DRAFT

 

This is my Dad - and the "Skipper," the boat he has owned for almost 50 years.  Some of the fancy sailboats have come and gone but this outboard work horse has been around forever.  Boats have always been a part of his identity so it made sense to me to try to include a boat in portraits of him - as I did in the photo I worked from here. I took this in the summer of 1986.  I put it aside at the time and had always meant to try to come back to it.  But when one's projects start to take 200 hours to complete, as they did in the 80's and 90's, many ideas get cast aside.

 

I was particularly happy with the face and hair.  I think it really does look like him.  The texture of the chambray shirt comes across in places but I had difficulties in extending it to the whole shirt.  I really wanted to use large stippling dots whenever I could  and the result, particularly in small scale projects like this, can sometimes be the rendering of objects more abstract than they otherwise would be.  The result comes together from a distance (as it does here in the landscape background); but close up some parts come off as a bit mushy.  On the right is my drawing of the weatherworn original model sticker still in the bow of the boat.  I included it with the drawing when I gave it to my dad for his 77th birthday.