This is one of a series of A3 aircraft drawings that I did for the then Chief Pilot of National Airways Corporation, Frans Erasmus, to decorate his office wall. He commissioned the first aircraft I ever did, and they were quite a change from the portraiture I did up until that stage.

The Embraer E145 is a very long jet, as is evident in this view. Frans chose the views that he wanted for himself, always favoring the “clean” view (landing gear up and control surfaces up), but occasionally I managed to convince him to allow a landing configuration to add a little interest to a vehicle with really clean lines by design with little play of light and shadow as a result.

Initially clouds took me a few tries and experiments, but this is one of the later ones I did for him. I also photocopied my work for my portfolio rather than photocopying them, hence the change in image quality over time.