Sketchbook brings soldiers to life
Richard Johnson is an old-school war artist. He’s walked the hard miles in Iraq and Afghanistan, shunning the camera for pencil and sketchbook, speedily yet meticulously recording soldiers at war and peace in shades of grey.
Born in Scotland and now living in Maryland, the man technically known as a news illustrator has taken the art of war back to its roots, drawing for the Detroit Free Press in Iraq, The National Post in Afghanistan, the United Nations in Africa and for the Washington Post, where he was graphics editor.
His work has toured the United States, it is in the permanent collections of Washington’s Smithsonian National Museum of American History and the National Museum of the Marine Corps in Virginia and now it is part of a military-themed art exhibition at the Canadian W...