pulley then goes up through a hole in the canvas on the bottom of the
wing and exits on the top of the wing to attach to a control horn on the aileron. There is also a
cable attached to a horn on the bottom of the aileron. That cable wraps around a pulley inside
the wing and extends all the way across the wing to the opposite aileron. This links the
ailerons so that they always move in opposite directions.
While most aircraft have trim tabs embedded in control surfaces, pitch trim in the Cub is
accomplished by elevating or lowering the leading edge of the horizontal stabilizer. A small
slot in the fuselage allows for this movement (see side view above). Pitch is adjusted by
means of a crank in the cockpit. While we’re looking at the tail, you might notice that the wire
braces in the tail are not perpendicular to the fuselage. They attach to the horizontal stabilizer
just in front of the elevator and attach to the vertical stabilizer in front of the rudder. Because
the elevator hinge is in front of the rudder, the cables are angled forward just a bit.
You may be wondering how the pilot entered the Cub. There is no door in our side view
after all. As you might have guessed, the door is on the right side of the airplane. Since our
side view is of the left side, we can’t see it. Just something to keep in mind should you decide
to draw the Cub from the right side.
At first glance the Cub appears to have a rectangular fuselage. In fact, if you look at the
cross-sections below you can see that it is not a simple rectangle. A spar along the upper
centerline forms a ridge that extends from the skylight all the way back to the vertical
stabilizer. The side of the fuselage from the wing to the tail is divided into three planes by two
spars. This gives the sides of the rear fuselage a slightly convex shape. The bottom of the
fuselage is flat. In the nose, the sides and bottom are flat with rounded edges and the top is
rounded. The tip of the nose is rounded.
Hopefully this closer look has helped you to “see” the Cub better. Even a simple
airplane like the J-3 Cub requires careful analysis to render it accurately.
If you are like me, you love drawing airplanes because you love everything about these
amazing vehicles. Learning more about them not only helps you to execute a better drawing, it
is fascinating in its own right. No matter how many times I have drawn a plane, I often find that
there is something new to learn about it, so don’t ever get complacent in your knowledge of a
plane and its history. Always do a bit of homework before beginning any drawing. After all,
what could be more fun than studying and learning more about the airplane you are going to
draw?
Okay, with our homework done, we are ready to start our drawing.
Step 1: Draw a Scaffold based on a 3-View Drawing

Below is a scaffold drawn for the top view of the Piper Cub. This top view shows you
that the Cub has a wingspan that is almost twice the length of the fuselage.
Before doing the side view scaffold, take note of the true top of the fuselage.
Remember the wings have a little bit of dihedral, that means that the tops of the wings in the
side view are just above the top of the fuselage. The drawing below shows you the wing airfoil
where the wing joins the fuselage.
Below is our side view scaffold.

Next, I draw my FRG. The Z axis is foreshortened about 10% for this aspect ratio.
Below is the transferred scaffold.

Below I have projected the wing and horizontal stabilizer into position. I have also
drawn the wing airfoil to show you that the scaffold shows us where the bottom of the wing
should be – almost.
First, we need to add a little dihedral. This is shown in the image below.
Below is the finished scaffold. It may not look much like a Piper Cub now, but it will
when we are done.

Using my side view, I draw the outline for the fuselage on the FRG below. Most of the
lines in the Piper Cub are straight, so it is just a matter of finding key reference points and then
connecting the dots.
Next, I draw the outline of the top view. The outline follows the top view scaffold pretty
closely. The only difference is that the nose section narrows a little more than my scaffold and
is rounded at the front as you can see below.
Below I have drawn some cross lines and rectangles to help me visualize the fuselage
bulkheads.
Below are the fuselage bulkheads.
Now we are ready to draw the fuselage silhouette. If you study the side view drawing,
you will notice that the two spars that form the top corners of the fuselage behind the wing,
have a slight bend. To draw them, I start by drawing two straight lines as you can see in the
image below. Next, I make two small dashes to mark where they will bend.
Below I have redrawn the lines, bending them at the dashes.
Below is the complete fuselage silhouette.

Below are the two spars that run along the sides of the tail section of the fuselage.
Later I will erase the parts of these that will be hidden by the wing and horizontal stabilizer.
All that is left is the cockpit, and the fuselage will be complete. To help visualize the
cockpit, it might help you to draw a cube as I have done below.
Using the cube as a guide, I draw the outline of the cockpit windows as you can see
below.
Below is the shaped fuselage.

The arrows in the image below indicate where the curve of the wingtip touches the
scaffold. This helps me to round off the wingtips accurately. Notice how the curve starts closer
to the wingtip on the leading edge of the wing.
Below I drew lines to show me the location of the wing ribs (the ribs are shaped like the
airfoil). I have only drawn reference lines for every other rib based on the 3-view drawing
(there are 12 ribs on each side – I have drawn only six). I can fill in the missing ones in the
final drawing.
Below I drew the tops of wing ribs. This gives my wing its shape. Remember we will
only see the tops of the ribs as ridges in the canvas covering.
I drew the vertical tail surface when I outlined the fuselage, so all I have to do is outline
the horizontal tail surfaces as seen below. Remember you can draw a grid in the scaffold to
help you get the outlines correct.
The airfoils of the Cub’s vertical and horizontal stabilizers are flat. That means all I
really need to do for my drawing is to draw lines where the spars are located. Below are the
spars for the horizontal and vertical tail. If you look at photographs, you will notice the spars
can sometimes be seen through the canvas covering.

Now that the wings and fuselage have been drawn and shaped, we need to add the
final details like the wing struts, landing gear, propeller, and other details. Below I have drawn
the wing struts. Since the wing struts are below the wings, I will only be able to see parts of
them in the finished drawing. I have drawn the complete struts here to make it easier to
visualize them.
The struts are stabilized by braces, otherwise they would vibrate in the slipstream
during flight. Below I have drawn the strut braces.
Next, I focus on the landing gear. I start by drawing some guidelines (see below).
Notice how they are aligned with the fuselage bulkhead.
Below I have drawn the wheel struts and suspension.
All that is left is to draw the wheels. See the image below.
Below I have done a lot of clean-up and added details to the fuselage. We’re almost
done with the drawing!
I’ve finished up the details on the wings and tail below. At this point I compare my
finished drawing to photographs and make final adjustments. Depending on the quality of your
3-view drawing, you may find that there are aspects of the plane that don’t quite look right.
Hopefully, if you have been careful, you will be close enough that you will only need to make a
few small changes. We’re not done yet though. We have to add shading and markings.
Sketching the Piper Cub
Below is the finished sketch I did based on my black and white drawing. As you can
see, this is where your homework pays off in helping you to get the shape right.
In this sketch you can see how the shading provides the viewer with a lot of information
about the three dimensional shape of the aircraft. If you look at the upper edge of the wing,
you will see how shading and light convey the impression of the ridges created by the ribs that
are underneath the stretched canvas. Along the fuselage you will see the shadow created by
the wing and tail and the shape of the fuselage and engine cowling.
Shading, Light, and Reflection

Shading is not just a matter of making upper surfaces lighter than lower surfaces. To
really get your shading right, you have to understand the way that light reflects off of objects.
Take a look at the drawing of a shaded sphere below. The upper surface reflects what is
called direct light. That is light coming directly from a source like the sun or a light bulb. In
most cases, direct light will make a surface appear brighter.
On a sunny day or under a bright light, you will see a very bright spot of light called
specular light (also called the highlight). The glint you see on a shiny surface is specular
light. The glossier or more reflective the surface, the more defined the glint or specular light
will be. In our drawing above, the specular light is diffuse, so this is not a glossy surface.
Between the highlighted region and the shadow, you will see midtones. The midtones
reveal the true color of an object. They are not washed out by the specular light and they are
not hidden by the shadow. The shadow is not uniformly dark. In the case of our sphere, it has
a diffuse edge and you will also see indirect light reflected in the shadow. In the case of our
sphere, the light surface on which it rests reflects off of the bottom of the sphere.
Compare the sphere above to the one below. The sphere below has a glossy (highly
reflective) finish whereas the sphere above has a matte (non-reflective) surface. Most aircraft
have a combination of matte and glossy surfaces so it is important to understand the
differences in how light reflects off of these two surfaces.
A matte finish is non-reflective, so the shadows will tend to be deeper and specular light
is diffuse. Military aircraft and vehicles are typically painted with a matte paint to hide the
reflection of specular light. This makes them harder to detect. In contrast, a glossy finish has
more subtle shadows and a bright, well defined specular reflection. In fact, glossy surfaces will
also reflect colors and shapes in the environment, much like a mirror. In the glossy sphere
below, you can see darker shapes and the lighter sky reflected as well as the light surface on
which the sphere rests.
Glossy surfaces also reflect more color from the environment than matte surfaces. If
you look at a good photograph of an airplane painted with glossy paint, you will probably see
blue sky reflecting off of the upper surfaces and the earth below reflecting off of the lower
surfaces. Of course in a black and white pencil sketch you can’t show color, but you should
still be aware of how they are represented in a black and white drawing.
Now let’s take another look at the sketch of the Cub. The Cub has what would be called
a semi-gloss finish. That means that the shadows will be visible, but not too dark. Also it will
reflect some lights and darks from the environment, but specular lights will be a little diffuse.
If you look at the upper surfaces of the wing in the drawing below, the darker regions
are not shadows, but rather reflections of the blue sky above. I have also tried to keep the
shadows under the wing, fuselage, and tail subtle. Finally, if you look at the horizontal
stabilizer, I have drawn a reflection of the vertical stabilizer. Without color cues, it is more
difficult to convey the appearance of a glossy finish, but you still have to be aware of how light
reflects off of the subject of your drawing.
The J-3 Grasshopper
Below is a drawing of the military version of the Piper Cub known as the J-3
Grasshopper. It was covered with a matte, olive-drab paint. The J-3 was basically the same
aircraft as the civilian version except that it had a large “greenhouse” window which gave the
observer, seated in the back, an excellent field of view. Notice I have made the shadows much
darker and I have minimized the appearance of specular light.
Below you can see the scaffold I used when doing this drawing. With practice, you will
find that you can keep your scaffold simple.
Drawing a Spinning Propeller
Drawing spinning propellers creates a feeling of action and motion in any drawing of an
airplane, but drawing them can be challenging. There are many ways to draw a spinning
propeller and you will want to choose the one that best suits your drawing. Most aviation
artists draw spinning propellers as they appear in photographs, which is not at all how they
appear to the naked eye. To the naked eye a spinning propeller is barely visible as a faint
disk. In a photograph the propeller is caught in motion, and so it appears blurry. This
phenomenon is called motion blur.
To draw this motion blur correctly, it helps to understand why it occurs. A camera works
by exposing the film, or these days a digital sensor, to the image for a very brief period of time.
It is so brief that most objects can’t change position, but a spinning propeller is going so fast
that it does.
Making things a little more complicated, the propeller moves further at the tip than at the
base. Take a look at the image below and you will see what I mean. This means that the tip of
the propeller is moving faster than the base. Because of this, there will be more motion blur at
the tip than at the base.
To draw this, imagine a wedge shaped area around each blade of the propeller as in the
image below on the left. That is the area within which the motion blur will be apparent.
Because the base of the prop is moving slower than the tip, it will appear darker at the base.
This darker region will extend out about half the length of the actual propeller blade, fading as
it extends away from the propeller hub. In the image below on the right, you can see that the
blur appears evenly on both sides of the propeller for both the dark region and the fainter
wedge shaped area.
To create a blurred effect with a pencil, start by shading an area in (below left) and then
simply use your index finger to rub the paper (below right). This will spread the graphite more
evenly and give it a blurry appearance.
When drawing a spinning prop from the side, make sure to account for the pitch of the
propeller blades. In the image below on the left, you can see how the blade above the spinner
appears narrow as compared to the blade below the spinner. This is because from our point of
view, the top blade is seen almost edge on whereas we see the flat side of the bottom blade.
The image below on the right shows how this prop appears in motion.
As you study photos of airplanes in flight, you will notice that spinning props can take on
a wide range of appearances. Sometimes they are very dark and prominent and other times
they are barely visible. Sometimes they are quite broad and blurry and other times they
appear to be almost frozen in place. This is because many things affect the way spinning
propellers appear in pictures. The good news for you as an artist is that you have a lot of
options when drawing them. Choose the look that works best for your drawing.
Lesson 9: Drawing the P-51D Mustang
A Classic WWII Fighter
The Mustang is one of the most famous aircraft developed during the Second World
War. Many of these still fly at airshows today, and others have been modified for air racing. It
is a timeless aircraft that has beautiful curves and lines.
Let’s get started. Take a look at the 3-view drawing below. This is the P-51D Mustang.
A Closer Look at the Mustang

The P-51D Mustang was one of the most advanced fighters developed by the Allies
during WWII. From its laminar flow wing to its bubble canopy to the mighty Packard-Merlin
engine - a 12 cylinder, supercharged monster that could generate 1,720 hp at 25,000 ft - the
Mustang was the state of the art fighter of its day. The design of this plane gave it tremendous
range enabling it to escort heavy bombers deep into Germany and back home again. When
The Merlin powered Mustangs (B models) arrived in Europe in September of 1943, it was the
beginning of the end for the German Luftwaffe.
The P-51D is the most recognizable version of the Mustang, and it is the model we will
be drawing. The D model was the first to incorporate a bubble canopy which gave the pilot an
unprecedented field of view. This innovation was so successful that almost every fighter today
has one.
Adding a bubble canopy required the top of the tail section to be lowered. This caused
the fighter to become less stable in the yaw axis, so a dorsal fillet was added in front of the
vertical tail to correct this problem.
Looking at the bottom of the fuselage in the side view above, you will notice two air-
scoops or inlets. A small one under the nose is the carburetor inlet. This air goes back to the
supercharger which compresses the air. At high altitudes, thin air doesn’t provide enough
oxygen for fuel to combust. Superchargers compress the air at high altitudes so that the
engine can perform as though it is at sea level.
The second air scoop, for the radiator, is under the wing as illustrated below. The
design of the radiator air scoop was another innovation of the Mustang. The designers
reasoned that they could minimize drag by placing the radiator air scoop behind the wing so
that the air could flow out through air vents more easily. In fact, not only did the design reduce
drag, but it actually improved performance because as the air heated up over the radiator, it
expanded and left the vents at a higher velocity than the cool air entering. In other words, it
added a little bit of forward thrust!
The front view of the Mustang below shows these two air scoops clearly. It also shows
the three 50 caliber gun ports on each wing. Earlier versions of the Mustang had only two per
wing. In addition to the extra guns, the D model had more rounds of ammo per gun than
earlier models.
I mentioned the laminar flow wing above and you may have been wondering what I
meant by that. Well, it is a type of symmetrical airfoil. You can see the outline of this airfoil
below.
Laminar flow simply means that the air flows smoothly past a surface. With a
conventional airfoil, air flows smoothly around the leading edge of the wing. As it travels
further back along the wing, it begins to separate from the upper surface and becomes
turbulent as seen in the image below. Back in the 1930’s, research at the National Advisory
Committee for Aeronautics (NACA) found that moving the chord (the thickest part of the wing)
of a symmetrical airfoil closer to its midpoint, reduced the turbulent airflow over the wing. This
became known as a laminar flow airfoil. Because the turbulence creates drag, this wing
design had lower drag which increased the speed and range of the Mustang.
The top view below reveals another visually distinctive feature of the P-51D: the forward
cant of the inboard leading edge of the wings. This was done to make space for the wheel
wells which were slightly larger in the D model.
Now take a look at the various cross-sections of the Mustang below. As you can see,
the shape of the fuselage is generally rounded on top. The bottom is flat from the wings back,
but in front of the wings it is rounded.
One last point to make: the dots that are drawn along some of the panel lines are not
rivets, but screw heads. Panels that need to be removed for maintenance, for example around
the engine, are held in place with screws. Most other panels are held in place by flush rivets.
These rivets are small and difficult to see unless you get very close.
There’s much more to this famous fighter than what I have described here, but I think I
have covered enough for us to do our drawing. As you can see, the Mustang is a truly
remarkable aircraft.

Below is my version of the top scaffold.
Below is the scaffold without the top view of the Mustang. Notice I have added dotted
lines to indicate the width of the fuselage.
Below is the side view scaffold. You can see the dihedral of the wings. The dihedral is
more obvious in the front view, but you should notice that in the side view, the wingtip is higher
than the base of the wing where it intersects the fuselage.
Below is the side view scaffold without the Mustang. Notice the reference lines I have
added for the top of the canopy and fuselage and the bottom of the fuselage and radiator
intake.

I’m going to draw the P-51 from slightly above, coming towards the viewer. As you can
see below, my intercept point is just above the oval center which gives me the amount of
convergence that I desire for this drawing.
In the figure below, I’ve added my remaining grid lines. Because this is a high aspect
ratio, we don’t need to foreshorten the Z axis at all.

Below I have drawn my top and side view scaffolds on my FRG. You can now see the
orientation of the plane.
The arrows in the figure below show how I have projected the wings and horizontal
stabilizer.
Below is the finished scaffold on the FRG.

Next, I draw the outline of the fuselage using the side view scaffold and reference grid.
As you can see in the image below, it looks distorted because it is foreshortened so much.
Don’t worry about how it looks at this point in the drawing. The important thing is to carefully
study the side view scaffold and make sure you draw the outline accurately on the FRG. It will
look much more like a P-51 as we begin to shape it.
Below I have added the outline of the top view of the fuselage. The dotted lines help
me to judge the correct width of the fuselage.
Below I have drawn crosses where I will add bulkheads.
For reference, below are the bulkheads along the length of the fuselage.
Below I have drawn boxes to help me visualize the shape of the bulkheads. Remember
you can also add gridlines inside the boxes if you are unsure of how to draw them.
Below I have drawn all my bulkheads.

Next, I draw the silhouette of the fuselage using the inflection points of the bulkheads.
This is shown in the image below. Some good photographic references are helpful when you
do this. There are almost always bulges and curves that are hard to see with a simple 3-view
drawing. For example, the upper surface of the Mustang’s nose grows flatter near the
propeller spinner. Pay attention to these extra bulges and curves because they will make all
the difference in getting an accurate “likeness” of the aircraft.
Next, I will focus on the canopy. The canopy is a tricky thing to draw. It has a very
distinctive silhouette that you need to get right. Below I have drawn a simple guide that divides
the front and rear portions of the canopy.
Next, I added a guide for the central panel of the windscreen in the drawing below.
Study photographs and the 3-view drawing and you’ll see that it is shaped like a trapezoid.
The drawing below shows the last part of my guide which is an outline of the base of the
rear canopy and the frame where the front and rear parts of the canopy join together.
Below is the finished canopy. Once again use your photographs to get this looking just
right. Three-view drawings will not have enough detail in most cases.
Straight lines make outlining the wings and tail easy. The wingtips are a little curved as
you can see below.
Remember, the inboard leading edge of the wings is angled forward. Below I’ve added
a guide to help me visualize that portion of the wing.
Below I have drawn the wing ribs. I draw enough ribs to help me visualize the shape of
the wing. The Mustang is covered in metal so these ribs won’t be visible in the finished
drawing as they were for the Piper Cub.
Drawing the ribs shows me that the lower edge of the wing extends below the outline I
have drawn. Notice I have added a guide to help me visualize where the wing intersects with
the fuselage in the image below.
Below are the outlined and shaped wings.
The horizontal stabilizer has a symmetrical airfoil, just like the wings, but it is so thin that
I am not going to bother drawing any ribs. I did draw the elevator hinge line as you can see
below.
With all the major parts of the Mustang drawn, I am ready to draw the final details and
clean up my guides. The first things I will draw are panel lines. Starting with the wings and
horizontal tail, I use the bulkheads and ribs as guides help me draw them. I use my 3-view
drawing and photos as references. The image below shows these panel lines.
Below I have added panel lines for the fuselage and vertical tail. You can see how the
underlying guides and bulkheads help me to estimate the correct location of the panel lines.
Drawing panel lines will test your artist vision, so be patient. Because panel lines are not
always aligned with the underlying bulkheads, you will have to use some trial and error to get
them right.
Below I have cleaned everything up and added some more details. What a beautiful
plane!
Sketching the Mustang

Below is the finished sketch of the Mustang based on my black and white drawing. I
chose markings of Captain Robert Schmidt’s “Tar Baby” of the 356th Fighter Group. The Nose
and Rudder are painted bright red. A navy blue diamond pattern covers the nose. The rest of
the aircraft is bare aluminum.
Early in the war, aircraft were completely painted with camouflage paint. This reduced
specular reflections and sometimes made them harder to see. Unfortunately, that much paint
also added weight, increased drag, and added cost. Later in the war, it was seen as better to
skip the paint and leave most of the aluminum bare. They did add colorful markings to help
pilots find their squadron mates. Unfortunately in a black and white sketch you can’t see all
those wonderful colors.
Probably the biggest challenge in sketching the Mustang is conveying the impression of
bare aluminum. And that leads us to the next topic.
Drawing Bare Aluminum

Bare aluminum can be a bit of a challenge, and even very talented artists can struggle
with how to do it right. The key to drawing aluminum is understanding how light and shadow
play off of this surface. In fact, all we will do is apply the same principles of direct and indirect
light that I explained to you in the previous lesson.
One of the things that makes aluminum difficult to draw is that in some ways it acts like
a matte surface and in other ways it acts like a glossy surface. You can think of aluminum as a
scuffed up mirror. This means that it tends to reflect light from the environment, but the
reflections are very diffuse or hazy.
Because of this, unlike a matte surface, you will not see very distinct shadows on an
aluminum skinned aircraft. Aluminum reflects a lot of light from the environment, so the
shadows will tend to be illuminated by indirect light. If you look at photographs of aluminum
aircraft, be aware that photos tend to accentuate shadows. This is because camera film and
even modern digital sensors are less sensitive in dim light than is the human eye. To really get
aluminum right, you should minimize the appearance of shadows.
The sphere below has an aluminum finish. This shows a key feature of aluminum: a
very bright and diffuse specular light reflection. You can also see a dark reflection along the
horizon line, but it too is very diffuse. In aluminum, reflections should always be diffuse or
hazy. Finally, notice that there is not much of a shadow visible. In fact you can see the diffuse
reflection of the bright surface in the lower half of the sphere. What you might mistake for a
shadow at the very bottom of the sphere is actually the reflection of the shadow cast on the
surface.
Now let’s take a look at the polished chrome surface in the image below. To draw a
chrome finish, use the same approach as for a glossy finish. All reflections are sharp and well
defined and have more contrast than aluminum. Because chrome is so mirror like, you will
never see a shadow except for ones reflected in the polished surface. For example, you can
see the reflection of the shadow cast on the surface at the bottom of the sphere.
Below is an example of chrome and aluminum reflections on a cylinder. This is similar

to what you might see on the fuselage of an aircraft. Reflections in a cylinder tend to appear
as dark and light bands running the length of the cylinder. By making the bands well defined
with high contrast,
you will create the appearance of chrome. If they are diffuse with less contrast it will
have the appearance of aluminum.
A very good way to learn how to draw reflective surfaces is to study the way light
reflects off of automobiles. Notice how different surfaces reflect light and color from the
environment. Pay attention to the way the curvature of different surfaces distort the
reflections. The more you understand how surfaces reflect light, the easier it will be to create
those effects in your drawings.
Getting back to our sketch of the P-51, in the image below you can see the upper
surfaces of the wings and horizontal stabilizers are dark because they are reflecting the dark
blue sky above. On the left wing, you will also notice some reflections of darker markings on
the fuselage. There are large diffuse specular reflections on the upper surface of the fuselage
and along the wing fillet. You can also see the reflection of white clouds around the bottom of
the nose.
Below I have given the Mustang a “polished” finish. Notice that the reflections on the
fuselage and upper surface of the wings are much more distinct and have more contrast than
the aluminum version.
Checkertail Mustang
In contrast with the subdued gray markings of today’s military aircraft, aircraft of WWII
were quite colorful. As I mentioned above, the colors and patterns helped the pilots find their
squadron mates in the air. Below is a mustang with markings that would definitely be easy to
spot.
I’ve decided to draw this Mustang just about to takeoff. Below you can see how I drew
my reference grid and scaffold.
Below is the outline of the P-51 drawn on the scaffold. Notice the landing gear are
extended.
Below is the final sketch. He’s just about at takeoff speed! This particular P-51
belonged to Captain Harry Parker in the325th Fighter Group. This group was known as the
“Checkertails” for obvious reasons. The checkers are black on a yellow background. The
propeller spinner and the tip of the nose are painted in red and there are yellow stripes on the
wings. The rest of the Mustang was bare aluminum.
Lesson 10: Drawing the F-4 Phantom II
Introduction
The Phantom has to be one of the coolest fighter jets ever built. When it entered
service in 1961, it set altitude and speed records and was so impressive that all three services
adopted it as their primary fighter. It could land on the deck of an aircraft carrier and could
carry more bombs than a B-17. Soon after it entered operational service, it became America’s
premier fighter in Vietnam and it more than held its own against more nimble adversaries from
the Soviet Union like the Mig-17, and -21.
It is hard to believe today, but when the Phantom first came out, it was not regarded as
a thing of beauty. Lacking the clean, simple lines of earlier jets like the F-86, it was nicknamed
“double-ugly.” To me, it is anything but ugly. From the sloped down stabilizers in the tail to the
big rectangular air intakes to the two jet exhaust nozzles tucked up under the tail, the Phantom
is simply awesome looking. The variant that we are going to draw is the E model, introduced
in 1967. This model incorporated an internal 20mm Gatling gun. The ammo was stored in a
large drum in the nose. Because of this addition, the E had an extra long nose section when
compared to earlier B and C models. This plane flew combat across four decades from
Vietnam to the Gulf war.
Below is a 3-view drawing of the F-4E Phantom. Though it has many straight lines, a
close look at the fuselage will reveal a very curvaceous figure. In the top view, you’ll notice it
has a bit of an hourglass shape. This was referred to as a coke-bottle fuselage, a common
feature of this generation of fighter. This aerodynamic feature reduced drag as the aircraft
approached the speed of sound.
A Closer Look at the F-4E Phantom
We are going to draw the Phantom from the side and slightly behind and below, so we
need to study the side, rear, and bottom views of this plane. Starting with the side view, I want
to point out some unique features. Under the nose you can see the 20mm gun. Because this
was a Mach 2 fighter, the gun had to be enclosed in a fairing under the nose. Early versions of
the Phantom had no gun because it was believed that guided missiles had ended the era of
dogfighting. Tactical experience over Vietnam proved this theory to be incorrect, and so the E
model included a very serious gun.
The Phantom had a 2 person crew that sat in tandem. The pilot sat in front and a
weapons officer sat in the rear. You can see both positions in the side view below.
Just in front of each engine intake is very distinctive engine intake vane. Its purpose
was to slow a supersonic airstream down to a subsonic speed before it entered the engine.
The vane worked automatically to narrow the opening in the air scoop as the jet flew faster. If
the air wasn’t slowed down, it would literally pile up in front of the compressor blades and the
engine would flame out.
Missiles, fuel tanks, and other ordinance were mounted under the wings on pylons or at
hard points under the fuselage. The pylons could be configured for different weapons. There
were two pylon mounts under each wing. In addition, there were recessed mounting points for
four AIM-7 Sparrow radar-guided missiles under the fuselage.
The Phantom, like all supersonic fighters, does not have elevators on its horizontal
stabilizers. Instead, the entire horizontal stabilizer rotates to control aircraft pitch. This type of
tail is called a stabilator (stabilizer + elevator = stabilator) or an all-flying tail. The stabilators
are “transparent” in this side view so that you can see the shape of the fuselage all the way to
the tip of the tail. Notice that it is not a straight line.
The Phantom had two J-79 General Electric turbojet engines that generated a combined
23,810 lbs of thrust dry and 35,800 lbs of thrust in full afterburner. The two engine exhaust
nozzles were tucked up under the tail. You will notice in photographs that the nozzles could be
partly closed down or opened up. The nozzles were constricted at cruising speeds to maintain
compression in the engines and increase the thrust. When constricted, they have a conical
shape as shown below. Think about what happens when you put your thumb over the end of a
water hose. Pressure increases behind your thumb and the water shoots out of the end of the
hose much faster. At full power (afterburners on), the nozzles are opened up all the way,
otherwise there would be too much pressure built up inside of the engines.
You can see that there is not much space between the engine nozzles in the rear view
below. They are divided by a thin wall. Above the nozzles, the tail is thicker. This part of the
tail can be very difficult to visualize from 3-view drawings alone, so finding some good
photographs or a good quality plastic model will help you.
There is also a tail hook situated between the nozzles. The F-4 was originally designed
for the Navy, and as you probably know, landing on an aircraft carrier requires a tail hook. You
will also notice that Phantoms built for the Air Force had a tail hook. As it turns out, Air force
pilots sometimes needed to use the tail hook in emergencies to stop after landing. The
Phantom also had a drag chute that could deploy from the end of the tail for a little extra help
slowing down.
From the rear, you can see the wing tip dihedral and the anhedral (downward slope) of
the stabilators in the tail. On the Navy versions of the F-4, the wing tips could be folded up to
conserve space aboard an aircraft carrier.
Taking a look at the bottom of the F-4E below, you can clearly see all the mounting
points for missiles, etc. You can also see the outline of the landing gear doors and the speed
brakes.
One of the big challenges of flying swept wing aircraft is that they have fairly high stall
speeds. To help improve performance at lower speeds, the Phantom has both leading- and
trailing edge flaps. You can see three actuators for these flaps on the inboard portion of each
wing in the bottom view. On earlier models of the Phantom, the outer wing sections also had
leading edge flaps, but on the E model, the flaps were replaced with leading edge slats. The
leading edge slats also help to prevent high speed stalls during high angle of attack
maneuvers (i.e., sharp turns). The jag (also called a dogtooth) in the leading edge of the
outboard section of the wings was another feature that reduced stalls during high angle of
attack maneuvers.
Finally, take a look at the bulkheads along the fuselage of the Phantom below. You can
see that no two of them look anything alike. This plane has more bulges and bumps than a
toad! The top of the fuselage is generally rounded. Under the wings, the fuselage is relatively
flat and then the shape changes again in the tail. The fairings over the engines are flat on top
near the intakes but become increasingly sloped towards the exhaust nozzles. Photographs
and/or a good scale model are very helpful in understanding the complex shape of this
fuselage.
There are many more design features of the Phantom than I can possibly discuss here.
I have covered the ones that are most important for our drawing, so let’s get started.

Below is our top view scaffold for the Phantom. It is a line and two triangles - pretty
simple.
And below is the side view scaffold. Notice that the tail extends up a distance equal to
the height of the fuselage.
Below is a less obscured view of the side view drawing and scaffold. You should notice
that the canopy bulges slightly above the top scaffold line. You should also notice that the
fuselage around the exhaust nozzle extends below the bottom line of the scaffold. This is
because the Phantom’s engines were actually canted so the nozzles were pointed slightly
down.
Below is the final scaffold drawn inside the side view reference grid.
Below is a simple technique for drawing an oval. Start with a cross made of the major
and minor axes and then add caps to the ends of each axis.
Next, connect the caps to draw the oval as you can see in the drawing below. I had to
tweak the lines a bit till I got it looking right. Drawing the major and minor axes helps to keep
everything symmetrical. It’s not a perfect oval, but it will work for our drawing. With an aspect
ratio of 4:1, we don’t need to foreshorten our Z axis.
Our Phantom is heading to the right and slightly away from the viewer. I’ve drawn the X
and Y axes accordingly and have added the sides of the top view reference grid by drawing
lines tangent to the points where those axes intersect the oval. Notice below that the X and Y
axes intersect below the center of the oval. This is because we are looking up from below.
I add the remaining gridlines for the top view reference grid below.
Below I have added the gridlines for the side view reference grid. We only need to add
the grid squares above the top view to complete the FRG.

First, I draw the two triangles for the wing and tail scaffolds as you can see in the image
below.
Then I draw the side view scaffold seen below.

I have drawn some arrows to serve as guides for how much I will project the wings and
tail as you can see below. Remember, only the wing tips have dihedral.
In the image below, the wings and stabilators are drawn in their projected positions.
Below I have cleaned things up a bit. This scaffold definitely resembles the Phantom.

Below I have outlined the fuselage. The outline is primarily done with straight lines so it
isn’t too difficult. The nose section is the most challenging, but if you pay attention to the
scaffold and side view, you’ll be able to do it. Just be patient.
To draw the outline of the fuselage top view, I start with some guidelines as shown
below.
This helps me to draw the outline in the image below.

Below I have added some vertical and horizontal references to help me draw my
fuselage bulkheads.
The side view drawing showing the location of each of the bulkheads is displayed below
for review.
I have drawn the bulkheads using my reference lines as guides in the image below.
One main reason the fuselage shape is so complex is because it is formed around the two
General Electric J-79 engines. Near the nose are large rectangular intakes and under the tail
are the two round engine exhaust nozzles.
Below I have drawn the silhouette of the intake and the bulge of the fuselage over those
engines. The dashed lines near the tail indicate that the bulge in the fuselage is formed by a
smooth curve rather than a distinct edge.
Below I have drawn the silhouette of the fuselage and I have outlined the tail hook.
Because we are close to a side view, the silhouette is not very different from the side view
drawing.
The silhouette at the top of the fuselage is slightly raised above the side view outline.
Below is a close up. Truthfully, it is such a small change that you could ignore it if you wanted
to.

Below I have outlined the wings and tail. The tail is virtually the same as the scaffold,
but the wings require some adjustment as you can see below. Because they are drawn
completely with straight lines this isn’t too difficult to do. Notice the dogtooth jag on the
outboard part of the wing. This is a very salient characteristic of the Phantom’s wing, so we
want to make sure we draw it.
High performance jets have very thin wings and control surfaces. From our vantage
point the wing surface appears almost flat. Therefore in this drawing, I don’t need to worry
about drawing the wing airfoils.
The first details I add are the engine nozzles. Recall that they point down just a little
bit. Most likely this was to counteract a tendency of the nose to pitch up, possibly because the
nozzles are below the centerline of the fuselage. Whatever the reason, I start with simple
cylinders to help me visualize the size and position of the nozzles as you can see below.
Next, I add more detail to the nozzles and rear part of the fuselage in the image below.
As described above, the F-4 has variable geometry nozzles that can partially close like the
pupil of your eye (it is actually called an iris nozzle). I have drawn the nozzles in an open
position, as if the engine was at full thrust.
Next, I add details like panel lines around the nose section in the image below.
Below I have created a guide to help me draw the cockpit.

Below I have added some details like the pilot, weapons officer, and the tops of the
ejection seats.
Below I have drawn details on the wings and stabilators. Notice the leading edge flap
actuators on the inboard portion of each wing.
I’m going to draw this Phantom with a full load of air-to-air weapons as well as under-
wing fuel tanks. I start by drawing four AIM-7 Sparrow missiles in the recessed hardpoints.
The AIM-7 was a medium-range, radar-guided missile. These recessed mounts helped to
reduce wind resistance as well as the radar signature of the Phantom. This is shown in the
image below.
Below I have added the four under-wing pylons. I will draw two AIM-9 “Sidewinder”
missiles on each inboard pylon and an under-wing fuel tank on each outboard pylon.
Below are the finished AIM-9 Sidewinders. The Sidewinder was an infrared-guided,
short-range missile.
Finally, I add the fuel tanks. The fuel tanks were long and thin and the pylons attached
near the rear of the tanks. The tanks extend forward to about where the leading edge of the
wings intersects the fuselage. To help me visualize the location of the under-wing fuel tanks, I
drew some guidelines as you can see below. Notice that they slope down just a little.
Below is the final line drawing.
Sketching the Phantom II

The F-4 Phantom had a variety of paint schemes during the Vietnam War. In the Air
Force a green, olive, and tan camouflage pattern was common. The Navy used a light gray
base with many colorful markings, especially on the huge vertical stabilizer. Sadly for us
artists, this was the last era of such bold, colorful markings. Both services now use a light gray
paint scheme and subdued markings on almost all their aircraft.
The sketch below is of an Air Force Phantom flown during the Vietnam War. This
Phantom was flown by COL Grady Morris of the 469th Tactical Fighter Squadron, 388th Tactical
Fighter Wing. In mid 1968, the 388th received new F-4Es which they flew until the end of the
conflict. They were stationed at Korat Royal Thai Air Force Base. This Phantom had the
typical Army camouflage pattern. The underside was painted light gray and the squadron
markings were in white.
I have placed the light source almost directly above the aircraft. This allows the shape
of the Phantom fuselage to pop out. I’ve deliberately made the upper reflections very bright to
convey a sense of strong sunlight above. Remember that matte paint will not reflect much
indirect light, so the shadows need to be strong. When you do a painting or drawing,
increasing the contrast between light and shadow is a technique that helps to create a sense
of bright light.
Composition
So far in this book, we have been focused on drawing airplanes. Drawing airplanes,
however, is not an end in itself. Because you are an artist, you want to tell a story about that
aircraft. You want to convey an idea about the wonder and beauty of flight or about the
heroism, courage, or self-sacrifice of the air crew.
Artists use composition to convey these stories, ideas, and feelings in their images.
Composition is simply the way the elements of the image are arranged within the frame. A
successful composition will lead the viewer to see and experience those feelings, ideas, and/or
stories. Okay, enough talk, let’s look at some examples.
Quite often, aviation artists choose to have a single aircraft dominate their
compositions. Below you can see an example of what I mean. A single F-4E is front and
center, and it looks like its prey is going down in flames! This picture certainly has interest and
balance. To someone who loves the Phantom, this kind of picture might be just what he or she
is looking for.
There is nothing wrong with this composition, but if every drawing or painting you do
relies on this approach (a single plane dominating the frame), your portfolio of work will be very
monotonous. Let’s see what happens when we expand the frame of our picture.
Below is a very similar composition to the one above, but as you can see, we have
much more space around the F4-E to tell our story. For example, you can see the whole trail
of smoke from the burning MiG all the way back to where it was hit. You should also notice
that by expanding our frame, the sky has become bigger. In other words, this picture conveys
a greater sense of depth and space around our subject.
When developing your composition, you want to think about how the viewer’s eye will
move through the image. To do this, we have to identify what are called points of interest
within our frame. The main points of interest in this image are the F-4E, the MiG, and the
smoke trail. The first thing the viewer will probably pay attention to is the F-4E. This is
because it is in the foreground and it is centered within the frame. Next, we would expect the
viewer to notice the burning MiG (the next most interesting object), and finally the smoke trail.
This composition results in a nice fluid movement of the viewer’s eye through the image. Is
that how you viewed this composition?
Finally, the background provides some relevant references, but we don’t ever want our
background to overtake the points of interest in our painting. The background shows us the
horizon line through the center of the painting. There are some nice puffy clouds to add depth
with the sky above and the ground below.
Having our main subject (the F-4E) centered on the canvas, helps to keep the painting
balanced, but artists have found that placing the main subject off-center makes it possible to
create a more interesting composition. Artist sometimes use what is called the rule of thirds
when developing a composition. The idea is that if you divide your frame into three equal
parts, left to right and top to bottom, you will have four points around the center at which you
can place major points of interest. The image below illustrates this rule.
I’m only going to talk about the rule of thirds here, but as you learn more about
composition, you will see that there are many more rules. One thing to keep in mind about all
these “rules” is that it is better to think of them as guidelines. As you look at paintings and
drawings of other artists, you will probably find examples of perfectly successful compositions
that violate many of these so-called rules.
Suppose we position our F-4E near one of these four points using the rule of thirds. As
you can see in the image below, this creates a sense of imbalance in our image. There is
empty space above and to the right of the Phantom. Your eye probably naturally looks up to
that empty area expecting to see something important. To re-balance the image, we need to
place a point of interest in that space.
Below you can see that I have added a formation of Phantoms doing some aerial
refueling. Notice how this rebalances the image. This composition also illustrates an important
principle which is that groups of objects can become a single point of interest. In this case, the
tanker and three trailing Phantoms all form a single point of interest. Anytime several
individual things are grouped together such that no one of them is more interesting or
important than the others, they will be perceived as a single point of interest. Other examples
are groups of clouds, trees (forest), and houses and buildings (cities).
In the composition above the viewer’s eye will typically start by focusing on the F-4 in
the foreground and then move to the refueling aircraft. This creates a nice flow through the
composition while maintaining a sense of balance when viewed as a whole. Also, notice that I
have drawn the horizon line low in my frame. This creates the impression that you are looking
up towards the sky. I have also used high cirrus clouds to create a light background for my
refueling aircraft. This helps them to stand out in my composition.
Let’s look at one final example. In the image below I have placed the foreground F-4E
on the top right point defined by our rule of thirds. I have balanced it by drawing a second
F-4E flying in formation below and to the left. In this drawing the horizon is somewhere above
the top of our frame. This creates the impression that you are looking down towards the
ground at these aircraft.
Hopefully you can see that using this rule of thirds helps to create interesting
compositions. Of course there are many other ways to compose a painting and many other
“rules” of composition that can help you. This brief section is only meant to give you an idea
of the importance of composition.
As any good artist does, you should spend time studying the work of others. Whether
they are paintings of airplanes, landscapes, still life, or any other subject, you should try to
understand how the artist has chosen to compose his or her paintings. Think about how the
composition leads your eye over the various points of interest. Think about why the artist
chose that composition and whether you think he or she was successful in creating that work
of art. In this way you can learn from other artists and create more exciting compositions of
your own.
Using Thumbnail Sketches

Thumbnail sketches are quick, small sketches that can be used to explore alternate
compositions. In this section, I will discuss how I used thumbnail sketches to create a
composition showing a Navy F-4 Phantom landing on a carrier.
The Phantom in the drawing will be from Fighter squadron VF-84, the Jolly Rogers.
From 1964 to 1976, this squadron flew the F-4 Phantom. During the Vietnam conflict, they
deployed aboard the U.S.S. Independence. Drawing this jet on final approach for landing
means that the two most important points of interest in my composition will be the aircraft and
the carrier.
As in any project, I had to make some decisions about my final composition. First and
foremost, I had to think about various points of view that would allow me to include both the
Phantom and the carrier. For example, I could do the drawing from the carrier deck looking at
the approaching Phantom. This would show only a limited view of the carrier deck, but it would
show the jet coming towards the viewer. On the other hand, it would place the Phantom in the
background which I felt would diminish the sense of the excitement of a carrier landing.
I could show the landing from a distance off to the side of the carrier. The carrier would
fit in the frame, but the Phantom would be tiny. This composition would really be a painting of
the carrier more than of the Phantom. A third possibility would be to place my point of view
close to the Phantom and behind with the Independence in the distance. In this composition
the viewer would see the small size of the landing strip which would convey that feeling of
suspense that all carrier landings must evoke. This was the point of view that I chose.
Just choosing that point of view is only one step in determining the final composition.
There are still lots of decisions to make. For example, how far behind the landing Phantom
should the viewer to be positioned? Placing the viewpoint directly behind the aircraft would
limit the view of the squadron markings (which are mostly visible from the side). Too far to one
side and it would be difficult to place the carrier in the scene. Also, I had to think about how far
from the carrier I wanted to place the Phantom. Showing it just as it was landing might create
a sense of action, but I would risk having the carrier be so large that it would overwhelm my
foreground aircraft. Showing the carrier too far in the distance might diminish the sense of
action.
As you have probably guessed, this is where thumbnail sketches come in very handy.
Below are three examples I used to explore different ideas. The first thumbnail below could
work. Although this composition has balance, I feel like the Phantom is chasing the carrier
rather than landing on it.
In the next thumbnail sketch below, I have positioned my point of view further behind the
Phantom. I like this point of view much better since there is no doubt that the Phantom is
landing. On the other hand, I worry that the size of the Independence makes it compete as a
point of interest with the Phantom.
In this final thumbnail I placed the viewpoint closer to the Phantom and I moved the
carrier father away. To me, this was the best solution since it placed the emphasis on the
Phantom while maintaining the excitement of a carrier landing. This is how I decided to
compose my final drawing. As you can see below, even with just two points of interest, there
are many ways to vary the composition.
After working out my point of view and the locations of my key points of interest, I was
ready to start the final drawing. Below is my scaffold and FRG. Notice that I drew my oval and
then extended my reference grid outward. This was necessary because had I done a full sized
oval, the ends of it would have been off the edges of my frame.
As you know, the shape of the Phantom’s fuselage is very complex. This is where
sketching the individual bulkheads really helps me visualize its shape. The image below shows
these bulkhead lines along the fuselage.
Below is the drawing of the Phantom with all of the major parts outlined and shaped.
Below is the final drawing. I had assumed that with the plane to the left of center and
the carrier to the right, my composition would be balanced. I was wrong. I found that most of
the focus was between the Phantom and the Independence, which left the composition
unbalanced to the right. I needed something to rebalance things, so I placed a small ship in
the distance to the left of the Phantom. That simple change worked. Don’t ever
underestimate the importance of every point of interest. Put your finger over the ship in the top
left of the image below and you will see how the composition seems unbalanced.
You can see that I have placed the light source low so that the upper surfaces of the
wings and fuselage are shaded. Drawing the markings was a little tricky because they were so
foreshortened. Having a good understanding of the complex shape of the fuselage was critical
for getting the shading and markings just right. I’d say our pilot will definitely catch the first
wire!
Lesson 11: Drawing the Sukhoi Su-27
Fourth Generation Fighters
After the Vietnam conflict the United States began producing a new generation of
fighters exemplified by the F-15 Eagle and the F16 Falcon. These were highly maneuverable
aircraft that were equipped with advanced sensors and avionics and smart weapons. They
became known as fourth generation fighters, and they gave the United States and its allies a
distinct advantage against aircraft used by the former Soviet Union.
To counter these new fighters, the Soviets began development of two of their own fourth
generation fighters: the Mikoyan MIG-29 and the larger Sukhoi SU-27. Both aircraft entered
production in the 1980’s, and it quickly became clear that they were formidable opponents. In
1986 the SU-27 broke several flight records previously held by the F-15.
At airshows the SU-27 wows the crowds with a maneuver known as Pugachev’s
Cobra. In this maneuver the pilot, flying low and slow, pulls the nose just beyond the vertical
without gaining altitude. For any other jet fighter, this maneuver would result in a stall and
crash. But, the SU-27 practically hovers with its nose pointing up before the pilot drops it back
down and accelerates away. It is an impressive display of the aircraft’s power and
maneuverability. Below is a 3-view drawing of this remarkable jet.
A Closer Look at the SU-27 Flanker B
The SU-27 Flanker (Flanker is the NATO designation) has been a huge success for
Sukhoi. Many variants of this airframe have been built including versions for the Russian Air
Force and Navy and two different two-seat configurations, one tandem and one side-by-side.
It has been exported to over a dozen countries. The original production version, that we will
draw, is the SU-27S or Flanker B. It was produced from the mid 1980’s to the early 1990’s. It
underwent its first modernization in the early 2000’s (SU-27SM), getting better avionics, an all
glass cockpit, improved radar, engines, and a host of other changes.
The most advanced iteration of this design (SU-27M2, also known as the SU-35S), is
completely modernized with thrust-vectoring engines, updated sensors and avionics, and a
stronger, stealthier airframe. Its NATO designation is the Flanker-E, but some call it the Super-
Flanker. It is considered a 4.5 generation fighter because it bridges the gap between fourth
and fifth generation stealth fighters like the U.S. Air Force’s F-22 Raptor. Super Flanker
production began in 2010.
Like other fourth generation fighters, the SU-27S incorporates a design feature known
as relaxed static stability. This means that the plane does not naturally fly straight and level.
If you look at the front view of the SU-27 below, you can see one reason for this: there is no
wing dihedral.
Relaxed static stability makes aircraft much more maneuverable but also harder to
control. This is because constant input is required just to fly straight and level. Fortunately,
fourth generation fighters have computerized flight control systems called fly-by-wire
systems. The pilot moves the control stick and the computer determines which control
surfaces to move. If the pilot holds the stick still, the fly-by-wire system constantly moves the
control surfaces to keep the plane flying level.
The Flanker B can carry a wide array of air-to-air and air-to-ground munitions. These
are mounted on 10 hardpoints: one on each wingtip, two under each wing, one under each
engine and two along the midline between the engines.
You should notice in the front view that the fuselage and wings blend together. This is
called a blended wing-fuselage design or a lifting body, and it increases overall lift. You
should also notice that the Flanker has two vertical stabilizers just like the F-15. That extra
rudder control is necessary to counter the asymmetric thrust that would result if one of the
engines failed.
The Flanker B is powered by two Saturn-Lyulka AL-31F turbofan engines that generate
a combined 33,400 pounds of thrust dry which increases to 55,000 pounds of thrust when the
afterburners are engaged. With so much power, it can climb at an astonishing 59,000 feet per
minute and it can reach a speed of Mach 2.35.
The intakes of jets produce tremendous suction. Because the SU-27’s intakes are
under the wings, they will suck up small rocks, sticks, and other debris on the ground when the
aircraft is taxiing or taking off. Normally, such debris would be carefully removed from taxiways
and runways, but during a conflict that might not be possible. To protect the engines, screens
automatically deploy over the intakes while the plane is on the ground and retract after takeoff.
This unique feature fits with the Soviet design philosophy of building rugged, easy to maintain
aircraft.
In both the front and side views, you can see an infrared search and track (IRST) pod
directly in front of the canopy. This pod is linked to the pilot’s helmet so that wherever the pilot
looks, the pod aims. It can be used to lock onto targets by their heat signatures at close
ranges. This is a handy tracking device in an era of increasingly stealthy (i.e., low radar
signature) adversaries. In later versions of the Flanker (e.g., SU-27SM, SU-35), the IRST is
located to the right of the centerline to improve forward visibility for the pilot.
The side view below really shows off the unique and beautiful shape of the Flanker. Its
drooping nose and engines that are set back under the wings give it the appearance of having
a long, graceful neck.
Like the F-15, the Flanker B has a dorsal airbrake that extends up from the top of the
fuselage behind the canopy. It is deployed during landings to help slow the plane down but it
can also be deployed in flight. This dorsal airbrake was removed from the design of the
SU-35. Instead it uses differential deflection of the rudders to slow down.
Near the rear of the aircraft, under the vertical tail, is something called a strake. The
ventral strake is a non-moving airfoil that provides stability, especially at high angles of
attack. During such maneuvers, airflow across the vertical stabilizers is disrupted which
reduces yaw stability. The ventral strakes help to keep the plane from yawing left or right
during high angle of attack maneuvers.
Another very distinctive feature of the Flanker is its “stinger”. The stinger, or tail boom,
houses a rear-facing radar that allows the pilot to track aircraft behind it. The stinger also
houses a drag chute which can be deployed to help the plane slow down after landing.
In the top view of the Flanker below, you can see it has cropped delta wings and
stabilators. The fuselage behind the canopy appears to widen as it approaches the wings.
This region is called a leading edge root extension or LERX. This feature improves
performance at high angles of attack. During a sharp turn, the LERX on each wing creates a
spinning column of air, called a vortex, that keeps the airflow moving over the upper surfaces
of the wings and prevents the plane from entering a stall. If you look at photographs of
Flankers (or any jet with a LERX) pulling high G turns, you will see the condensation cloud
caused by the vortex that forms behind each LERX. A 30mm gun is housed in the LERX on
the right side of the cockpit.
The wing of the Flanker has leading edge flaps just like the Phantom II. The leading
edge flaps are used during landings, but they also can deploy during sharp turns and other
high angle-of-attack maneuvers to prevent stalls. The wing also incorporates what are called
flaperons (flaps + ailerons). These surfaces function like flaps during landings, but they also
move with the ailerons to help improve the roll rate of the aircraft at low airspeeds. With so
many complex control surfaces on the wings, you could imagine the pilot would be quite busy
adjusting them. Fortunately, the fly-by-wire system automatically makes all of those decisions
and adjustments for the pilot. In fact, you will sometimes hear pilots of fourth generation
fighters comment that they are easier to fly than a prop trainer which needs constant trimming
and attention. That’s not to say that a modern fighter pilot’s job is easy. Those fly-by-wire
systems are very necessary. When missiles and bullets are flying, you don’t want any
distractions!
Finally, when we examine the cross-sectional views of the Flanker, you can see that the
fuselage does not run the whole length of the plane. The fuselage diminishes in size between
the wings. The cross-sections reveal the blended wing-fuselage design as you can see in the
image below.
In fact, what I have drawn as the fuselage cross-section between the wings is not a
conventional fuselage. You might think that it is as much wing as fuselage. That’s okay. You
can divide the wing and fuselage any way you like. If you consider the engines to be part of
the wings, you will just have to draw the engine cross-sections when you shape the wings.
Well, there’s much more we could discuss about this remarkable aircraft, but we’ve
covered enough to do our drawing. In this lesson, I’m going to show you how to do a drawing
of the SU-27 coming straight at you. You may not have thought about this yet, but drawing that
view requires us to make a slight modification to the approach we’ve been using to draw
airplanes. You’ll see what I mean in step 2 of our process.

Below is the side view scaffold for the SU-27. Despite the drooping nose of this aircraft,
a straight horizontal line passes through the tip of the nose and the tip of the tail boom.
The top view scaffold is not complex as you can see in the image below. Because the
wings and horizontal tail surfaces have straight edges, our scaffold will pretty much serve as
an outline for them.

Below is the top view FRG. I want to draw the Flanker from slightly above, coming
straight at the viewer. This means that the axis of my fuselage will be a vertical line. If I try to
draw my side view reference grid on that same axis, all my lines will overlap, so what do we
do?
We just have to improvise a little. Take a look at the drawing below. All I have done is
to move my side view scaffold to the left of center. This way, I can see all my side view
gridlines. When developing my drawing, I will just project lines from my side view scaffold
across the top view scaffold. If you’re confused, read on and you will see it is easy to do.

Below I have drawn the top and side view scaffolds on the FRG.
Below I have projected the wings up a little and the horizontal tail down a little.

I used the grid method to help me draw the outline of the top view of the fuselage.
Below is the grid on the top view drawing and scaffold
Adding those same gridlines to my FRG enables me to more easily draw the
foreshortened top view as you can see in the drawing below.
Drawing the side view wasn’t as difficult. My dashed lines gave me all the additional
references I needed. You can project lines between the top view and the side view to make
sure that important reference points line up correctly. My side view outline is drawn below.
With the top and side outlines finished, I can start drawing the fuselage bulkheads. As
before, we will use the side view to mark the top and bottom limits of each bulkhead and the
top view to mark the left and right limits of each bulkhead. Since the side view is now offset, we
have to project the top and bottom references over to the top view. The next several images
illustrate this.
Because the side view is so foreshortened, it can be difficult to see exactly where the
bulkhead lines should be drawn in the side view. You might find it easier to locate the
bulkhead in the top view and then draw a line from the top view Y axis to the side view Y axis
to determine where the first bulkhead will cross the side view Y axis. See the example below.
Next, in the side view draw the line to indicate where the bulkhead would appear. It
should pass through the point on the Y axis indicated in the previous step. The first bulkhead
is not perfectly vertical because the nose points downward a little bit. Once the bulkhead line
is drawn in the side view, you can see where it intersects the side view outline (indicated by the
two small arrows in the image below).
The points where the bulkhead intersects the side view outline are the top and bottom
limits of the bulkhead. In the image below you can see I have drawn two parallel lines back
over to the top view to show the top and bottom limits of the fist bulkhead.
Next, in the top view, note where the first bulkhead intersects the top view outline
(indicated by horizontal arrows in the image below). Those two points are the left and right
limits of the first bulkhead. I draw vertical lines through those points completing the box for the
first bulkhead.
Below I have drawn the outline of the first bulkhead inside of that box.
Repeating the same process I have drawn the second bulkhead in the image below.
I think you get the idea. Below are the next two bulkheads.
The final bulkhead is in the image below. I’ve added some extra references for the
exhaust nozzles and the tail boom. The exhaust nozzles are circular and I estimated the
shape of the tail boom bulkheads.
To help visualize the upper surface of the fuselage, I have highlighted the portion of
each bulkhead that would be visible from our point of view in the image below.
To draw the fuselage silhouette, I connect the edges of the bulkheads in the nose using
the top view outline to get the curvature of the line. In the tail I have followed the top view
outline and the tops of the bulkheads to determine the silhouette there. This is shown in the
image below.
Next, I draw the cockpit canopy. To help me place this correctly, I draw some reference
lines using the top and side view drawings. Using my artist vision, I visualize the cockpit’s
shape as you can see below.
To finish the fuselage, I just need to add the engine intakes. Using the side view
scaffold, I project the bottom edge of the engine intakes across to my drawing. I estimate the
spacing of the vertical reference lines from the front view. You can see in the drawing below
that the lower outer corners of the intakes are visible on each side of the LERX from our point
of view.
Below I have drawn the visible corners of the engine intakes.

To draw the vertical tail, I draw some reference lines from the side view. Using
references in the top view outline, I draw two narrow triangles. This is shown in the image
below.
Outlining the wing and horizontal tail surfaces is very easy because we just have to
trace the scaffold. The only thing I have to do is to clip the ends of the stabilators as you can
see below. I don’t really need to shape the wings. The upper surfaces only have a slight
curvature. Any appearance of curvature will be conveyed by a slight curvature of some of the
panel lines and by shading.
Below is my drawing so far. I have left the bulkhead reference lines in place because
the shape of the upper surface of the fuselage is fairly complex. The reference lines help me
to visualize it accurately as I add panel lines and final details.
Below I have added the panel lines and final details. You can see that the panel lines
really help to define the shape of the fuselage. The bulkhead lines helped me to draw them
correctly. Some good photographic references are also useful for insuring the final drawing is
accurate.
So what do you think? Is this not one of the coolest looking military jets in the world!?
Sketching the Flanker
Below is a sketch based on my black and white drawing. This camouflage pattern
consists of a three-tone gray-blue pattern typical of these early generation Flankers. The nose
cone is light gray. The stars on the wings are red with no white outline.
Because of the blended wing-fuselage design of this jet, it can be difficult to visualize
the patterns of light and shadow that would result from any particular point of light. This is
where good reference photographs or plastic models can be invaluable. Using those
references, along with your understanding of the shape of the aircraft’s parts, you should be
able to visualize how to shade your drawing.
I decided to have the primary light source (the sun) almost directly off of the left wing.
Because of this, the upper surface of the wings and tail are shaded a little bit which helps to
emphasize the light hitting the left side of the fuselage. The right side of the fuselage is
illuminated with indirect light so it is not as bright, but still reveals the shape of the fuselage.
With this kind of lighting, the shadows are going to be subtle.
Drawing Glass Canopies

Almost all aircraft have glass canopies or windscreens. Drawing glass can be
challenging for any artist. Because glass is transparent, drawing it can seem like trying to
draw a picture of the invisible man! In fact, drawing glass is not that much different from
drawing any other reflective surface.
To understand how to draw glass, I need to talk a little more about how light reflects off
of surfaces. When light hits a reflective surface like glass, some of the light bounces off of that
surface and some of the light is transmitted through it. The image below illustrates what I am
talking about. If you have ever seen your reflection in a window, you were seeing light
reflected off the surface of the window. The transmitted light goes through the window and
illuminates whatever is on the other side.
As it turns out, the amount of light that reflects off of a surface depends on the angle at
which the light hits the surface. This is illustrated in the next image below. When light hits the
surface at a very low angle, most of it reflects off of the surface and very little of it is transmitted
through. The more light hits the surface at a perpendicular angle, the more it is transmitted
through and the less it reflects.
You have probably experienced this phenomenon if you have ever looked out over a
body of water. If you look towards the horizon, the water is highly reflective. If the water is
calm, it will act like a mirror reflecting the images of trees, hills, and clouds beyond. If you look
straight down into the water, however, there is much less reflected light, and you can see
things under the surface of the water. The image below shows you why this is happening.
From a single point of view, the more you look towards the horizon, the more you are seeing
reflected light.
Now, imagine looking at a curved reflective surface like the canopy of an airplane. The
same rules apply to curved surfaces as illustrated in the image below. The more the curved
surface is oblique to your point of view, the more it will reflect light and the less transparent it
will be. The more the surface is perpendicular to your point of view, the less it will reflect light
and the more transparent it will be.
Now I’m going to show you how to apply these principles of reflection to drawing a
canopy. Below is a drawing of the canopy of the Flanker. The point of view is slightly in front
and to one side. Let’s think about which parts of the canopy are most oblique (and therefore
will be most reflective) and which parts are most perpendicular to our point of view (and
therefore will be most transparent).
The image below shows how reflection changes over the canopy from our viewpoint.
Starting at the top of the canopy, we know that this will be most oblique to our point of view. If
the plane is flying upright, it will reflect the sky above. Next, think about the front part of the
canopy. That surface will be most perpendicular to our point of view and so it will be the most
transparent part. Finally, the bottom edge of the canopy will also be somewhat oblique to our
point of view and so it will be more reflective. If the plane is flying upright, it will tend to reflect
the horizon.
Now that we have an understand about how light will reflect off of the canopy, we have
to understand what kind of environment our canopy and airplane are going to be drawn in so
that we can determine how the reflections will look. I’m going to show you three different
examples to give you an idea of how this works.
In the first example below, I have drawn the canopy on a bright sunny day with blue sky
above and white clouds below. The Sun is in front of us so we don’t see specular light
reflected off of the canopy. Notice that the top edge of the canopy is dark. That’s because it is
reflecting dark blue sky. The bottom edge of the canopy is light because of the reflected white
clouds towards the horizon. The shapes seen through the canopy show more or less contrast
depending on how transparent the glass appears. Because the near side of the canopy is in a
shadow, reflected light is more noticeable.
The next image below is an example of the canopy on an overcast day. In this case the
sky above tends to be light and the horizon is dark, the opposite of what we had in the drawing
above. So, that means that the top of the canopy is going to appear lighter because it reflects
the lighter sky and bottom of the canopy is going to appear darker because it is reflecting the
darker horizon. Also, overcast days create diffuse light which means that there is generally
more reflected light over the whole canopy. This makes it harder to see details inside the
canopy so they are washed out with less contrast.
In our final example below, I’ve drawn the canopy with the light source behind us. This
creates a bright, distinct specular reflection. In this example there is a blue sky above and so
the top of the canopy appears darker but because we have a strong light source behind us,
reflected light is less noticeable than in the first example (where the foreground was shaded).
This means that the interior of the cockpit is seen in much more detail with good contrast.
Hopefully this section has taken some of the mystery out of drawing glass canopies. As
you can see, it really just entails applying an understanding of how light, shadow, and reflection
work. The same principles apply to drawing any reflective surface whether it is transparent
glass or a solid surface. The best way to learn about light, shading, and reflection is to pay
attention to how light reflects off of everything you see. Try to understand what you are seeing
in terms of what I’ve taught you. There is no better way to improve your artist vision than by
being a careful observer of the world around you.
Russian Knights
In this final exercise, I’m going to show you how to draw a formation Su-27s with the
markings of the Russian Knights. The Russian Knights are the aerobatic demonstration team
of the Russian Air Force. They fly both single (SU-27S) and tandem (SU-27UB) seat Flankers
though in my drawing I’m only going to include the single seat version.
To determine where to place all the aircraft, I have created a reference grid for the
whole formation. In the image below, you can see what this looks like. The four aircraft will be
in a diamond formation. Each of the individual jets will have a reference grid inside of the larger
reference grid.
Each side of the four smaller reference grids is 2 ½ grid squares long. To draw them, I
just have to estimate the spacing of the outlines of the smaller squares using the gridlines of
the larger square. This is shown in the image below.
Below you can see how I have constructed this FRG. I am going to show the formation
from above and slightly behind so the planes will be flying towards the right side of the page.
This view really shows off the beautiful shape of the Flanker.
Below are the top view scaffolds. I have added the ovals after drawing the reference
grids. With a little trial and error, I got them properly oriented inside each reference grid. This
gives me an idea of how much these four Z axes converge (to allow me to do a three point
perspective drawing). Because I am using a zoomed in view, there is not a lot of convergence
of these Z axes, but it is just noticeable. I’m not sure if it is enough to make a difference in the
final drawing, but I needed to draw the ovals to estimate the foreshortening of my Z axes
anyway. You can also see that I have drawn the side view reference grids.
Below is a close-up of one of the completed scaffolds with the wings and tail projected
to their correct locations. It is fairly simple, mostly made up of triangles.
Below is the finished outline of one of the Flankers. Because I have a good idea of the
shape of the bulkheads, I don’t need to draw them. I can use my artist vision to see the
shape. Once I add the markings and shading, the shape will become much more apparent.
Below is my finished sketch. I have placed the primary source of light above and in
front of the viewer. This creates shadows on the near side of the aircraft. I did this because I
felt that shading would help to more clearly define the shape of the fuselage. With the sun in
that position, sunlight would also be reflected by water (the formation is flying over a river
delta), so the water is brighter than the ground. If the sun was behind the viewer, the water
would have a bluer, and therefore darker, appearance. It is important to make sure that your
light source is consistently applied across the whole drawing.
Below is a close up of one of the aircraft. The markings of the Russian Knights are quite
colorful, and they have used a variety of paint schemes over the years. In the one I have
selected, the leading edges of the wings and tail have bright red stripes. The upper wing
surfaces have a blue/gray camouflage pattern. The vertical tail banners have a blue and
yellow sunburst pattern with a red star in the center. The underside is blue and the nose is
white. The close-up picture below helps you to see this in more detail (in black and white at
least).
Just like people, aircraft look better from some points of view than others. I think this
point of view is definitely one of the SU-27’s most flattering. It really show’s off its distinctive
and beautiful shape. As you look at this plane, you should realize that it represents thousands
of innovations, large and small, learned over the last century of flight. It is truly a marvel of
modern technology.
So Grasshopper, we have come to the end of this book and I will leave you with one
final thought. The art of drawing airplanes is about portraying all of the emotions that these
flying machines evoke: a sense of awe, excitement, admiration, pride, inspiration, and many
others. Now, go forth and draw magnificent airplanes!
Epilogue
Wherever you are in your development as an artist, I hope this book has helped you
out. Writing it has been a wonderful learning experience for me too. As much as I’ve covered,
there are still many topics I could discuss and tricks and tips I could share. My hope is that
I’ve given you enough to get you started drawing really great airplanes.
To master this technique, you’ll have to practice it. Find some 3-view drawings of
planes you love and try to draw them. Don’t get frustrated if your first few efforts don’t work
out. Try to figure out what went wrong and try again. The more you practice it, the easier it will
get. Don’t be afraid to modify this scaffolding technique to suit your own style. In fact, if you
discover any great shortcuts, please share them with me. I’d love to learn from you too!
You can find free resources at my website: www.greggoodwinstudio.com to help you as
you learn to draw airplanes. There are videos and workbooks you can check out. Check back
periodically because I am always adding new things. If you have any questions, contact me at
greggoodwinstudio@gmail.com.
Wishing you many happy hours drawing airplanes.
Greg Goodwin
9 October, 2016

Drawing Aircrafts

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The Art of Drawing Airplanes

Scaffolding Example for Drawing an Airplane

Using your Artist Vision

· It helps you to visualize your final picture quickly.

Step 1: Draw a Scaffold Based on a 3-View Drawing

Step 3: Transfer the Scaffold onto the FRG

Step 4: Use Projection to Adjust the Scaffold

Step 6: Outline and Shape the Wings and Tail

Scaffold Example 1: Supermarine Spitfire

Transferring the Scaffold onto a FRG

Cartesian Coordinates: Drawing Three Dimensionally

Using an Oval to Foreshorten Lines

Using an Oval to Draw the FRG

Adding the Z Axis to the FRG

Using Perspective to Draw an Airplane

Human Central and Peripheral Vision

Drawing with Perspective Lines the Right Way

Drawing the Reference Grid in Perspective

A Method for Drawing the FRG

Convergence of Lines around the Z axis

Below is another example of convergence with a wide angle view below.

Review of the Spitfire Scaffold

Below is the side view scaffold for review.

Step 3: Transfer the Spitfire Scaffold to the FRG

Below is the finished scaffold and FRG for the Spitfire.

Below is the side view scaffold.

Step 4: Adjusting the F-86 Scaffold Using Projection

Below is my finished F-86 Sabre scaffold.

Step 5: Outlining and Shaping the Spitfire Fuselage

Shaping the Fuselage: Drawing the Cross-Sections

Then draw the bulkheads using the grids as a reference.

Shaping the Fuselage: Drawing the Silhouette

Shaping the Wings and Tail: Drawing the Airfoils

Shaping the Wing and Tail: Drawing the Spitfire Airfoils

Step 7: Clean up and Final Details

Step 5: Outlining and Shaping the F-86 Sabre Fuselage

Step 1: Draw a Scaffold based on a 3-View Drawing

Below is our side view scaffold.

Step 2: Draw the FRG

Step 4: Use Projection to Adjust the Scaffold

Step 5: Outline and Shape the Fuselage

Below is the complete fuselage silhouette.

Below is the shaped fuselage.

Step 7: Clean up and Final Details

Shading, Light, and Reflection

A Closer Look at the Mustang

Step 1: Draw a Scaffold Based on a 3 View Drawing

Step 2: Draw the FRG

Step 3: Transfer the Scaffold to the FRG

Below is the finished scaffold on the FRG.

Below I have drawn all my bulkheads.

Below are the outlined and shaped wings.

Sketching the Mustang

Drawing Bare Aluminum

Below is an example of chrome and aluminum reflections on a cylinder. This is similar

Step 1: Draw a Scaffold Based on a 3 View Drawing

Step 3: Transfer the Scaffold to the FRG

Step 4: Use Projection to Adjust the Scaffold

Step 5: Outline and Shape the Fuselage

This helps me to draw the outline in the image below.

Step 6: Outline and Shape the Wings and Tail

Below I have created a guide to help me draw the cockpit.

Sketching the Phantom II