101 Faces From Prison

About twenty years ago I started a project I called "101 Faces From Prison". My goal was to draw 101 faces of men I did time with, using pointillism and a ball-point pen. 

You probably don't realize it, but it is very time consuming to do this type of work. I often joke that, "no body but a damn convict has the time it takes to actually do a
decent drawing with a pen". In addition to the time involved, it's a PEN so there is no room for a mistake, and believe me, it took a long time and a lot of mistakes
to perfect this technique. But alas, over the years I have mastered it.

To date I have completed over seventy prisoner faces, so I have yet to complete this project ... yes, you will notice that there are not seventy faces here for you to see :(
What happened? Well honestly speaking ... I sent all of those faces to friends or family ... and the ones missing have been irrevocably lost. So, to those, my fellow prisoners
who contributed your likeness to this project, I humbly apologize. I shake my head: how could someone on the outside understand the work or the importance of this project.
I shake my head: how could someone be so careless with my life's work. Karma?

I will admit that I became discouraged and have not done anyone's portrait for this project in five years. I was simply heartbroken. But, time moves on and I will make you this promise: I will begin anew, with new faces. I will set a goal of five years to complete this project. 

I hope that you enjoy the work.

For the record: I not been able to draw any faces of female prisoners, simply because I have not been around any. Believe me, I would much rather draw women than these old hard-legs I'm around :) So if you know of a female prisoner who would like to become part of this project, please send me their up-close faces picture.  

And there you have it. 

Sincerely, Mark Crawford
 

All ink drawing are originals by Mark Crawford 079