Here is the third and final
piece for the Buffalo Bill
Historical Center 2004 Art Auction.
This is a "pencil" of William
F. Cody in his later years.
This piece was drawn
using a very obscure
photograph for reference. I
located the photo that was
obtained from a source in
Washington, D.C. It was
probably taken around
1915.
George Mongon of the
Buffalo Bill Historical Center
was floored with the
reference photograph. Of all
the hundreds of photos he
said he has seen of Cody,
this is one that he said that
he had never seen. He sent
the photo down to the
museum's people in the
their library and they said
they haven't ever seen this
photograph either. Their
library of photos contains
over a quarter of a million
photos!
A national organization
which had the photograph
in their library asked to
remain anonymous. They
graciously supplied me with
a hi-res photo that was so
clean and clear. Right down
to his stubble. It had all the
looks of camera shots of
the day. The camera had a
very shallow depth of field.
The very short depth of field
only takes in the plane that
includes Cody's eyes,
mustache, lower part of his
vest and lapel. Everything
else has a slight blur to a
total blur like his hat brim
on the right side and his left
shoulder.
This piece is 18" x 12" in
size. It was drawn mainly
with a #8 Faber-Castell
drawing pencil. There is
"compressed charcoal" in
many of the darker areas.
This is what is hand-rubbed
to make the background.
Messy but a nice effect. The
total time to complete was
26 hours.
I am honored to have had
the privilege to immortalize
the memory of such an
"American Legend." I
sincerely hope that
someone at the auction
likes it enough to make it a
nice donation to support the
"Smithsonian of the West."
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