THE GREAT NOEL SICKLES, part 3

Noel Sickles was a capable painter...

...but he was first and foremost a draftsman.  He used the most basic black and white tools to achieve the most extraordinary results.  For example, working on a small scale with humble materials he was able to create the illusion of epic events:

The following is Sickles' drawing of one of the worst disasters in Naval history-- the night collision of the aircraft carrier USS Wasp with the USS Hobson.  You'd think that such an immense topic would require a big canvas and a full range of colors.  But look at what Sickles was able to accomplish with graphite on a small piece of illustration board:

Sickles gives us a sense of the scale by his extreme foreshortening of the Hobson and his depiction of the looming Wasp, lit from below by the sparks from the collision.  The tilt of the lumbering Hobson gives us a sense for the immense weight of these ships.

A less skilled hand would dramatize the impact using bright fireballs and plumes of smoke.  With a highly limited value scale, Sickles does a more potent job.  (I've often quoted Thucydides: "Of all manifestations of power, restraint impresses men most.")

As always,  Sickles' linework-- even in a night scene-- reassures us that he is firmly in control of the structure of his subject:

Delicate details such as this were important to show on the Hobson, so viewers would understand its vulnerability in the path of the  huge, implacable Wasp.