Engine Test

I was seconds away from naming this piece "Untitled 2017 Abstract" -- and
seriously conidered eliminating all that follows. But, I can't.  I looked
at the piece and, well, this is what it is to me...

"Engine Test" is an unusual name for my drawing for today.  I call
it this because it looks somewhat like a rocket nozzle chamber with
all the sophisticated mechanical piping and hydrolics hardware. 
It's my abstract version of what is shown below.  The first image
looks much like what I was thinking of early on after the "flame"
was added to the "chamber." The second image is of Werner Von Braun,
the German rocket scientist, standing next to 4 of the 5 Saturn V
F-1 rocket nozzles in 1968.  In an unrelated note, these engines
were similar to those which were to have carried three American
astronauts into space a year earlier.  The crew's names are listed
below the third photograph showing ignition:







[The crew consisted of Lt. Colonel Virgil Ivan “Gus” Grissom (USAF),
command pilot; Lt. Colonel Edward Higgins White, II (USAF), senior
pilot; and Lt. Commander Roger Bruce Chaffee (USN), pilot.]

An oxygen fire in their capsule unfortunately killed the crew on the
launch pad during another kind of cabin test.  

My drawing began as an ink drawing on the day after Christmas when I
was in Watkins Glen, NY with my family.  It was not until today that
I drew over the existing lines with my technical pen, then added
color from a new set of colored pencils. The initial pen drawing
took about 20-30 minutes.  The completion took another 2-3 hours. 
Additional design lines and patterns were added. There are 19
colors. If my "engine" was to 'launch' itself off the page, it would
"take off" to the right! This "practice run" with colored pencils on
a 9 x 12 sketch pad (given to me by Lee and Linda along with the
colored pencils) was fun to draw since it ended up looking like one
of those powerful rocket engines that fascinated me in my 20's. To
others, the colored pencil drawing may appear to be something else.