I missed the first few nights of Ken Burns new documentary on Vietnam, but I've been watching the last several nights of it. This is a sketch made while watching. It was from a powerful photo of several soldiers who looked absolutely exhausted. That just moved me and I had to recreate what I remembered.
It's fascinating to me what court artists and artist reporters from a century ago would do - sketching news events as they observe them. I have a book of art by Paul Calle that includes a section on the sketches he made the morning the Apollo 11 astronauts left for the moon. That may have been the last time the American government thought it prudent to have artists (other than photographers) record some important event. I've never seen those drawings in all the documentaries I've watched about that event, but to me it's fascinating to see these guys eating breakfast and suiting up through the eyes of an artist. I wonder what I would have done in the days before photography was used in newspapers. Might I have ended up on a battlefield somewhere or some breaking news scene whipping out my sketchpad to dash off some image to be reproduced in wood later for the printing presses? Sounds like a fascinating career.
Today, I just sketch things off the TV.
I need to get a life.
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