Painting US Infantry in Normandy WW2

I've always enjoyed painting scenes from the Second World War. There is so much depth in locations, uniforms, equipment and themes. This painting depicts a automatic rifleman at the front of a patrol as they navigate the Normandy hedgerows. The allies would spend all of June and most of July stuck only a few miles off the beaches due to the ferocious defence by the Germans. I started this painting almost a year ago to the day. This is how it sat for a year. It was intended to be a quick study to practice painting hedgerows and foliage. I wanted to do another World War Two painting and this one was begging to be finished.

 For the US soldiers, I referenced some illustrations by Ronald Volstad. These depicted the US Army uniforms used in the European theatre of operations. Most soldiers where outfitted with the beige field jacket and brownish wool trousers seen in the illustration. I liked the tense poses the soldiers were in making it look like they knew they were walking into combat.

Another uniform that wasn't as widespread, but saw extensive use in the Normandy summer of 1944 was the HBT uniform which consisted of a olive drab field jacket and trousers. This can be seen being worn by the soldier in the middle. They contained two large chest pockets and two on the side of the legs. This illustration also by Ronald Volstead shows how the selection of uniforms available in Normandy appear mismatched. 

Up until this point, the whole painting had been done in acrylics. This is where I started to add in the oils. In the year between working on this painting I had began working with oil paints and enjoyed them much more than acrylic due to the working time and coverage. My last piece of the evergreens in my backyard were much more realistic, and I wanted to experiment with a more painterly look.

The background was based off a classical oil painting I saw in the Portland art museum. I didn't know the name of the painting and couldn't give credit to the owner so I decided to change it up. I wanted the painting to be set during D-Day so I could justify the gloomy weather and certain pieces of equipment. I would like to add in the assault vest to one of the soldiers. I find this vest parallels and foreshadows the look of modern soldiers. The vest was actually unpopular among amongst the soldiers due to the sizing and lack of ventilation. This lead most to be discarded in favor of the standard webbing seen in the front two soldiers. At this point in the painting I'm unsure if I will add soldiers in the background. I will place them using one point perspective using the top of the right pocket as the vanishing point. 

Now that all the main components of the painting had been filed in, it was time to start refining and adding details. I started with the BAR gunner. I sculpted the highlights and shadows of the uniform and face. I like the more abstract look that the painting has at the moment. The viewer isn't caught up in a tangle of sharp and fine details but a series combined together to give the simplest ideas of shape and form.

Work also begins on the corpse of the German soldier up against the tree. He is inspired by a well known photograph taken in the same location. The refining I was able to do with black and white to define the shapes really helped to push it forward. I want to show unique pieces of equipment he has on such as the camouflage parka. The dark grey German uniform and pieces of camouflage clothing helped them to blend into the Normandy countryside much better than the beige uniforms of the Americans which shone bright in the sun.

In this illustration you can see the variety of uniforms and camouflage garments used by the Germans in Normandy. The German in the painting wears the rain parka seen on the soldier second to the left. This piece of equipment was standard issue and could be configured into wearable camouflage. Although US Marines used camoflauge in the Pacific theater, the Army never fully adopted a camouflage uniform. Units that were outfitted with camouflage suffered from friendly fire incidents as they were mistakenly identified to be Germans. 

I decided to make another big change and open up the background a bit more. I wanted to keep the grey clouds but have a little bit of blue sky showing through. As you can see the painting looks completely different. I exaggerated the haze to push the new tree line back even farther. On D-Day it would have been hazy anyway from all the bombardment. I also changed up the lighting at my desk so the painting looks much more vibrant. 

In this step I give the automatic rifleman some attention. His jacket and rifle receive some refinement. Next step will be to paint his magazine pouches and trousers. As you can see, the green uniforms blend in much better with the environment. By the end of the summer, the new M1943 uniform in olive drab will reach frontline troops in Europe offering some more concealment.