This is a 16" x 20" Pastel Drawing of Mark Hassall and Jim Loughlin.

 - Head Coaches Medicine Hat College Rattlers Soccer Teams -

This particular game I snapped 570 photos. I believe I managed to capture a few players and of course these two gentlemen.
The meaning of " Los Coches " is Spanish for " The Coaches "...simple.!
In the 2008 Rattler's Men's Team there was a diversity of players from different cultures. Like Sarajevo, Japan, and Guatemala. The culture that was very prominent was from Guatemala or the Spanish culture. Although the team was made up of a majority Canadian group, I was taken back by the Spanish fan fare that came out to the games.
" Los Coches " the name of this piece is dedicated to that Spanish fan fare and the pastel drawing is dedicated to Jim and Mark, coaches of the Medicine Hat College Rattlers Men's Soccer Team..
I know that I speak on be half of all the soccer parents that had the privilege of experiencing both of your talents, THANK YOU for all the hard work you both have put into the soccer system in Medicine Hat. All prep work before each practice and the strategies before each game.
This pastel drawing is my own way of saying THANK YOU Coaches or should I say Mucha Gracias Coches!

When I took the picture of Mark, I noticed that his sunglasses were very dark. In doing portrait paintings I always like the idea of seeing that person eyes. So I took Marks photo into Photoshop where I was able to run curves on it. In Curves, it lets you control the dark or light hues of a photo.  I was able to slowly eliminate the dark part of the glasses. This allowed me to see his eyes a lot better. Also the reflection of the players that were standing beside him they became more prominent. In turn I incorporated this into the pastel drawing. I wanted to capture the sunlight on his face without giving him too much shadow. I really didn't want to show hardly any shadow. I want to bring the feeling of what a beautiful day for a soccer game even though it was a bit cool for that time of year. 
 

 With Jim, I wanted to capture intensity, strictness and the authoritative coach that he is. Don't get me wrong, Jim isn't always frowning...LOL!
It's just....Game Time.!!...
In saying that I wanted to capture the detail of his glasses and the sunlight that display his facial expression. I didn't want to get too detailed with the coat. Being that it is Jet Black in color I wanted to show the shininess, if you will, of the fabric. The way the blue sky and the sunlight reflected off the material. The logos on the coat, even though you can see that one is Adidas and the other the Rattlers Snake head logo, they are not detailed. First and foremost I want to direct the viewer to the faces of the coaches. Everything else is second...
In this pose, I believe that the sun had a lot to do with his frowning... or....he was contemplating the play in front of him and saying to himself 
 " Aye Carramba "
 
 

In all fairness as parents we always want to see our children excel in every aspect of life they may endeavor. Whether in a social life, school, in sports or careers, we watch them grow and try to guide them in the right paths. In our family it was soccer that has kept us involved in the growth of our 2 children Miguel and Jericka. Throughout the years they both had great coaches that assisted in developing their game and also encouraged life skills to help them become some pretty awesome kids.

THANK YOU for all your hard work... 
 
Miguel joined the Medicine Hat College Rattlers in 2008 and in 2009 Jericka became a Rattler as well.

All works are under the Canadian Copyrights Law. Any reproduction in part or whole without the written consent is strictly prohibited

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