The Art Of The Storyboard Diorama

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Ya know sometimes I wonder if I am going to way too much trouble with this diorama to tell a basically very simple story,an airman's return from the war and his continued relationship with his backyard Flyer.At times I wonder if there is enough of a storyline to justify such a huge space.

Rockwell's painting is tight with lots going on ,mine is spacious with little going on.His painting is of a joyous occasion ,my diorama is somewhat the opposite,just a GI and his thoughts for the future.

It is an old story told in many ways before.The split in the road and the road not taken tells of fateful decisions made that change everything forever.

I remember as a child being around men such as these,how important family and just being alive was to them.A lot were great fathers while others were just lost in their memories. I remember how important things like growing a community garden was to them,how they tended those gardens and how everybody respected those tiny spaces .I have included a garden in this diorama for that very reason.

Roads,gardens,airplane it just grew over time I guess.

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Just outside the engine shop they are loading on some of the salvageable parts and pieces from the JN4 to put in storage.Hank the barnstormer is trying to make a little time with Cheryl our wingwalker who is probably wondering why do I put my life in the hands of this good old boy every season ? These wingwalkers are quite a bunch in fact just the other day I received a letter stating "when present wing walker is killed I want the job."

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Good progress John. Still watching this

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Sorry but due to my workload I haven't been able to keep this thread up to date on every website.However you will find the complete story over on :

http://www.theaerodrome.com

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Sorry about the quality of the pics but I should have better ones soon.

This pic is of the back of the Albatros hangar diorama "Some Say He Walked Away."

It is an aviation expression meaning any landing is a good landing as long as you can walk away.

[AlanG]

Been following this on LSP too. Great work John

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On this latest diorama that I have been working on,I have only now just completed the story.The rest of the story was already worked out but the backyard of the grandparents was only finally figured out yesterday.

The time of year depicted is early spring .I thought of a Victorian gazebo of some kind but it was just too big and fancy and would have drawn too much attention away for the main storyline,the airman and his airplane.I then thought of a tool shed with a rake laying around ,a typical springtime chore in this part of the world.Then a few starter plants under a small glass box to add a little color.But I needed a little something extra for viewer interest.After much thinking about it I decided to use the gazebo roof that I had already underway before I changed my mind.I cut it in half and made two completely different things out of it ,a bird bath and a fishpond which I am working on now.The garden shed is also underway.Just these three items will take over a week to do working everyday but my personal guide has always been to put as much thought and work into the small everyday objects as the big fancy cars or airplanes.So here goes... Hope you enjoy watching these items take shape.This backyard has been one of the most difficult things to get right,to tell an interesting story but not distract from the main storyline.

I work this way with only a basic plan at the beginning and just let the story develop over time.This gives me the maximum of opportunity to changed things and also keeps it interesting for me right up until the end of the project.