TITLE: "229 Cheers"
DATE: © 2003
SIZE: 9 by 12 inches
MEDIUM: graphite on white Rives BFK paper
PRICE: sold, private collection (commission)

This drawing was done for a friend of mine as a gift for his mother. That's him in the drawing... When he mentioned this project to me I was thinking "oooh, neat! But, um, draw a person??"

In the actual photo that I used for reference, the background was a mass of corrals, bulls, and other cowboys. It was a bit overwhelming, and once I sketched it out and removed all that other stuff, it was kind of like a big sigh of relief to see what it was really going to look like. I could not have asked for a finer composition though-- all those perpendicular lines with the diagonal horse cutting right across everything. Rather than a portrait of that individual horse or person, this is a captured moment, one that would be over in a matter of seconds. At least that's how I see it!

Oh, and 229 Cheers is the name of the horse. :-) I was at a rodeo about six months after doing this drawing and saw this horse. It was very tempting to jump up and down and shout out that I had drawn that horse... but that would be rather out of character for me to do that anyway. :-)