"A sketchbook is a secret thing, a collection of unfinished and often times abandoned ideas never intended for public consumption—at least not in their current state. It’s a private space for honing one’s craft and workshopping, separating good ideas from those best left unexplored." -Brian Heater at The Daily Cross Hatch.
You know, all of this working for a living crap, sucks. I'd really like to do some art again...However, in lieu of such an opportunity (and until I win the lottery) I present you with a vaguely maritime themed comic I did some years ago for a friend. It would take too long to explain as I have to run off to work. It's not meant to make sense outside of it's context- so don't worry if you don't get it. There are surfboards in the next scene...if I could only find it...
Work has been kicking my ass, and I really haven't had enough juice to get into any drawing in the last few days. BUT, I did just drop some major coinage on some oil paints, so LOOK OUT, maybe in about 6 months maybe you'll see a real painting. Maybe.
This one is an oldie. I was really into drawing from surfing magazines there for a while there. Maybe tomorrow I'll post some of my short lived, comic-book-femme-fatale-surfing-spy "Swedish Kay". Good stuff.
Often when I drift off into a Walter Mitty-like reverie about putting to sea, holystoning is not something I fantasize about. That gig must've SUCKED. Seriously. When looking for holystoning pictures, I found some as recent as 1965. Far out man. For some strange reason (maybe "sloth"), I left the pencils in on this one.
I think my art hiatus is over. Ater that last painting I just felt drained- and, my responsibilities at work have cranked up a little so there's no time to draw during the day (aw, boo-hoo, I know. I hear tiny violins playing, etc.) and when I get home I'm just bushed.
This was a sketch I did during the US Navy's humanitarian aid operation to Haiti. I know the Carl Vinson has left the area, but I don't know who's left on station, or what shape American aid is currently taking in a situation that by all accounts is worsening. Here's an interesting article on why foreign development aid to Haiti fails to do what it's supposed to. It was written well before the earthquake. It's from the the Nitze international affairs school at Johns Hopkins, so I consider it to be quality thinking on the matter.
This is an Aviation Bosun's Mate, clearing debris somewhere in Haiti. I tried to get a little more abstract with the figure this time. The crinkling on the paper was an unfortunate accident I caused while erasing...
Due to popular demand, I've opened up a store at Cafe Press. I'm also trying to open one up on Zazzle because I really like those t-shirts- but it's hard manipulating an image for use on their products. I'm going to keep working at it though. (I'm a fan of Zazzle products). But in the meantime, here's my Cafe Press store: http://www.cafepress.com/coldisthesea. Don't forget to order a beer stein and undies with your order. (The beer stein's are very cool- I have one from another project and use it regularly...) Here's the original image, by the way.
Please take some time to stroll through my site and give me your two cents about what images you'd like to see offered on apparel, better venues than Cafe Press, etc. This is a work in progress.
Here's the Zazzle Store- http://bit.ly/JollyJackTarTeeOpaque needs some tweaking. I'm having a hard time with the contrast here...Not a very user-friendly interface. But you get more options with Zazzle including American Apparel tees. I'm guessing the contrast is off in the image because they manipulate it to fit on the contours of the model's shirt. (This is getting way too "Rene Magritte" for me to process...)
What drew me to the source photo for this image was the physical tension on this Corpsman's brow. If you look closely at the source photo, you can see all sorts of muscles straining on her forehead.
Obviously, I don't know anything about this Corpsman. Maybe she looks like that all the time. However, since she's on Haiti, I'm going to guess that hers is a look of pure concentration, strain, sorrow or all three. It must be very difficult to keep a cheerful mien when you're helping a dehydrated child sip water after a disaster of the magnitude that recently occurred in Haiti. Additionally, how many people has she already tended to? When was the last time she slept? etc. A situation like that has to take its toll.
Having read a book or two in my time about America and Haiti, (The Immaculate Invasion, Mars Learning, The Savage Wars of Peace and The White King of La Gonave) I have to say that despite the contentious relationship between the US military and the Haitian people for the last 100+ years, at least we're there now doing some good, necessary work. How long we'll stay, or how much good we'll do in the long run remains to be seen. In my opinion, I'm sure we'll do as much as we can, given that having a destabilized country in chaos to our south isn't an attractive prospect, especially with the current international security milieu (how long do you think it will take for criminal elements in Haiti to start shaking down passing maritime traffic a la the Somalis? I'm sure the Coast Guard and Navy have a handle on that, otherwise I'm sure they would've tried it by now).
I saw this linked on the excellent Casco Bay Boaters Blog, which is one of my daily reads.
Also, here are a couple of essays on humanitarian assistance/disaster relief operations from the Small Wars Journal. The author has an extensive background from the military side of things: Some Advice for Military Humanitarians and Don’t Call it CMOC.
...I'm done. It's been a great learning experience though. Haven't done anything like this in years. (Click on the image for full size).
The ideas for the tattoo of the sextant and the turtle (a Galapagos) seemed better in the conception stage than after their execution. The bowsprit of course is a little "erect", but...let's chalk that up to a crappy tattooist. There are about a million other things I could pick at, but, I won't. (Maybe someday I'll get that Kraken tattoo for myself...)
I decided to add a tattoo of a Kraken devouring a Spanish galleon. The eyes have become a major problem on this one and I'm almost at the point where I think the painting can't be salvaged. The placement of the eyes looked fine when I drew it, but now are so off balance with each other and asymmetric- I can't even look at this painting. I'll try and figure something out.
This is the latest addition to my Bosun's Mate's series. When looking at the source photo for this sketch, you see an UNREP being conducted with three ships. This is a very complicated maneuver in which mistakes can cost people their lives or seriously damage the ships. The Deck Division guys in the photo seem very alert, maybe even tense- but totally focused on the ship next to them. As I was looking at the photo, my eye wandered and picked up an incongruous shape on the gun mount. It was barely noticeable at first, but when I saw it I couldn't help but laugh. It was probably one of the most important weapon components on a naval vessel...a stainless steel coffee travel mug. Recently I was reading Robert Kaplan's "Hog Pilots and Blue Water Grunts" in which he interviewed a Chief on a destroyer who said something to the effect of, "In the Age of Sail the Navy used to give sailors free rum. Now it's free coffee.". Well. if our Navy runs on coffee, I suppose it's best that they keep it on hand everywhere.
Boy, I can't wait until I can sit down and just finish this baby. The time is coming soon. For some reason, I have a serious mental block about completing work...But I'm an artist, so I'm allowed some neurotic eccentricities. Anyhow. This is the first time in years I've sat down to do watercolors like this. It's been a difficult experience relearning how to do this stuff.
This is a sketch I did a few weeks ago during a particularly slow day at work. My source material came from somewhere on the USS Franklin Delano Roosevelt (CVB-42/CVA-42/CV-42) website which has a great trove of photos. These guys were on liberty in Hong Kong, and must've been posing on Victoria Peak overlooking the harbor, or bay. (Hard to tell from my drawing...). Having visited Hong Kong, I can't imagine it being cold enough there at any time of the year for peacoats and gloves. But, then again, I was only there in the summer.
Anyways. I recently read a review on Peter Kuper's Diario de Oaxaca by Brian Heater on The Daily Cross Hatch and he wrote a pretty good explanation of what a sketchbook is- which also explains my idea behind keeping this blog:
"A sketchbook is a secret thing, a collection of unfinished and often times abandoned ideas never intended for public consumption—at least not in their current state. It’s a private space for honing one’s craft and workshopping, separating good ideas from those best left unexplored"
Obviously, the major difference, is that I'm putting my sketchbook out in "public", because honestly, it makes me more productive knowing that someone, somewhere is cognizant of it. I start to think "What is everyone else seeing in this?" and it helps with my own introspective constructive criticism. So, that's the idea behind this sketch blog. Just FYI.
This is a Gunner's Mate standing next to his 6 inch gun aboard the USS Powhatan in 1919. Certainly a good model for my Matlow vs. The Bolsheviks project. I've noticed a precipitous decline in the quality of my sketches the earlier in the day that I do them. My afternoon sketches are definitely better than my pre-dawn work. Excuses, excuses. Just another muscle to build.
In this quickie sketch, a Navy doctor is administering aid to a Pashtun local deep in the much contested Helmand Province of Afghanistan. Something, I suspect forward deployed Navy doctors have been doing since time immemorial. Cross posted at "In Every Clime and Place".
Another quickie for today. I figured I'd make a drawing of chipping paint in the era before portable power sanders. Not that the work seems to suck any less. This is from a photo taken aboard the USS Bayfield in 1954. I was familiar with the practice of allowing locals on the Asiatic Station to help out with shipboard duties up to WWII ("The Sand Pebbles" being my main source of reference here), but was unaware the practice continued after the war. If anyone knows of any memoirs by sailors deployed to WESTPAC (especially with visits to Vietnam) in the 1950's, please let me know. They would make an interesting read.
Somewhere out on the Pacific Ocean an Aviation Boatswain's Mate is securing the flight deck for the day and thinking, "You know, I've had more fun on Christmas Eve...". Regardless, we here at Cold is the Sea thank her for her service to her country.
I've been feeling like reading some Conrad again. Back in high school I found Conrad difficult to get through, but I'm in the mood for something challenging. So, with Conrad on the brain, I decided to experiment with some inking techniques on a portrait. It didn't go so well...and was about as far from what I conceived as you can get, but getting back into this art thing is a process of evolution.
Update 12/30/09: Now that I've had a few years to accrue more knowledge of the context and time in which it was set, I'm enjoying "Lord Jim" quite a bit. (It's much funnier than I remember...)
The tall ship is the "Surprise", the sextant is a 19th century design, and the "turtle rampant" (signifying our Jack Tar is a Shellback) is a Galapagos. Oddly, the effort to find a good image of a 19th century anchor has me stymied.
This sketch is from a photo I found here. During a transit of the Red Sea, two French Foreign Legionnaires aboard the Louis Pasteur heading from 2 years of fighting in Indochina towards a combat tour in Algeria decided to jump ship. The story was written by a crew member who was a witness to both escape attempts made by these poor bastards. I guess they really didn't want to go...Interesting that the French needed to shuffle troops from Indochina to Algeria. But then again, they don't call it "the Legion of the damned" for nothing.
Since the advent of the internet I've always been astonished at the breadth of material people have made available, especially declassified documents of historical value.
Recently, I did an internet search for my Great-Uncle who perished while serving in the Merchant Marine on a fuel tanker during WWII. I was astounded at the amount of information available about the ship- the first site I found was Ahoy- Mac's Web Log, which contained information on the Jackson and then I found another site by a family member of a fallen sailor from my Great-Uncle's ship. I contacted both web authors and they were each extremely helpful and responsive to my queries.
It's all fascinating. Some of it a little stomach turning- like the Ultra intercepts from the U-Boat that sank my Uncle's ship and the bravo zulu that followed- not to mention the group picture of smiling, slicked back Teutonic knights posing on their boat.
I didn't know my uncle. He died 28 years before I was born. But still, it's just a very strange experience to see a photo of his ship sinking (above, 50 miles off of Londonderry) and read the giddy message traffic between the U-boat that sunk him and their command. Very strange to see all this information, especially considering how little our family knew about the incident beyond the basic details. His death caused some massive emotional reverberations and tragic consequences within his immediate family, as I'm sure it does with every family who loses a truly loved one in war.
Kind of an underwhelming offering today, but I barely had any energy to begin with- and I barely have any energy now. I did this during a short break today.
The USS West Virginia had an interesting "life" from Pearl Harbor onwards. You can see her burning in some of the most iconic shots of the attack, and she was resurrected from the grave to fight again and started getting her licks in during the battle of Leyte Gulf. You can read all of this on her Wikipedia page. As you can see I chose to draw her resplendent in her dazzle paint. (Check out this one too.)
There are also some little known horrifying facts about the "WeeVee". Did you know that after the WVA was raised, three dead sailors were found in a sealed, airtight room with ration packages, water and a marked calendar indicating that they'd survived up to the 23rd of December? Horrible. Horrible way to go. You can read about the salvage efforts on the WVA in Edward Raymer's excellent memoir, "Descent into Darkness".
I decided to quit while I was ahead on this one. It was quickly becoming a hot-mess. Well. All I can say is that I was never destined to be a naval architect. I was recently reading about tramp steamers in Christopher Lee's fascinating memoir "Eight Bells and Topmasts" and did some poking around on the web. I was struck by the hull design of the tramp steamer, especially the distinctive counter stern which makes it appear as if the ship is high in the water. Quite by accident I was looking for WWI naval vessels and stumbled across this photo. I thought, "That looks just like a tramp steamer!" and sure enough, it turns out that these troop ships were converted tramp freighters. Here's a great shot of the counter-stern.
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