DOUGLAS AIRCRAFT COMPANY ARTIST - What It's Like Working in a Large Corporate Art Department

[@mikesclimenti8268]

Great video! It brought back memories of when my dad worked at McDonnell-Douglas (Long Beach) in the late 60s through the 80s. He worked on the DC-10/MD-11 and DC-9/MD-80 programs as a technical illustrator. I remember when the DC-10 was rolled out the first time. It was huge. We were there for one of those big events for the employees. Of course, that's when I had a great appreciation for all the work he did and of course everyone else. We were able to walk around and through the assembly buildings that again, were so cavernous. Seeing how the aircraft were assembled, for me, was very interesting. I remember one time the whole family was down there at the plant when they rolled one the the DC-10s across Lakewood Blvd. it was quite a sight. Then came the C-17s. I remember them building that huge assembly building just for those planes. Well, that was a long time ago and most of the buildings are gone. Anyhow, keep up the good work!

[@dougsguitarlounge7927]

Great video Mike, I worked at McDonnell Douglas long Beach during the 80's and 90's. What a great place to work. I worked on Md-80's , KC-10, MD-11 and C-17. Also on the first T-45. So said that it's shut down, I really miss those day's. My step-dad worked there for 36 years, he retired in 1986. I really enjoyed your video. Thanks for the memories.

[@celebratingaviationwithmik9782]

Agreed on the great company and Long Beach experience, thanks!

[@stephenmiller9124]

Mike, I enjoyed watching 3 of your videos today. I began with the box art for plastic model airplane kits and the factory made display build up models for hobby shops. My parents bought me airplane models beginning in 1955. Seeing the original box art brings back such wonderful memories. I continued building plastic models from the mid fifties through today, though I have focused on automotive scale modeling since the late 1980s. I graduated from college in 1973 and in 1974 my airline/travel industry career began. I did not earn my private pilots license until 1980, a few months before my 30th birthday. As a lifelong aviation enthusiast, I admire your career path and the impressive artwork you have produced. My first airline sales positions were with World Airways, Inc. We proudly flew McDonnell Douglas DC-8-63C/F and DC-10-30C/F equipment in addition to B747-100C and B727-100C aircraft during my tenure. I certainly envy your military aircraft "check rides". Your video presentations make me hungry for more, so of course, I subscribed. Thank you for sharing your aviation enthusiam with your audience!

[@celebratingaviationwithmik9782]

Thanks for the great comment and for subscribing - all of us in our beloved aviation industry speak a very special language. A great experience during my time at Long Beach was giving plant tours to VIP and airline visitors, and I'd begin at the DC-10 wing spar milling station to show the very first step of construction. Moving through the plant we'd see the tail 'banjo braces' for the #2 engine, fuselage barrel sections, etc., and wind-up in Building 84 for wing-join and final assembly. It was an impressive sight, and one airplane I remember seeing built from start to finish was a World DC-10-30C/F. Six months later, I got to fly on that same airplane from LAX (West Imperial Terminal) to EWR. It still had its "new car smell," and was one of my all-time favorite flights. Thanks for the memories!

[@cdusen]

Fascinating insight into an enviable life style.

[@marcbrasse747]

OOOOOOH! I will have to study this video very thoroughly!

[@davidshell1738]

Great story Mike!👍 I love anything Douglas! Thank you for sharing your journey!

[@celebratingaviationwithmik9782]

Appreciate the comment, thanks.

[@TheStimpy60]

Fascinating Mike , thank you again for a great piece

[@wkelly3053]

A dream job well earned. Many interesting aspects here. IMO, the most magical benefit of aviation art, or any kind of art, is the ability of the artist to use exaggerated colors and effects in the rendering to convey what the mind feels, beyond what the eye sees in real life; it is truly complete freedom of expression. The Douglas company photographs are also neat to see. I love the picture of the lobby area with various models and displays, and also that massive hangar shot with all the drafting tables extending seemingly to infinity. As a former engineer, I would label that photo "slide rule days". No computer screens or cubicles, at least that I could see; everyone in a huge hangar, my kind of place. Thanks!

[@celebratingaviationwithmik9782]

Thank you very much for your great comment and observations - agreed on all points!

[@ghostmodeler]

Great program, Mike! What a wonderful tour of your time at Douglas Long Beach. The image of the DC-10 in the rain by George Akimoto is absolutely stunning! Wow. Keep up the great work.

[@celebratingaviationwithmik9782]

Thanks Tony, and so glad you liked the story. Those were truly magical times just a few years before Long Beach went off the rails. Appreciate the comment, and lunch soon - new place out here with open patio!

[@towcub]

Outstanding. Really appreciate this. I spent my first 11 years in SoCal, being born in ‘55. My Dad was an aero engineer with Northrop, then JPL, EOS, and Lear Siegler. We had an airplane based at Van Nuys. Mom and Dad were glider pilots - Perris, Tehachapi, El Mirage. Later Dad worked for DOT R&D, then FAA-AEE. After school (UCLA, math) I went to work in the Pentagon as a contractor doing computer-simulated air combat for Air Force trade studies. So I’ve been in and around a lot of the same stuff, but from an entirely different perspective. Really enjoying seeing all this through your eyes!

[@celebratingaviationwithmik9782]

Wonderful comment, thanks! My very first glider ride (in a Schweizer 2-22) was at Perris. That flight changed my life!

[@towcub]

I have been in that very 2-22. My mom and my dad both soloed gliders in it. Was your instructor a guy named Gene? Did you partake of the cantaloupe and ice cream?

[@celebratingaviationwithmik9782]

@@towcub Wow, small world! I flew with an elderly pilot there in 1971. Name might have been Don?

[@towcub]

I don’t remember a Don. Our years there were 1963-1966. You might have run into an old friend who occasionally worked as tow pilot though, Bob Nye. Small world indeed.

[@waynebrumley2315]

a super job I enjoy your work Thank you! I am an old Douglas mech from Tulsa Ok. worked F15 DC-9 MD-80 &MD-11

[@celebratingaviationwithmik9782]

Thanks Wayne, and best to you for the Holidays from a fellow McDonnell Douglas veteran!

[@johnplaninac9980]

A very nice presentation.

[@glennweaver3014]

Superb presentation. Learned a lot from this. Thank you Mike.

[@petergregorypottery5476]

Thank you for a wonderfully interesting account of your time at Douglas. Being an artist at the time you were working was really so very "hands on" and tactile with pencils, pens, glue, gouache and watercolours... and actual paper, parchment, illustration board and so on, and your skill set had to be so broad with having to master sign writing as well as technical drawing and painting. It was a delight to be reminded of that world. All different now of course with computer based digital art, although that is incredibly highly skilled and challenging, and creative in its own way.... but there is "something" uniquely satisfying about opening a tube of paint and making a mark with a real sable brush... and the result doesn't dematerialise when the power goes off! Thanks!

[@707liner8]

Fabulous stuff. I remember seeing some of those illustrations in various magazines years ago, how amazing now in 2023 to be able to watch a video like this made by one of the key artists.

[@celebratingaviationwithmik9782]

Appreciate the comment, thanks!

[@kenty2831]

A beautiful story of passion and talent. The George Akimoto lithograph of a DC 7 exudes "atmosphere". Your videos are packed with history and have a polished storyline. Thank you

[@celebratingaviationwithmik9782]

Thanks Kent, and I still have that Akimoto DC-7 lithograph, although now a bit faded and worn after 60 years.

[@kenty2831]

@@celebratingaviationwithmik9782 The color embellishments and carrier markings are interesting after watching your other videos. The thought and process used to communicate the intent of the aircraft are quite delicate and different, say compared to the art deco period. Your communication of your experience and talent shines through

[@gtv6chuck]

Thanks for a very interesting video. A couple of years ago I was at a mid century modern design fair in Denver, and I bought a fantastic vintage print of the Douglas X-3. I took it out of its frame, and underneath was another print, that of the VC-118/DC-6 that was painted as Harry Truman's Air Force One, the Independence.

[@celebratingaviationwithmik9782]

Thank you Chuck, and those prints you described were from a portfolio set by the great R.G. Smith. I'm well familiar with both images you described!

[@theRICKbowman]

Mike, It's so interesting to hear about your unique experience and insight into the history of Douglas. I love watching your videos and find them very inspiring as a very much beginner aviation artist.

[@celebratingaviationwithmik9782]

Thank you Rick - appreciate the nice comment, and best of luck with your aviation art!

[@douglasw.7864]

Wonderful video Mike. Being a lifetime art / aviation fan, I enjoyed it tremendously. Love that huge KC-10 model in one of the photos.

[@CRUISOMATIC]

Thanks for these great insights, Mike. Very much appreciated!

[@celebratingaviationwithmik9782]

Thank you Chris - appreciate the nice comment.

[@ab-ve9nm]

Hello Mike, your job is amazing ! Keep posting content like that !! I think best aviation and military books where the ones published in the 80's, full of color drawings and real art pieces. Nothing can replace a beatiful drawing. Regards from Buenos Aires, Argentina. PS: regarding box art, take a look at the wonderful drawings on Hasegawa and Fujimi scale model boxes.

[@garfieldsmith332]

Excellent. A very informative session. In this age of computers we have forgotten the amount of work that artists had to do by hand. You worked with the basic tools of paper, pencils, erasers, brushes, paint, then added a lot of skill and love to produce those drawings and paintings. The artwork you have shown is superb.

[@celebratingaviationwithmik9782]

Appreciate the wonderful comment and kind words. We used to be called "artists," but are now known as "natural media artists" (as opposed to digital)!

[@rodmanser7573]

Can't ever get enough of the old Douglas stuff to share with our friends Jim Phillips, Art Kressly Tom Croslin, Rolf Sellge, Terry McGaughan, both Callaghan's, Jim Bouey and etc Hope you are still around. Did you do anything for the old propfan or the propfan subchaser proposals or the MD-12? Are you in the MACDAC west retirees club?

[@Crediblesport]

Mike did you ever attended the l.a. ipms meetings at the bank or the del among or long beach chapters?

[@celebratingaviationwithmik9782]

I used to go to the IPMS meetings at TRW Space Park - never did the Long Beach chapters.

[@mikealexander4166]

Awesome!

[@celebratingaviationwithmik9782]

Appreciate the comment, thanks!

[@timnell207]

That hair at 3:50! Aaaggghhhh

[@celebratingaviationwithmik9782]

Yes, and you should have seen the rest of the Art Department!

[@jonallen4389]

I have 3 paintings from Mcdonnell Douglas but they are of the big 3 GM FORD CHRYSLER. The name on them are Babb. The pictures content shows grom the start of their cars up to the mid 80s it looks like. Do you have any clue what they are?

[@celebratingaviationwithmik9782]

Thanks for writing, but I do not have any knowledge of this project or artist, sorry.

[@jonallen4389]

Thank you for replying. I am having a hard time on these. They are in nice frames and the paintings themselves have a boarder and say Mcdonnell Douglas in the center at the bottom of the page. I was offered a 1000 dollars for them but I feel they may be worth more.

[@MrRandomcommentguy]

Interested to know if you met or knew Ralph McQuarrie? To those who don't know Ralph was an aeronautical artist before coming to world fame for his design and illustration work on the Star Wars movies.

[@celebratingaviationwithmik9782]

Never knew Ralph, and thanks for your comment.