I recently spent 18 months working in the central valley of California working for the Dept. of the Interior. It was interesting, but not an easy gig for me. I lived in hotel rooms all but 4 days a month and worked 12 hour days in the field. A lot of what I saw inspired the children's book that I wrote and posted here:
http://portraitartistforum.com/showthread.php?t=9631
I often stayed in the same hotels and became acquainted with some of the people that worked there. I decided that I would try and do a charcoal portrait of some of the workers that I encountered. These were people that would otherwise never have the opportunity to see themselves in this way.
These are not highly refined works. I worked on them in the hotel rooms in the evenings and on the occasional weekend that I was off. They did; however, provide a bit of artistic relief to what was otherwise a difficult day. And it is always a thrill giving these drawings away to the subjects.
The first is a pastel of a front desk clerk at one of the hotels where I often stayed. The second was a lady at another hotel that arrived at 4 AM and made breakfast for everyone. The third is a fella that I worked with in the field. He was one of the guys that went down to Chile and helped rescue those miners a few years ago.