Robert Plant, live circa N/A. I didn’t retain any of the information on the image I referenced in drawing this portrait, but the moment captured exists in the sweet spot of nostalgia and teenage thrill I was attempting to draw.
My introduction to Led Zeppelin was unspoken. Led Zeppelin IV would play front to back each weekend in the summer. My step-mom quietly puttering around with laundry, my dad lost to the mess of the garage. Fourth grade me lost his shit when I first heard Plant wail the opening of Black Dog. It was such a visceral moment for me, yet everyone in the house went about their weekend as if their minds had not just been blown. When I hit high school I was shocked to find that everyone my age had their own private moments with Led Zeppelin and as a teen in the ’90s, their albums spun alongside Pearl Jam, Nirvana, and Alice in Chains.
This drawing was done with various pencils on standard computer paper. The threat of wasting expensive paper and charcoal has me turn to the tools of the everyday — paper and pencil. Nothing fancy.
Chris Jalufka 