DRAWINGS :: ILLUSTRATIONS :: Chris Clackum In Korea, 1970
When I was a kid, Chris Clackum was a news anchor on a local television channel. Now that I'm a much taller kid, I'm good friends with one of his sons, and maybe even a little with Chris himself, although I have yet to receive a dinner invitation. Regardless, Chris is a tireless booster, and his boosting has led directly to work. So I thought I'd give him a thank-you gift, and had all sorts of ideas about making a funny cartoon, or poking fun at him in some way. But then his son Scott told me that his birthday was coming up in a few days, and gave me this sweet picture of Chris, which was way better than the one I had been working with. So, I put aside all thought of making money for a day, and dashed out this fairly straight copy of the photo. Although I botched the likeness, I'm pretty happy with the linework, and am getting a lot better at divorcing myself from having to draw every little thing. I've been hearing for years that Pelikan ink is really great, nice and dark and thick, albeit a little corrosive. This was my first try with Pelikan, and while I'm not convinced on the darkness, I did like the flow pretty good--unfortunately it's not entirely waterproof; so when I went over the whole thing with the sepia ink-wash, there was a little running, most noticeably around the lettering, which is why the sepia is a lot lighter up there, to avoid further running. Chris certainly didn't notice, although he did seem really excited. Sweet dude--and as a former sportscaster, it's very educational to be anywhere near a sporting event with him, especially for a fair-weather fan like myself.
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