23 Broken Pencils

"The Rat Pack: Carnegie Hall, NY 1961"
by Tom Wills, October 2010

You can almost taste the cigarettes and the Scotch whiskey. Somewhere in the venue are a couple grilled steaks, maybe with a lobster tail thrown in for good measure. The babes are there, sure. But they are waiting somewhere else. This is guy time.

Dean Martin, Sammy Davis Jr., Frank Sinatra. Part of the "Rat Pack."

"The Rat Pack: Carnegie Hall, NY 1961," shows Sammy Davis, Dean Martin, and Frank Sinatra enjoying a lighter moment. Dino said something stupid, Sammy busts a gut and Frankie just looks coolly amused.

There is some sleight of hand going on here, however. The original photograph had more separation between Dino and Sammy. And a big burly dude was standing behind Dino with his hand on his shoulder. I moved the two closer together but there's still a space. Why? Any closer and Sammy's hand would have been picking Dino's nose.

Maybe Frank would have laughed more at that.

Sammy and Frank, all tuxed up.

This drawing was done on Oct. 16-17, 2010 -- straight through. It took me about 10 hours. I destroyed 24 pencils, and had to vacuum the floor because of all the broken pencil tips. This one to this point was  the most difficult piece I had done, with Jimmy Page in a tweed coat coming in second.

Those black tuxes were hard on the pencils, which kept snapping.

Of course I have all of the Sinatra records. On vinyl. Half of them are mono. They're a mix of incredible and dreck. I have one Dino album, all dreck. No Sammy. His stuff is hard to find. Grandparents have any in the attic? I'll give them a home. The records, not the grandparents.

RIM SHOT!

So, did I play classic Sinatra for 10 hours as this drawing came together?

No. I played Aerosmith. Not all of the albums, just the cool stuff from the 1970s. Rocks. Night In the Ruts, Toys in the Attic, Get Your Wings ... and of course, Draw the Line.

I decided not to mat the picture in the frame. Gave it more of a classic look.

A Tom Wills Production, 2010.
Pencil, framed. $200
For inquiries, hankbonesman@embarqmail.com