WW1 Soldier Sketch

A soldier in World War 1 reads letters from home

I came across this photo in my travels around the internet and it stuck with me. I am currently reading ‘Great-Uncle Harry’, by Michael Palin of Monty Python fame, about his own forgotten ancestor who lived a remarkable life in his short 32 years before dying at the Somme in the same war. All those men in trenches down the ages, dying young for a better world. Yet the world never seems capable of freeing itself of the scourge of war no matter how ‘advanced’ we become.
So I decided to spend some time looking into this poor soul’s eyes, clutching his letters and surrounded by bullets and his billy can, as I sketched him out in charcoal.