The world is full of colour; it always has been and always will be. Suspend your belief for a moment and it would be easy to think that monochrome airplanes rolled out of monochrome factories to be flown by monochrome crews against a monochrome enemy. Of course we know better, but it wasn't until the mid-1950s that colour film came into the mainstream.

While black and white images provide a treasure trove of information to researchers and historians, even the best images lack an important real-life connection - colour. In both the First and Second World Wars, the Canadian Army went so far as to send artists into the field to create a colourful interpretation of both combat and the soldier's everyday life in colour.

English graphics artist, Bill Dady has graciously shared a selection of aircraft profile images from his catalogue with the Calgary Mosquito Society. Naturally they're all Mosquitoes. Using Adobe Illustrator Bill progresses from a black and white line drawing, through layers of shadows, highlights, colour schems and markings before eventually reaching a completed illustration.

As Bill shows, even while in wartime camouflage there were differences; light or dark undersides, sinister all-black night fighter or hard to see photo-reconnaissance blue, even a choice between camouflage and all silver in the Royal Australian Air Force. Since the Mosquito was a high performance airplane, after the war many were sold to allied nations, further adding to the Mosquito's colourful assortment of paint schemes.

To see more of Bill's aircraft profiles please visit his website: