5 Star General Douglas MacArthur.
Douglas MacArthur. A remarkable man in many ways. One of only 5 soldiers to ever reach the rank of 5 Star General of the Army. He was a Medal of Honor recipient. He was Field Marshal of the Philippines Armed Forces. He was top of his class at West Point Military Academy, and eventually the Superintendent of West Point. He become the youngest person to reach the rank of Major General in Army History. He served as Chief of Staff of the army. His achievements out rank most people in the world.
I used two elements in this drawing. Color, and a lack thereof. It’s easy to see how I did so. With charcoal I added to the shadows and darkened aspects of his uniform. The cover has its minor folds and creases were made slightly more visible. The same style is shown on his uniform. The four stars representing his rank at the time of the photo had small. but prominent shadows. The minute wrinkles in the uniform made visible by the black. The beige of the dress uniform represented by the contrast of black and white. The sunglasses with small whitened highlights, and his smoking pipe with the small grooves that create pools of darkness.
The face used color for a simple reason. To bring the past to the present. I made a similar concept in the first painting I posted. Colorized. The black white and blue soldiers. Where people were made in color, but the background wasn’t. This was a similar concept. To bring the past ideas, to the present. History, to many students, can be a daunting subject. Memorization of important dates, analysis of important historical events, and the hours and hours of reading documents and speeches and historical accounts. I find that while most of that can be pretty painful to sit through, artwork provides a more human aspect to it all. It’s difficult to visualize a historical event by words alone, but a painting or picture can take you back and place you in those shoes. Color just adds that little bit that can make it enjoyable to see. A photograph in black and white can be hard to enjoy, but colorize it, and you bring it to life. Simple, but incredible.