Tuesday, February 10, 2009

Gioacchino


Tonnaroti are Italian tuna fishermen. They get together in the spring to catch and slaughter the fish in a gathering called a matanza and are led by a shaman-like figure known as a rais. Gioacchino was a former one. I read about this in an article from a magazine and his picture captured my attention. He is a very large bull of a man with bicepts as big as his neck. As Bertie Wooster once said "It's as though Nature decided to make a gorilla, but at the last minute changed it's mind." I found his face extremely interesting and full of expression. I needed to draw it.