L. H. Schmidt

Hello and welcome.

Here’s a selection of my portrait work using ink, pencil, and watercolor. Each is an original drawing. I choose not to deal in prints, NFTS, or anything that’s not original art by my hand.

Unless noted to be in a private collection, each is available for purchase at a reasonable fee via PayPal or Venmo. I will ship anywhere the law allows. I also accept a limited number of commissions.

Contact me at leeschmidtfreelance@gmail.com

“Oklahoma, 1934: Hope Won’t Show Its Face Here” I discovered a very old photo of this man in a doorway. No explanation, no credit line. My imagination took me to the first wave of the Dust Bowl, a period of severe drought on the American prairie. Families abandoned their homesteads and headed west with meager possessions and the clothes on their backs. More than half a million Americans were left homeless. My hope was to draw a man who had no hope. A man who had hit bottom.

"Sly" A flamboyant performer and fashion icon, Sly Stone fronted the band Sly and the Family Stone. I sought to capture his flashy appearance using bright water colors. For his skin tones, I brushed on brewed coffee. Yes, actual brewed coffee. For other portraits I’ve used root beer and red wine.

“My Time of Year” Summer is my favorite season. I drew these two young women as a quintessential image of a warm, sunny day. I depicted them walking away because you don’t see that point of view often in art.

“Bobby” DeNiro has a certain look when he laughs a certain way. You’ve probably seen it in his performances. I wanted to capture that expression because its unique. Pure DeNiro. The original belongs to a friend and fellow artist in Savannah, Georgia, USA.

“Vegas, Baby!” My daughter and son-in-law live in Las Vegas, Nevada, where it’s often hot and sunny, and that makes them both happy. It’s such a pleasure to draw a smiling face, especially when it’s your daughter.

“Danny Sits In” I often make up names for the people I draw. This guy seems like a Danny. He also seems like a musician, maybe plays jazz trumpet. Danny is well-regarded among his peers. And any time he shows up unannounced at a club, the band asks Danny to slip on stage for a few songs. He always obliges.

“Robin Wright” People who view my portraits sometimes note my economy of line. I convey a likeness and an attitude with just a few marks on the paper. I earned my living as a copywriter. Brevity was often a necessity. Maybe my concise approach to writing carried over to my art. That makes sense. One of the challenges of an economical approach to drawing? It’s difficult to hide mistakes. Sometimes impossible. But I like working without a net.

“Ghost Writer” Not many people today can tell you what Thomas Stearns Eliot looked like. But he was a big deal in his day. Tony Award, Presidential Medal of Freedom, Nobel Prize for Literature. I used loose, squiggly lines to illustrate a likeness both vague and accurate that seems to me…ghostly.

“Martin on Congress” My wife and I were strolling Congress Avenue in Austin, Texas, and saw this street musician playing a well-worn Martin six-string. I asked my wife to snap a photo which became the reference for this drawing. I used a quick, unrefined approach to putting down the colored ink to give the guy and his guitar a scruffy appearance. I play a little guitar and am still trying to figure out what chord he’s playing. Likely a “cowboy chord,” common in country music.

“Hester” I gave her this name. I have no idea what her real name was. I imagine she survived the Holocaust and lived a long life. One of the fortunate ones.

“Continuous Hanks” I drew Tom Hanks using a technique called continuous line drawing. I put the pen to paper and drew without lifting the pen until the drawing was complete. (The only exceptions were his eyes.) Try drawing a continuous line portrait some time. Look mostly at your subject rather than at what your pen is doing. Then do just the opposite. Which one turns out better? The original portrait is in the private collection of a friend and fellow artist in Illinois.

“Young Leo” Certain faces demand to be drawn. Leonardo DiCaprio is one. His face does not require a lot of lines to convey his intensity and those leading-man good looks. The three-quarter head angle seems perfect for capturing his likeness.

“Charlotte” My dad was in the retail clothing business for decades. I suspect that’s why I like drawing people with interesting clothes. I grew up in the back room and later worked part-time in the warehouse, on the sales floor, and even joined my dad on a buying trip. It’s in my blood and now in my ink.

“Trane” Musicians and fans know him as Trane, short for Coltrane. He was a saxophonist, bandleader, composer. Widely regarded as one of the most influential figures in jazz history, John William Coltrane died at age 40. I’m not a formally trained artist. Am not skilled in cross hatching to mimic shadow. So I used squiggly ink lines to create the shadowy effect on Trane’s face. I’ve used this technique many times. It looks more warm and expressive than hatching which tends to come across as cool and technical.

“Mystery Companion” Jackson Browne, the extraordinarily talented singer/songwriter, penned “My Stunning Mystery Companion.” The woman in this portrait is my version of her. I didn’t want to put her on a pedestal. Rather, I saw her as unpretentious, down-to-earth, and mature. She’s poised even when doing something as ordinary as getting coffee.

“Bourdain” My wife is an exceptional cook and baker. She has introduced me to delicious recipes and talented chefs and the books they write. “Kitchen Confidential” by Anthony Bourdain is an excellent read. After I finished it, I penciled this sketch of Bourdain. His face is as interesting as the stories he told about discovering food around the world.

“Liverpool Lads” I drew this thinking it would be a study, a first attempt. The next version, however, didn't turn out as good as this. That happens from time to time. While the clothing looks incomplete because the portrait was meant as a rough draft, the faces capture the individuality of each Beatle. I especially like John’s eyes looking a bit skeptical, wary, or indifferent. You decide.

“Fab Couple” It’s a challenge to convey facial expression in a small space. I don’t always succeed. (And you won’t see my failures here.) This time I got what I wanted: A young ‘60s couple that may not be the smartest in the room, but they are, without question, the coolest.

“Shorty” This is one of my early pencil sketches. I met Shorty while he was waiting on my table at a Georgia restaurant. I asked if I could take his photo, and he happily agreed. When I returned home, I sketched this portrait. A year later I returned to the restaurant, but Shorty had moved on. Where, no one knew. A day later—by pure chance—I spied Shorty outside a different restaurant. I gave him the portrait. I don’t know who was more grateful—Shorty or me. It was a powerful moment, the kind an artist treasures.

“Honky Tonk Man” His live performance is part music, part ballet. No country artist moves on stage like Dwight Yoakum. Woman adore him; men wish they could fit into a pair of skinny jeans like he does.

“Serenity Now” You may know him as George’s dad on “Seinfeld.” But I drew him in pencil as Jerry Stiller, the actor. Pencil lead smudges more easily than ink which is one reason I don’t draw much with pencil. But the medium is no less useful in creating likeness and attitude. I think I based this drawing on a publicity head shot as I was working my way through the early stages of becoming a visual artist.

“Pretty, Pretty, Pretty Good” He co-created “Seinfeld” and created “Curb Your Enthusiasm.” On “Curb” Larry David would face off with another character while neither said a word. It became a running bit on the series, something you’d never see on another TV show. I loved the gag and tried to capture Larry’s expression in this small format sketch.