Hot Air Balloons at Schwäbisch Hall
This is an illustration I did from a photograph I snapped on my iPhone during the 2011 Catalina flying season. We’d flown in from another airshow in Switzerland and landed at Adolf Würth Airport in Schwäbisch Hall, a very pretty town about a two-hour train journey from Stüttgart (Germany). It was the late afternoon of a very hot summers day and the airshow had just come to an end. We were duly transported from the aeroplane to the beer tent per stretched Limousine (it was only a very, very short hop, but it’s the thought that counts!) and as we were sipping some well-deserved chilled weiss beer, they were inflating this huge Action Man hot air balloon. I love this photo as you can really see how big it is compared to a normal hot air balloon. As it was, it was still too hot for the Action Man balloon to take off – the difference in temperature between the normal air and the heated air was simply not enough to lift a balloon of that size.
This is the first time I used Derwent Inktense pencils and it’s been a bit of a steep learning curve! I chose to use Inktense as I thought they’d be perfect for such a lovely colourful subject. I like the intensity of the colours and way they handle on small, detailed areas of drawing – you can layer colours beautifully as it dries like an ink so the colours won’t mix with the next layer of pigment. I’m not to sure I liked using them on large areas, such as the sky. I had to have three goes at that, as the colour pulled away in a rather odd way as the drawing was drying causing it to look quite blotchy. I was able to correct it to some extent but my sky came out a lot darker than planned. I used a few of my old Karisma colour pencils at the final stage to crisp up some of the detail.
Derwent Inktense pencils, Karisma colour pencils (known as Prismacolor in the USA), A4 watercolour Moleskine .
Such a fun story and a lively colorful picture. The gradient sky looks so cool. I imagine that balloon is very impressive in person.
Thanks Bccmee. I took some video on my iPhone as well so I’m hoping to do something with that in the near future. Just looking for the right piece of music to accommodate a quite creepily ‘waving’ Action Man. Open to any suggestions 🙂
I’m always on the lookout for perfect songs for videos. Usually I find them quite by accident while listening to my online radio stations. Good luck and I look forward to your creation!
This is a beautiful picture! Kind of sad that you didn’t get to see the action man fly. 🙂 I actually lived in Schwäbisch Hall when I was a little kid. It is a very pretty little town.
Thanks Jas. I love the fact that you’ve lived in Schwäbisch Hall – what a coincidence! It’s a beautiful place & we were very lucky to have a day off from flying duties to explore the town. We had a special guide to show us around as one of our shareholder Catalina pilots, Didi Krauss, was born and raised in Schwäbisch Hall. Didi and his friend Hubert, another pilot, showed us around the old town. It was a beautifully hot summers day and we stopped off for the best iced coffee I’ve ever had. Later that afternoon Hubert took us up in his Beachcraft Bonanza for a little flight over Schwäbisch Hall and the monastery. I took a few pictures on my iPhone of that as well. I have fond memories of that trIp – it was very special 🙂