Aviation art Ferris' work has been displayed at venues that include the Air Force Art Collection in
The Pentagon, the
Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum in
Washington, D.C., and the
National Museum of the U.S. Air Force; and in aviation art publications. The art director of
Aviation Week & Space Technology cited "the power and the majesty of aviation in his paintings". In a 1994 interview for
AOPA Pilot magazine, Ferris suggested three rules of thumb for good aviation art: • Painting vs. photography: "If it can be handled by a photographer, I'm not interested in spending my time doing the same thing with paint." • From across a room: "If you can tell at a glance what is going on, what it is and what it is doing, then it is pretty good art". • Develop the shadows in aircraft imagery: "Airplanes are like a big mirror; they reflect the surrounding environment in their surfaces." In a 2001 interview for
The New York Times, Ferris highlighted the advantage of an artist over a photographer by pointing out that, as an artist he can start with nothing and using his imagination turn it into something, as opposed to a photographer who must have an object or scene to photograph. He further explained that his process of creating his works begins with a "debriefing" of his Air Force-sponsored travels to his wife, leading to thumbnail sketches, then to various views of the aircraft mission to be portrayed and finally to scaling all objects to appear in the scene using an engineering process called,
perspective projection by descriptive geometry; this includes careful consideration of the aircraft's flight path relative to the viewer's position. Key to the three dimensional effect is the handling of light and reflected light within the composition. The program provided opportunities to fly in a wide variety of Air Force planes over more than 40 years, including in
B-52s, the
F-4E Phantom in
Thailand, with the
United States Air Force Thunderbirds flight demonstration team, and on Air Force missions during the
Bosnian Conflict. His subject matter documents aviation history from
World War I through the current era. In a 1989 interview with
The New York Times, Ferris described how he scaled up the working image, using a grid system—with fine squares for the working image and coarse squares for the mural—and completed each portion working from left to right, using correspondingly larger paint brushes. The mural took approximately 135 days of planning and 75 days of execution.
Professional societies Ferris joined the
Society of Illustrators in New York City in 1960, which introduced him to the Air Force Art Program.
Camouflage Ferris applied his knowledge of aircraft, his substantial experience with flying on missions in military aircraft, combined with his artistic talent, to developing several innovative
camouflage patterns for military aircraft. He obtained five patents, covering these camouflage patterns. One design involved painting a false cockpit on the underside of an aircraft to make it more difficult for an adversary to determine which way the aircraft was turning. Another design, using
disruptive coloration, entailed applying three shades of gray in a jagged pattern. Key principles included elimination of both bright colors and black from color schemes, the use of gray tones with a matte finish, the use of asymmetric patterns, and the de-emphasis of insignias. Ferris-inspired camouflage schemes have been implemented on foreign aircraft, as well. File:McDonnell Douglas F-4 Phantom II -- comparison of disruptive camouflage schemes -- gray and jungle colors.jpg|
McDonnell Douglas F-4 Phantom II, depicting a disruptive gray camouflage scheme by Ferris (top), contrasted with a jungle coloration (bottom). File:F-16C Fighting Falcon.JPEG|
General Dynamics F-16, showing multi-shade pattern camouflage, influenced by Ferris. File:Sukhoi T-50 Maksimov.jpg|Russian
Sukhoi Su-57, showing multi-shade pattern camouflage, influenced by Ferris. File:T-37 021203-O-9999G-003.jpg|Air Force
T-37 primary trainer with reversed
countershading for maximum visibility, designed by Ferris == Recognition ==