Abraham Lincoln

(click on image to enlarge)

As we gather with friends and family to celebrate Thanksgiving, let us all take a moment to remember that it was President Lincoln who first declared Thanksgiving a national holiday, even in the midst of the Civil War. On October 3, 1863, the president issued a proclamation that called upon the nation to give thanks for "the blessings of fruitful fields and healthful skies." He eloquently expressed the desire of the American people for "full enjoyment of peace, harmony, tranquillity, and union," setting aside the "last Thursday of November next" as a "day of Thanksgiving."

Abraham Lincoln really was a great man. The drawing above does not reflect that. The reason why it doesn't is because I got inspired to draw Lincoln in my "Pickled" style from looking at Mark Ryden's Anima Mundi book. Ryden's book is a wonderful collection of his paintings and drawings. For some reason a lot of his paintings and drawings feature Abraham Lincoln. This "Pickled" drawing is a result of those images............

I was planning on including this drawing in my soon to be released book. Unfortunately after I went through all of my images this drawing of Lincoln did not make the cut. Because of that, I never inked it. To celebrate the Thanksgiving Holiday, I thought that I would post it here and get some sort of use out of it. To make the drawing more interesting for me I added some very desaturated color to it. I like the result but I think that my black and white cross-hatching style is much stronger and more competent.

Jack