Sad Sack

My dad, a veteran of World War II (and Korea), would occasionally call somebody a "sad sack." I always thought he just meant that was a depressed person, maybe somebody down on his luck. Today, however, I was curious enough to look up the expression.

The earliest instance of "sad sack" is from an article on "Soldier Slang" in the Bergen Evening Record (Hackensack, New Jersey) of 17th August 1942:

SAD SACK, n.—A sloppy soldier; the possessor of an important hangover; a born basic (q.v.); a Benny (q.v.). Civilian equivalent: a drip, a jerk.
BORN BASIC, n.—A soldier whose inherited mental equipment dooms him to a career of menial duty, forbids promotion.
BENNY, n.—A lout; a stupid, generally loudmouthed, slovenly born basic. It is an epithet applied to soldiers who talk too much.

The expression was then apparently popularized by a cartoon series by George Baker, and was shortened from "sad sack of shit," a common military term. Under the auspices of the cartoonist, it became more of a reference to an inept, blundering person (or soldier). Baker started drawing "The Sad Sack" series in June of 1942, depicting the misfortunes of a private in the U.S. Army.

I say all of this because I was about to call today's post "Sad Sack" without really knowing to what it referred; I decided, after my last drawing of the goofy, giddy, happy guy, that I needed a sad one to match, sort of like the drama and comedy masks, so I did an online search for "sad man" looking for a model, and went to work.

I greatly admire the paintings of my friend, Phoebe, who uses watercolor with a mastery I hope someday to achieve, so I tried with this painting to do it a la Phoebe, with the cooler tones of watercolor rather than the brighter Daler Rowney inks I've been using, working at subtle shadings that melt into others without sign of a line. Not knowing how or in what order she applies her colors did stymie me a bit, but I feel like I was somewhat effective in finding her style.

Here's my Sad Sack. I'm not sure he's done; maybe the background needs to change color so as not to look so much like his face? I'ma ponder it.

Gel pen, pencil, watercolor, Uniball Vision pen, Signo white gel pen, on 140-lb. Fluid watercolor paper, 9x12 inches.

Goof, or goofy?

Today I felt like just doing something random and maybe wonkier than I've done for a while. My friend Phoebe in art class remarked, back a few months, on a fleeting likeness between my guy in "The Earth is wobbling on its axis" and her husband's best friend, who is also a twin. She shared a photo of him and I said then, "I might steal him, he's cute and already a little wonky looking." So today I did just that. I hope, if he sees it, that he's not offended by the liberties I took with his already expressive face. She never mentioned his name, so I guess he will be
"The Goof."

Daler Rowney inks, pencil, watercolor, Uniball Vision pen, white gesso,

white gel pen, stencil, bubble wrap, on 140-lb. Fluid watercolor paper, 9x12.

I used a crimson Daler Rowney ink for the background, but it came out really pink, which didn't suit the portrait, in my opinion, so I have since gone back and added another layer of magenta. It did take out some of the interesting background effects, but I feel like it is more effective with the image itself. Here is the revised version.

What do you think?

Readers

 I decided this afternoon to do another in my "People Reading" series. At first I was going to redo one with which I was dissatisfied and try to do it better; it was one of the ones with a coat of gesso on the paper before I did the drawing and painting, which is great for texture but really wreaked havoc on my ability to get the kind of detail I wanted. It was a struggle, start to finish, and even though others liked it, I just couldn't. It felt plasticky and unsubtle, and I didn't like the way the paint beaded up on the gesso.

I started by making the background I had planned for that one—pale pink, with bright spatters of lime, turquoise, and orange. But after I pulled out the reference photo and started looking it over again, I decided that part of the problem was, I didn't like the subject! She was skinny and critical looking with flat, boring hair, and didn't look happy at all to be reading her book—in fact, she looked like she was on the verge of shouting at it and throwing it across the room. So I went looking for a photo of someone who seemed to be genuinely engrossed in and enjoying what she was reading, and painted her instead! 

This is "Emmaline reads."

As it turned out, that pale pink background really turned out to be a passive tool to light up everything on top of it. I'll have to remember that.

Gel pen, pencil, Daler Rowney inks, India ink, Uniball Vision pen, Signo white gel pen, white gesso, on 140-lb. Fluid watercolor paper, 9x12 inches.

Choices

 I made no secret, all year, of the fact that Joe Biden was not my first choice for President. I initially had high hopes this was the election that would give us our first woman president, and I wanted her to be Elizabeth Warren. But the primary process wended its inevitable way towards the winnowing, and eventually it became clear that Biden was going to be our guy, like it or not. At first, I didn't, much; I thought he was too old, too centrist, too connected, too set in his ways to do the kinds of things that need doing right now in these United States if we are going to overcome the disastrous double fallout of the Trump administration and the Covid-19 pandemic. But with his selection of Kamala Harris as his vice president and his strong, steady, and resolute demeanor since the election, I have substantially shifted my attitude and now believe that he may indeed be the person best suited to be in office at this moment.

One of the things that has most reassured me has been his thoughtful and surprisingly innovative appointments to certain offices, the best of which has been the designation of New Mexico's U.S. Representative Deb Haaland as our next Secretary of the Interior. The 60-year-old congresswoman will be the first Native American cabinet secretary ever when she takes office next month; where better to place her than in charge of the country's land and natural resources, as well as making her the primary negotiator of treaty obligations between the tribes and the U.S. government, not previously famous for keeping its promises to indigenous peoples. Referencing the past four years of devastating environmental rollbacks, Haaland said in her acceptance speech, "I'll be fierce for all of us, for our planet and for our protected land." As long as Biden keeps appointing women like this to public office, I know we will be all right.

Since I'm giving Uncle Joe props, you'd think I'd be painting him, but let's face it, Deb Haaland is a more deserving subject of a portrait, given the disregard shown to indigenous women, to women of color, to women period, in this man's world. So here is my impression of a fierce but smiling advocate for the sacred lands that many of us who are not indigenous also hold dear.

Daler Rowney inks, pencil, Uniball pen, watercolors, India ink, white Signo gel pen, on 140-lb. Fluid watercolor paper, 9x12 inches.

Paris Raspberry

 I was feeling a bit blue-purple today, wanting to paint something but not knowing what. I ultimately went through some old photos from 2013 and found the quintessential one that everyone who visits Notre Dame seems to take—this guy, with the city as backdrop. Gargoyle-ish seemed to express my mood, so here he is. As I painted him, though, I realized how very human they are in many respects—it's really more like a somewhat delicate youth (slender fingers) with a nice physique (chest) has just put on a mask and posed for the artist as a jest. Perhaps that's what happened. I called it "Paris Raspberry" because of the tongue.

Daler Rowney inks, Pelikan India ink, pencil, white gouache, Uniball pen, on 140-lb. Fluid watercolor paper, about 9x11 inches.

Surprise gift

 Now that I have given it away, I can share this portrait of my cousin Heidi's beloved dog, Louie, who is sadly no longer with us. I hesitated to paint his portrait—you never know how people are grieving—until she said to me one day that she'd love it if I did one, so that was her main Christmas gift today. Here's Louie, with his cheerful expression and ever-present tongue.

Pencil, watercolor, and Daler Rowney inks on 140-lb. Fluid watercolor paper, about 8x8?

Watch the birdie

Yesterday, on Messenger, apropos of nothing in particular, one of my new artist friends from Deb Weiers's class (so not that new, we "met" in August) sends me a message:

"What is the deal with putting birds on ladies' shoulders (and heads) in SO much artwork by SO many different people? Is it symbolic of something? Did it just become a trend because some people saw other people doing it and did likewise?"

I couldn't really tell her, so I went to Google and asked about bird symbolism in art and discovered quite a lot of information, both pagan and religious, about the meanings of various birds. I found it kind of fascinating; I was also surprised when my friend pointed out that I had at least three recent paintings with birds in them, one of which was a shoulder bird.

 

Since she asked, and since I hadn't thought of someone else I wanted to paint yesterday, and since her name IS Phoebe (like the bird), here is "Phoebe on Phoebe," with her question spelled out in case anyone else has ideas other than mine!

I feel like I ruined this; she was originally on a plain white background, and I liked the stark purity of it, but I used too soft a pencil when creating my base drawing and then dragged my hand through it so that the white was smudged all over the place, and wouldn't erase properly. I had already done my black lettering on the white background, so when I decided to put in a background color, I almost went with a light Cobalt blue watercolor, but at the last minute decided instead to use one of the Daler Rowney inks.

I was sorry I did; the inks are staining, and even with water on the paper the Marine Blue dried faster than I could move it around, leaving darker and lighter spots and looking splotchy. After it dried, I decided I would have to go over it with something else to make it look like it was streaky on purpose, so after trying two other inks on a test swatch over the Marine Blue, I ended up putting the Cobalt watercolor over the top, which I liked.

That, however, was so dark that it made the black writing almost invisible, so I put a white outline on it, which bolloxed it up completely. What I should have done was write exactly over the top of the black with the white, but instead I tried to outline/shadow it, and it turned into a big mess, barely decipherable. I finally ended up washing off the white gel pen, painting a "shield" over the indelible black writing with two coats of gesso, and re-lettering in black on that, putting a border around it to make it look more like a planned object. The things we go through to salvage an art piece! Thank you, Deb, for teaching me ways and means to do that. Anyway...my "bird on head" picture, just for Phoebe.

Pencil, Daler Rowney inks, black Uniball pen, white Signo gel pen, Paul Jackson watercolors, India ink, stencil, white gesso, on Fluid 140-lb. watercolor paper, 9x12 inches.