Emotions

Besides The Parkbench, I am also working on an animated documentary of one man's experience at The Battle of the Bulge.  I would like to share some of the drawings I did for the last scene, in which the American GI recounts being haunted by the face of a child he killed in combat.  The soldier is in his tent, waking up at night with this painful memory.  Here is the pencil test.

In doing this, I was really influenced by two artists: Auguste Rodin and Kathe Kollwitz.  Rodin is, ofcourse, the famous French sculptor.  I've always been in awe of the extreme emotion he has locked up in the faces and bodies of his work.

Auguste Rodin, details from "The Burghers of Calais"

As for Kollwitz, outside of Goya's "Disasters of War", I don't know of an artist who has captured more powerfully the raw human desperation that comes from war.

"Death Siezes a Woman" & "Woman with Dead Child" by Kathe Kollwitz

I've also posted an image from Charles Umlauf. when I first saw his sculptures, I thought I was looking at more Kollwitz.  There is a fantastic sculpture garden and museum for Umlauf in Austin, TX.

"War Mother" 1939 by Charles Umlauf

The following images are all drawings created for this sequence.