Well folks, after three and a half long months of work, it's finally here. I started the project back in September with the anticipation of having it finished by Thanksgiving.
So, I was off by about a month, sue me :D .
I'm going to cut to the chase and show you the stages of the last and final drawing of the three piece montage. Enjoy.
Here is a recap, image by image, from beginning to end:
Square one. Nothing. Nada. Zip. I honestly had no idea how I was going to approach this blank sheet of paper. If there's one thing that I'm fairly good at, however, it's flying by the seat of my pants.
It wasn't until midway through the first piece when, in my head, I finally developed a fuzzy (and I mean, really fuzzy) concept on how I was going to approach the rest of the drawing.
Here was my scheme of attack, and everything just sort of fell into place. Funny how that happens.
Like I said, falling into place.
And there you have it, all 24x19 inches of it!
Sometime within the week, I'm going to carefully take this beast to the local frame shop on base to have it matted and framed. I expect to personally hand-deliver this sucker to Daniel Defense, Inc. in Black Creek, Georgia sometime either late January or early February. After all the hard work that I've put into this, there's absolutely NO WAY that I'm going to trust just anyone to safely transport it.
It's now time to put this project to rest, so I hereby pronounce this Mission Accomplished.
Update on Saturday, February 18, 2012 at 09:07PM by
Rob W Bates
In my last blog entry, Daniel Defense Piece (part 1), I summoned up a brief description of the project, then described how I was commissioned to bring it to life. I also babbled on about my thoughts and concerns, along with some of the measures that I took to muscle my way through the first one-third of the drawing. At the end of the entry, I presented to you a blueprint of my plan-of-attack on the other two-thirds of said piece.
Well, here is part two of three.
Just like last time, I started the drawing with a light outline. Thankfully, however, the detail wasn't anywhere near as ass bleeding-intensive so, naturally, I blew through it fairly quickly. There was also a substantial size discrepency between the two: the current one standing at a mere 8"x 10" compared to the other, towering at an incredible 11"x 17".
For obvious reasons, as stated above, I felt that I had a much easier time piecing this drawing together than the one before. Unlike the last piece, the focus wasn't honed in on ONE particular subject but, instead, on several different parts that made up the image itself.
In this project, there was the helmet, the rifle, the gear, the utilities, and the background; all of which shared the same amount of exposure whereas, in the other drawing, the rifle was the main effort while the remainder of the image played a supporting role.
To be perfectly frank, I found working on the gear and utilities to be much more enjoyable than anything else. To me, it really made the drawing pop. See for yourself.
BING!
BANG!
BOOM!
This project was moderately simple compared to the one done earlier. Here are the two of them, side by side. FYI, the actual size of the paper is 24"x19".
As much as I would like to pop the cork and celebrate, there's still one more left to do. The image will be the same size as the last and will be placed at the bottom right of the paper. You can track my progress on facebook. If, for some ungodly reason, you are not a fan of my page, I strongly encourage you to become one. Why? Because awesome things happen on it!
A friend of mine, who's the Tradeshow Manager for an arms manufacturing company called Daniel Defense, contacted me back in August with a unique project proposal. The company was interested in purchasing signed prints of my work for their office, along with an original pencil piece consisting of 3-4 images that best represented their product. I was game. These guys really had their act together and, within 2 weeks, I had reference material (digital images) sent to me and a nice check in the mail.
My buddy said that time was not important and that the company understood I had (and still have) other obligations to attend to (family, work, checking out of the Marine Corps, evening classes, enrolling into college, VA appointments, etc). All that they asked was that the drawing not suck, and that it was large. I wasn't concerned about the suck part so much as I was about the size of the drawing that they wanted, as the largest pad in my arsonal was 24" x19". To my surprise, they were okay with that and, once I received the go-ahead, I immediately went to work on the outline, which I started on 9 September.
For me, it's always difficult to pace myself at the begining of a project. When it comes to tightly rendered pieces such as this, an outline is extremely important. Constructing one is boring and downright tedious, but it's one of those necessary evils that we artists must face if we want the drawing or painting to turn out right. After a couple of weeks of fiddling with the outline, everything started to come together.
Each item has its own unique texture. The surface of the helmet looks and feels different then that of someone's skin. The same goes for the weapon and the uniform.
If there was anything in this drawing that I feared the most, it was f***ing up the weapon. These guys manufacture and sell weapon parts, so these weapons need to look like weapons. I can't stop saying weapons. Weapons weapons weapons.
Don't get me wrong, I'm not undercutting my abilities by any means, but this kind of stuff is not easy. Do I make it look easy? Yeah. Is it? Not by any stretch of the imagination. Moving eastward.
It was at this point when I realized that I've come too far in the drawing to screw up. Everything about the weapon was simple thus far, but I still had quite a ways to go.
You want to know what scared me the most about drawing this weapon? The rails. I can't draw a straight line or put together a circle to save my life, and these railing systems were full of them!
Wow. I have to say, it wasn't nearly as hard as I thought it would be. It might have had something to do with the brand of deodorant that I was wearing. Afterall, Old Spice does gives me swagger. No, I'm not advertising for Old Spice, I just love the hell out of their deoderant.
So, what's next?
I digitally mapped out where the other two drawings will go, and I already know which ones will go where. You can continue to track my progress by liking my page on facebook, or simply wait until I post part 2 on my blog. Until then, stay classy.
So there I was, on national TV, sketching wounded service members in the emotionally charged music video "Still in the Fight". The Great American Country channel debuted the song and video on the weekend of 9/11 during their "We Remember" blocks, as this was the perfect time for Americans to reflect on the sacrifices made by our nation's heroes.
Posted online by one of our loyal viewers, here is a screenshot of the video.
Many moons ago, legendary war artist Michael D. Fay came up with the ingenious concept of creating a song that illustrates the strength and resiliency that our wounded servicemen & women demonstrate daily while recovering from severe frontline injuries sustained from fighting overseas. Fay approached singer/songwriter Mike Corrado to see if he was up to the challenge and, without hesitation, Corrado happily obliged. It was just a matter of months before Corrado had already authored the lyrics and was discussing the possibility of making it into a music video.
Everything happened so fast; A fundraiser was started, wounded personnel were casted and, before we knew it, over $19,000 was raised and we were going hot. Here is the video:
Wounded warriors featured: MSgt. William "Spanky" Gibson, (USMC Ret), Cpl. Aaron Mankin (USMC Ret), and LCpl. Kyle Carpenter (USMC). Each one gave a little piece of themselves on the battlefield in defense of this nation. MSgt. Gibson's leg was shot off while fighting house to house in Ramadi, Iraq; Cpl. Mankin remains covered in scar tissue as a result of a blast caused by an I.E.D. in Fallujah, Iraq; and LCpl. Carpenter lost his right eye from an enemy hand grenade while defending his post in Marjah, Afghanistan.
The experience was eye-opening, and I wish this song great success as it truly represents the positives while catering to the viewer a realistic account of one's road to recovery.
Now that you know a little bit about the song, you can now download it on iTunes for cheap, with all proceeds going directly to USO Wounded Warrior Centers around the country. Doing your part couldn't get any easier.
***
Moving on to my awesome encounter with actor Gary Sinise and his musical ensemble "The Lt. Dan Band".
Again, there I was, sitting backstage at a concert held here in Camp Lejeune, drinking beer with two Medal of Honor Recipients, when the Base Commander approached me.
"So, you drew this?", pointing at the signed print of a drawing that I did which, in just a matter of minutes, would find itself in the hands of Mr. Sinise.
"Yes sir. The original is in the Marine Corps Museum".
After about 5 minutes of chatting it up with the Base Commander, the band finished playing and it was finally time to present Mr. Sinise with the gift.
"Let's go. You're going up there!", said the Base Commander, enthusiastically.
"I don't have to speak to the crowd or anything, do I sir?"
While chuckling, he responded, "If I f*** this up, we're f***ing this up together. Let's do this!"
Here is the video of the presentation, courtesy of Mike Corrado:
Gary Sinise is a huge advocate for the troops, and it was such an honor to shake his hand and give him something of mine that I personally created from scratch. I would like to give a giant thanks to Mike Corrado and MCCS for getting me an All-Access pass, Col. Lecce for the outstanding introduction, and Gary Sinise & the Lt. Dan Band for their spectacular performance and their selfless contribution to American service members all across the globe.
Gary and I on stage during the presentation.
From right: singer/songwriter Lt. Col Mike Corrado, actor/musician Gary Sinise, me, & my friend Mike Pluto.
At one point in time, you may have heard me sling around the term "The Joe Bonham Project" and, yet, some of you are probably still scratching your heads wondering who this Joe Bonham guy is and why he is mentioned so often. This should clear things up for you:
THE JOE BONHAM PROJECT represents the efforts of wartime illustrators to document the struggles of U.S. service personnel undergoing rehabilitation after traumatic front-line injury. Formed in early 2011 by Michael D. Fay, the Project takes its name from the central character in Johnny Got His Gun, Dalton Trumbo’s 1938 novel of a World War I soldier unable to communicate with the outside world due to the extent of his wounds.
Joe Bonham artwork is currently on display at the Storefront Gallery in Brooklyn, NY until September 18th. This project couldn't had come at a better time, and with the war winding down and the 10 year anniversary of 9/11 creeping just around the corner, this exhibit was just what the public needed. Participating artists include: myself, Mike Fay, Victor Juhasz, Jeff Fisher, Richard Johnson, Roman Genn, Bill Harris, & Amber Martin. The show is curated by James Panero, the managing editor of the New Criterion. He also writes on art and culture for a series of other national publications to include the New York Times Book Review, Forbes, and the Wall Street Journal.
Jeff Fisher, Mike Fay, and I were the only artists available to attend the opening reception held on the evening of September 1st. Just hours before opening, Mike and I had carpooled all the way from Pennsylvania to the gallery in Brooklyn where we linked up with James Panero. From there, James treated us to dinner at a 2 star pizza eatery about a block away.
From left: LCpl. Rob Bates (Artist), Ret. CWO2 Mike Fay (Artist), & James Panero (Curator)
I decided to stand by my work in uniform for two reasons. One---I was on Permissive Temporary Assigned Duty (PTAD) representing the Marine Corps with the sketches that I had composed of the wounded from my unit. And two---I graduated recruit training just 3 days after the September 11th attacks, which, to me, carries significant sentimental value.
Moments before the show, James Panero (Curator) poses to the right of LCpl. Rob Bates and his work.
Moments before the show, James Panero (Curator) poses to the right of LCpl. Rob Bates and his work.
Moments before the show, Ret. CWO2 Mike Fay poses with his work.
Jeff Fisher (Artist) poses with James Panero (Curator) at the opening reception.
Storefront Gallery, left, sometime before the exhibition.
Storefront is located in what appears to be a run-down residential part of Brooklyn so, naturally, I was a little unsure of how many people were actually going to show up. To my surprise, we had quite a large turn-out. I think, at a single given moment, we had close to 50 people crammed in and around the gallery space. Some of the folks who showed up were from smaller newspaper and magazine companies, so it's safe to say that the Joe Bonham exhibit will receive some media attention.
I think the most common question asked that evening was whether or not these sketches were drawn from life. The public loves tightly composed and highly polished art, but what they love even more than that are the loose pieces done from life. Most of my work on display was, in fact, done from life, which gives it that intimate feel. The general public really enjoyed the art but, most importantly, I also felt that they established a personal connection with the subjects. From the looks of it, the opening reception was chalked up as a success.
At a quarter past 9, Deborah Brown (part gallery owner) took me, Mike, James, Jeff, and some of his students out for drinks at a restaurant/pub about two blocks down the street. For the next couple of hours, we conversed about art over oysters, beer, & wine. James introduced me to Six point, a fantastic beer made in Brooklyn, so me and him threw back a few. Legendary artists Mike Fay & Jeff Fisher talked about their preference for particular types of art. Everyone chatted it up and had a blast.
I headed back to North Carolina the following day. The treacherous 9 hour drive sucked, no doubt, but the exhibit made the two-way trip well worth it. In order for an artist to be successful, he or she must get out and network. These trips are investments that I am willing to make, even if it does mean that I will be eating Ramen for a week.
*A special thanks to Storefront co-owners Jason Andrew & Deborah Brown for accommodating the Joe Bonham Project, and to James Panero & Mike Fay for curating the show.
Monday, December 19, 2011 at 09:08AM 
