Sketches for D-Day Commemoration 2014

I am continuing my research for a series of works to be complete in time for next years
D-Day Anniversary. I am still experimenting with treatments and colour values to achieve the final mood and texture. A quick preliminary sketch appears below.

I have also included a watercolour study done in 2011 of a visit to "Dog Green" sector of Omaha.

This sector was depicted in the movie "Saving Private Ryan". Notably missing in the film was the 10 foot seawall and road. The high bluff behind the beach is much further away and quite a bit higher too.

The first wave in the shallows

"Dog Green" Sector Omaha Beach 2011

D-Day 70 years on

The 6 June 2014 will be the 70 anniversary of the D-Day landings in Normandy. Sadly there will be few veterans left to remember it.

The subject has fascinated me since I was a boy. Two of my uncles crossed the beaches on and shortly after D-Day and it was always a treat to be allowed to look at a D-Day map of Gold beach.

So I have begun to plan a tribute of my own for next year, in paint of course. The final idea has not yet formed but I have begun a few sketches.

My starting point has been the famous Robert Capa photographs of the first waves landing on Omaha beach. Only nine frames of Capa's photographs remain, the rest were accidentally destroyed by an over enthusiastic technician who melted the film emulsions in a drying cabinet!

But those nine frames tell the story magnificently. If I can capture an essence and mood of such a momentous event in paint I will be very satisfied.

Initial thoughts on composition

A quick colour sketch, the day was heavily overcast and grey

View from the assault boats, the first wave goes ashore

In the shallows looking back out to sea