Little Treasure, Lost and Found

Here's an old sketch I did while on my first deployment as a combat artist, back in 2006. It's of a young jundi (soldier), one Ali Muhammad Kathair, just before he goes out on patrol in his town of Anah, Iraq:

I'm glad we found it (my wife was organizing her new craft space and found it in some things-- we still have no clue how it got there!). I will submit it to the Combat Art Collection of the National Museum of the Marine Corps in Quantico, where it belongs.

Sketches like this one are very valuable, I think, because though they may lack refinement or be a bit "off," they are one of a kind records of something the artist saw.

This sketch and the photos I took were used as inspiration and reference for a portrait sketch I did later of the same subject:

A Lioness at Al Asad

Daily Sketches

I've begun the discipline of making sure I draw a little each day, no matter what other larger, more extended project I'm working on. This not only sharpens the eye and the touch, but also ensures that at the end of the day, I've got at least one completed thing to show.

Here's Today's Daily Sketch:

 Other recent daily sketches:

Giving Thanks

Here's a blast from the past, and one that relates to Thanksgiving.

This is an oil painting entitled, "The Chess Game," and depicts several Marines sitting around playing chess and reading, passing the time.

It's based on a sketch and photos I took at an outpost on Route Michigan in Al Anbar Province on Thanksgiving Day, 2006. The Marines depicted were engineers who had spent their day on a route clearing mission (making sure there were no IEDs on the road)-- they certainly had earned some down time.

I enjoyed watching these Marines relax, and we spent a few moments chatting about Thanksgiving. As the "old man" in the room, I asked the young men to go around the room and mention something they were thankful for, and they obliged. Each expressed thanks for home, family and friends-- and to be alive, of course.

It was a bit of home there in an outpost.

I was thankful to God that America still produces young people like these, willing to serve wherever called.  I am still thankful for that today.

Evening Parley

This is a small oil painting nearing completion, showing activity late in the evening at an Entry Control Point (ECP) in the FOB outside Rutbah back in 2007.

In the scene, two local Iraqi gentlemen talk with a Marine officer (back to viewer) about some issue or concern they are having...

The figure on the left is the interpreter, female, assisting the meeting (this ECP had a lot of civilians coming through, and the women had to be inspected by our women Marines-- so she served an interpreter for that activity as well).

I find the subject interesting, as one can have fun guessing what the narrative might be...

& from an artistic standpoint, the harsh floodlights made a dramatic effect that is fun and challenging to depict.

UPDATE Feb 5, 2011:
Finished!! (Well, at least it's signed-- a painting is never really finished...)