This piece depicts the 1st victory of Lt. Ralph A. O'Neill of 147th Sq USAS, which took place on July 2, 1918. The depiction is based on an account by O'Neill is which he described the event.
"... Five minutes later, when just across the lines, I saw another formation of buses. 'Probably C Flight,' I thought, but kept going for them. When we were about half a mile from them they saw us and all five dove away in different directions. 'They think we are Huns,' I smiled to myself. However, I dove after them thinking they might be Huns. Later I learned that the two B's with me never saw the five - otherwise I might not have been in such a hurry. I dove with motor full on, making for the nearest one. First I noticed that it was a queer looking bus, ugly, and all camouflaged in dots and squares, black and white all over, a red tail with no insignia. A second later I saw a thin black cross on his wings. 'My God, a Hun!' For another second I didn't know what to do. The Hun had seen me and was beginning to turn and climb to get above me. Somehow my hands had found the Bowden levers and both guns were firing. The Hun made the mistake of trying to turn and climb in front of me. I was right on top of him and would have rammed him in five seconds; but for four seconds I poured two streams of rapid fire into him (ten shots per second per gun). Just as I was going to zoom to miss him he fell." Ralph O'Neill apparently was dubbed "Snake" by his squadron mates, so the client and I decided to call the piece Snake's First Strike.
With the subject being backlit I really wanted to capture a sense of light with this. I purposefully kept the ground a bit loose. With so much action going on here I didn't want the field patterns to distract from the subject. Thus, as I was working I basically let the brushstrokes suggest to me what the fields should look like. I'm happy with how that worked. Think I'll stay with that approach in the future.
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