Trafalgar - 'Fatal Victory'

Happy Trafalgar Day 2006! ^_^

Today, of course, is the anniversary of the Battle of Trafalgar, marking both Admiral Lord Nelson’s victory over the combined French and Spanish fleets, as well as his premature death on board his flagship, H.M.S. Victory. There’s not likely to be as much merriment on this Trafalgar Day as compared to last year, but being the Nelson buff I am, I couldn’t pass up the opportunity to do something for this day. So here we are, Nelson in the midst of the battle!

I’ve always wanted to do a Trafalgar battle scene, and although this is quite minimal in detail, I’m pleased with the result and can at least see that I’ve improved on last year’s artwork based on Nelson (as well as, once again, learning a few new digital painting techniques). I’ve paid particular attention to Nelson’s uniform, his vice-admiral’s undress coat, which is accurate to the one he wore at Trafalgar. Even his orders of knighthood are all true to the actual ones on his coat, and are also positioned correctly. They are (from top to bottom); the Order of Bath, Order of the Crescent, Order of St Ferdinand and Order of St Joachim.
There are two aspects of this image that are incorrect (one of which is now severely bugging me). The first concerns Nelson’s teeth. I’ve given him his top teeth, yet I read somewhere that Nelson had lost these by this time (having been pretty battered about during his lifetime). Whether this is true or not, I don’t know, but for the purpose of aesthetics I gave him his teeth. The other concerns the figure directly behind Nelson. He is supposed to be Hardy, Captain of the Victory. The thing that’s bugging me is his hair (or all things… gah!), which is the wrong colour. I based him on the way the artist Arthur William Devis had portrayed him in the painting ‘The Death of Nelson’. This I find, after some research, is inaccurate. Hardy would have still had his mop of reddish-brown hair at the time of Trafalgar. You’re probably wondering, ‘why is this such a big deal?’ Well the simple answer is, that it is… to me. I like accuracy when I’m working from actual history.

Btw, anyway, that’s that. As for Nelson’s expression, I really don’t know why I made him look so concerned. From what I read, he went into that battle pretty unafraid, standing in full view. All I can say is that there are French snipers up in the rigging there in the background. Perhaps he’s about to turn around and receive his deathblow.

Not much more to say, apart from this was planned, composed and painted entirely within Photoshop and took a whole day’s working (non-stop) to complete. I hope you like the result as much as I do (throwing aside any niggles about hair colour that is!)

(Image © Leona Preston 2006)


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