Jim Bowie by Ray Istre, Pencil on Paper Drawing

Jim Bowie was one of the hero's of the Alamo. He was a rough and tumble man who made his famous Bowie Knife while he was in Louisiana, or so the story goes. After that, he moved to Texas and fought the dictator, Santa Ana, the leader of Mexico. He fought for the freedom of people to govern themselves. 

I am currently reading a book about a little known fight around 1810, over parts of Louisiana called West Florida, which spanned from The Mississippi River at Baton Rouge over to what is now Pensacola Florida. They had a single star flag that was duplicated in Texas as both were fighting off Spanish control. So it adds up that Bowie would have been in Louisiana before going on to Texas to defend the Alamo in 1836. 

The drawing is right out of my imagination with some infuence from historical photos or Hollywood movies. It is kind of exaggerated for dramatic effect. I enjoyed the texture of the background against his face and the knife, each having their own "finish". This is done with ebony pencil on art quality bristol paper.

Louisiana Faces Series

We all observe the things we see and make use of our sight but most people are not conscious of what they are seeing. An artist thinks of the texture of things, the way the light falls on a face, is it a shiny or dull finish, is it close or far away. An artist consciously studies the visual universe which includes the facial expressions of everyone we see every day. The living creatures in the world are the most interesting because they have changing facial expressions. Humans are most interesting because they react to other human beings who might be observing them.

An artist studies the human expression of another human being or, more exactly, their physical expression. Of course, the soul is in there somewhere, orchestrating the expressions, but how can an artist draw a soul? The physical expression is the only way to attempt to capture something that the soul is trying to express. I can be talking with someone and get so interested in their facial expression that the verbal conversation becomes non-existent. For an artist, a visual conversation has the power to consume a verbal conversation at any time.

Here below are a few images that are composites of people I have seen over many years of studying faces in the Southern United States. I call them “Louisiana Faces” because they were done while in Louisiana, where I was born and raised. They all come from my imagination and memory of faces I have seen or studied over many years. No one sat down for me to draw these faces. These characters may be based on observations of certain people with various titles or jobs. None of the drawings are of particular people.

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