Ernest Hemingway

1899 - 1961

The uninitiated might take this as Santa Claus during the off-season while vacationing in Bermuda. But the cognoscenti will immediately recognize the American writer, Ernest Miller Hemingway.

Although Hemingway is usually cited as the most influential writer of the Twentieth Century, he has also been labeled the "worst greatest author" ever. Certainly today's more politically correct readers will open the "The Sun Also Rises" and go into spittle flinging diatribes about anyone who could admire the writer of such an anti-Semitic and racist pile of dreck about a bunch of boozing zeros doing absolutely nothing except going to a lousy bullfight. At the same time, the Jewish writer Chaim Potok greatly admired Hemingway and considered Papa a major influence. So there's definitely more here than meets the eye.

If you want to learn a bit more beyond what you see by watching the Hemingway made-for-television docudramas with their invented dialog, imaginary scenes, and at times, absurd conspiracy theories, then click here.

For a change this was - quote - "rendered in graphite" - which is a fancy way to say "drawn with a pencil". Strictly speaking, though, the implement used was a stick of solid 6B (very soft) graphite - often termed "woodless pencils". One problem is the shiny nature of graphite digital makes rendering a bit more difficult. Charcoal will remain the drawing medium of choice, gentlemen (as Hemingway might have put it).

If you think drawing a guy with a beard is simpler since there's nothing to draw, that's not correct. To get a likeness you have far less to work with and often end up with a bearded someone else. Some earlier versions of this drawing did look like Santa Claus.