This Caricature is from 1974,
sketched in my little pocket notebook from memory. I was trying to capture
characters from a few months earlier, aware that my life was moving on. Shortly
after that I started on the road to bricklaying via government retraining
courses.
I think this guy was called Arnold. He pitched up every
night in a pub called The Signpost, in Pitsmoor, Sheffield. They said his hands
were locked into place from holding big heavy tongues in the steel foundries. A
man of few words. Steady as a rock.
Scary to think I might be older than he was at the time
I drew this. We lived in different worlds for sure, but rubbed shoulders for a
while, and he made an impression on me.
Colorising done on my phone just now. How I wish I could
sketch like that now. Maybe I can but I would struggle to find that easy fluid
manner, AND … it looks like him, feels like him.
Time
Late 70s, towards the end of my
bricklaying days, a couple of years before I volunteered to work…