Illustration: Gerald's Grandpa

I have been spending a lot of time lately finishing up some secondary illustrations for The Book of Bartholomew.  These illustrations will be available throughout the stories of The Book of Bartholomew by clicking on words or areas of the stories.  One of the one's I completed this weekend was of Gerald's grandfather.  His grandfather does not have a name and is mentioned in the 2nd story, Gerald Teaches A Life Lesson. 

What did I want grandpa to look like?  I didn't know.  I wanted him to be bald and have glasses.  Other than that, I just started sketching.  Once I completed the pencil sketch, I inked it in.  Here is the completed inked drawing:

My thoughts were to create someone who was looking older.  Unfortunately, in the story, grandpa is already dead.  Characteristics of an older person, as represented in this drawing, include:
- large nose (I thought of Karl Maulden when I drew this - who is Karl Maulden, you ask.  Oh grow up, will you!)
- wrinkled lips
- jowls
- large ears
- bags under the eyes
- sunken cheeks
- bald (not necessarily old, babies are bald)
- glasses (younger people have had lasik)

Using a transfer of the image, I painted the coloring on watercolor paper.  Here is the painting that goes under the drawing:

What did I do here to emphasize the elderly gentleman?
- deep shadows under the nose and glasses
- redder color around the eye rims and nose bridge (nose bone is close to the skin here, causing reddish coloring)

I then put them both together and this is what I ended up with for Gerald's grandpa:

 In the final, I toned down the black of the lines so the overall image would be softer.  I like the image because there is a softness to him.  How could Gerald's grandfather look like such a nice old man when Gerald is such a jackass?  That's part of Bartholomew's world, people have a lot of stuff inside them. Even the bad people have a little good in them, and the good people have a little bad in them.  I happen to think that Gerald's grandfather was nice to people around him but somewhat cruel to his family.  Gerald got the short end of the stick and has been bitter ever since.