When Ron Wiesel died in the spring of 2012, both Marsha and I were devestated.  He was her high school sweetheart and he was my closest friend in college and for years afterward.  I suppose that it would make sense that I would try to draw a portrait of him.  I worked from a photo I took of him in the Reed College student security office (he was the dispatcher)  I think it has his distinctive mix of intensity and simultaneous offhandedness.  There is a kind of over busy quality to his clothing: a vest, a shiny brooch, an ear ring, a tie (!!) and of course those aggressive sunglasses wound up and dangling from his neck.  That was very him. Ron was himself a very accomplished artist.  He continually critiqued my work. (We talked about this stuff all the time!) And he actively tried to help me promote it with others.

 

The facial hair had been a worry of mine but the markers seemed very useful in defining this in the shadows on his face.  I was particularly pleased with the hair and the glasses.  Actually I was pleased overall.  It felt like a real accomplishment to have captured something about him here.

 

 

DRAFT