John McCain sketch

Here is an initial sketch study for the John McCain portrait. He has this
intense yet perplexed look to him often, hunched shoulders. My sense from him during this campaign is that he's a bit lost, not quite as focused as he was in his 2004 campaign. This is just a sketch study that may progress into the image, just tossing down lines and some initial color although the red and blue will likely change. I plan to add more lines to his face like the smile lines off his eye on the right. His other unique features that I've focused on are his small brushy eyebrows and his jowly cheeks (or cheek, his left one on our right seems bigger than his other one).

John McCain's age

I'm not sure how related this is to my project but John McCain's age is becoming a potential issue for him; he turns 71 on Wednesday. So, in case you were wondering, here are the ages of the top 17 candidates as of today, youngest to oldest (I'll keep Tommy Thompson in for this one). These are only as accurate as my quick addition math skills by the way but I'm pretty sure I've got them right:
Barack Obama- 46
Sam Brownback- 50
Mike Huckabee- 52
John Edwards- 54
Duncan Hunter- 59
Hillary Clinton- 59
Bill Richardson- 59
Dennis Kucinich- 60
Mitt Romney- 60
Tom Tancredo- 61
Chris Dodd- 63
Rudy Guliani- 63
Joe Biden- 64
Tommy Thompson- 65
John McCain- 70
Ron Paul- 72
Mike Gravel- 77
As you can read in the McCain article and for comparison, Ronald Reagan was elected to his first term at age 69, Bob Dole was 73 when he lost to Bill Clinton who was elected at age 46. John Kennedy was elected at age 43 (I had a 45 vinyl record when I was a kid called "John F. Kennedy" with lyrics that began, "John F. Kennedy, a remarkable young man was he. At age 43, elected to the Presidency." For some reason, this lyric is permanently embedded in my memory, a catchy tune I guess although I can't recall much more of the lyrics, something about commanding a PT-boat.)