Felipe Rodna’s Artwork

It all started in early 2015 when I was contacted via the Panzerwrecks Facebook page by an unknown artist named Felipe Rodna, offering to create colour profiles. Discussions ensued, but the late Bill Auerbach was reticent, so the idea of including his artwork was shelved.

Fast-forward to late 2015, when I was laying out my ‘pet’ project In Focus 1: Jagdpanzer 38, and I touched base with Felipe. I wanted something more than rather dry side views. We very quickly came up with the idea of diptychs: original photo on one page and the artwork replicating it on the right. Since then, Felipe’s diptychs have been an integral part of my publications. His work is almost universally accepted as the best in print, and he has gone on to great things with other publishers and model box-art.

Having spoken with many happy customers about the books I publish and Felipe’s work, there is a misunderstanding that he colourises the photos. This is is not the case. Every piece he creates for Panzerwrecks is an original artwork. It starts with a ‘white draft’, which I pour over and then find any necessary changes, then send my annotated graphic back to him for refining. Once refined, he colours this in Photoshop.

Seeing black & white photos come to life at the hands of someone so talented is a pleasure and honour for me, and I look forward to continuing this.

Lee Archer