"Commence Refueling"

 

Three adjectives currently define my oil painting: "tacky" (which can be taken more than one way), "dull", and "ashen".
I wanted to prove to myself that I could still draw and had some type of sense of color, so I whipped up this quick (and it was relatively quick) watercolor.

Since I still like what other people can do with oil paint, I'm not giving up- but right now, I'm very far from happy with what I can do.

What we have here in tonight's illustration is an Electrician's Mate signaling an aircraft carrier to commence refueling. I chose this guy because he doesn't look like he's having a great Navy day. ...and of course, I thought his demeanor was a good subject to paint and immortalize. (Source photo is from Navy.mil, btw).

Edit (04-12-10): Today The Scoop Deck posted a blog about the UNREP on the USS Freedom where I got my source photo from...