Knapsack Guys (by Alex)

(Click to zoom)
Graphite on 16.5" x 11.6" 190g/m² A3 paper

So here is the gift that I've been working on for the passed couple of weeks. It's a huge one and it is a gift for Sascha(the big guy in the front) and he's been one of the closest friends I have had in the whole 3 years I've been here in Germany. It's not the first drawing I did for him either, the first was a drawing of the cute version of Optimus Prime on the birthday card that I bought him. The names of the people from left to right starting from the bottom row are Frank, Alfred, Stefan, Sascha, Martin, Giacomo, Wolfgang, Thomas in his uniform, Marcus, Ralf, Bernd, and Heinz-Gerd.

He actually asked for this one... he said he wanted to have another drawing from me before I move away... he didn't specify anything, just something that's me. So I thought it'd be nice to draw faces of the boys I've been working happily with. I gave this to him this morning, I think he remained speechless for about a minute. So I asked him "were you expecting this?" and he was like "NEVER" and was smiling the whole time, like he won a trophy or something :) In my opinion, the best look ever, and that's also one of the reasons I love drawing in the first place, and that's the reason I gave all my drawings away prior to this year.

Thanks again for all your encouraging words and posts on my previous sketch. I am glad I could bring out the characteristics of Mandy Lane... it's a very twisted movie, but I love how the plot changed.