Sitting Bull

“Sitting Bull” was commissioned about 3 years ago by my boss at the time. I worked at a computer lab at the University of Puerto Rico at Mayaguez doing regular maintenance and upgrades. My boss was a bit eccentric as far as Native Americans were concerned, and had all kinds of paraphernalia around the office and at his home. Sitting Bull was his favorite character from Native American history, so as soon as he found out that I could draw, he asked for this picture.

I designed the overall composition based on two different pictures that I found of Sitting Bull. I thought a cloudy night sky would be a good contrast to the figures in the foreground, so I incorporated into the picture.

Interestingly, at first the sky included a moon because I have always envisioned Native Americans as dancing in the moonlight. Maybe that image was engraved into my mind by movies and other media, but nevertheless, I thought the moon was a good addition. Unfortunately, an ink spill ruined the drawing of the moon so now there is only a dark spot in the upper right-hand corner.