Dad 1945

Dad 1945

The handsome strapping young sailor in this pencil/charcoal drawing is my Dad.  Dozens of vintage photographs were with his things.  He had taken the time to label each photo with names of those in the pictures.  That is, except for this one photo - of himself.  

I began with a two value drawing with pencil.  I expanded my value range to five, but was not satisfied with my darkest value until I introduced soft vine charcoal over the pencil for the darkest dark.  I used a stump to soften each value.

The familiar features (literally) common to the clan include the high arching eyebrows, straight full nose and prominent lower lip.  I see these features in myself and my boys.   I think it helped the flow of the drawing to know that these were the features that needed to be right.