Harsh reality of army life

Drawing was something I did almost as an escape from the harsh reality of army life. The first thing, after those mountains mentioned previously, was to sketch my immediate physical surroundings - tents, primarily - and some of the characters I was thrust into this uncalled-for odyssey with.

I am the first to admit that these aren't the greatest drawings I have done, but they are a record, and that has been an integral part of my life - recording in drawings wherever life has taken me. Here you see a section of the sea of brown/olive tents, interspersed with clothes line, with the old longjohns fairly ubiquitous.

Okay so now we have had our heads shawn and have been issued with items I personally would never, ever have wanted to possess in my lifetime. Things like a rifle (old FN for me, others got slightly newer R1s), webbing and, of course, that hateful brown uniform. These sketches show guys getting their gear in order.

Remember, these are the work of someone who, as we have seen, has struggled to master the art of drawing. Now I was doing it for real. And I couldn't have asked for me "models" to draw - albeit that they were almost exclusively male.