By Sgt. Melissa N. Lessard, 504th Military Intelligence Brigade Public Affairs
FORT HOOD, Texas—Award winning artist visited the 504th Military Intelligence Brigade here on May 10, 2018, to start a legacy illustration.
Jim Dietz (PU) has won various awards for his illustrations, especially military and aviation historical paintings. This will be the first legacy illustration that captures a MI unit, said Dietz.
Soldiers gathered on the cattle track, waiting to be directed by Dietz. He asked the driver of the vehicle to stop driving so he could walk around to find his ideal location to set up. Once the spot was found, Soldiers and equipment in place Dietz started snapping photos.
“Look a little to my right,” he said to a Soldier. “Where my hand is. Look back to the group. Look up the road. Look out there somewhere. Chin up. You are good,” he said and the Soldier moved out of the photo.
Dietz proceeded with similar remarks for each Soldier involved.
The next step involved to help bring the legacy painting together is a war reenactment in Los Angeles, said Leonovich. The reenactment will recapture specific war periods that will be included in the illustration.
Dietz said that he will start the illustration process today but he won’t actually put paint to a canvas until October. There are many logistical and back and forth movements to putting a piece together.
Dietz has focused on historical military, aviation and automobile art since 1978.
“I’m ideally suited for what I do,” he said. “I was lucky enough, after the mandatory starvation period, to make a good living from it.”
He said that some of the images he has made with various military units have come to be amongst his favorites because of the people he worked with.
“Their spirit gets embedded in the painting,” he said.