M60 Tank

So, This past Saturday I decided that since it was sunny out it was warm enough for me to go out a sketch outside. I did wear my leather jacket a baseball cap and my drawing gloves.  After dropping Juli off at work I walked over to Post 468 of the American Legion near us.  It has a tank parked outside of it that I have seen every day on my way home from work.  The walk was about 2 1/2 miles so a bit of walk.  But I got there and introduced myself the people there then went out to the tank. There was a tree right in front of it so I sat down against it.  It did not take me long to realize that walking there was OK but sitting there was something else.  A major road was at my back and the breeze was making it hard to draw.  Between fighting the fliping page and the freezing cold breeze I fought my way through drawing the tank.  The tought to stop at the basic lines flashed in my head and I agreed with out hezitation.  When I decided that I had gotten enough down I also realized that my left leg was completely asleep.  So there I was slapping my leg and my bladder decided right then that it needed to be emptied.  I felt like a wounded soldier trying desperatly to get up and run. 

 

Well I hobbled into the Legions bar and quickly took care of my business.  For the next hour I sat at the bar finishing the drawing above from memory.  As you know a bar has limited lighting so I had to squint through this work.  As other members came and went they looked over my shoulder and made encouraging comments.  As I finished, the promise to come back and redo the tank when it was warmer was made I headed home.

 

The whole time I worked on this drawing I was reminded of my original intent to join the US Army to become a member of the Army Art Corp.  That never happened.  Also, while drawing this M60 Patton Tank the memories of serviceing these when I was in active duty flooded into my head.  They were phased out soon after I arrived at my first permanant duty station(24th Infantry).  As we decommisioned them we had to make them work like new.  At first we were dumb founded by this.  But then, we were told that they were being sold to Saudi Arabia.  So, as we always did in the Army, do what your told and don't bother asking why.