Black history month portrait drawings - Muhammad Ali and Harriet Tubman

Black history month portrait drawings - Muhammad Ali and Harriet Tubman. Do a search for subjects and start drawing portraits. They may or may not work out, but it will be good practice. An informative caption or blurb would be good too. 

This image of champion boxer Muhammad Ali  drawn from a photo I remember as being around the time he still went by Cassius Clay Jr, and perhaps just when he was drafted to  the army.  In 1964 he changed his name, as he had become a Muslim.

He was a conscientious  objector against the Viet Nam war, and was sentenced  to prison for refusing the draft. He managed to stay out of prison but was stripped of the heavyweight title, which he had won from Sonny Liston, and was not allowed to fight for the five years of his sentence. He won the title back, when he fought Joe Frazier and went on to win a third world heavyweight championship when he fought George Foreman. . The only boxer to win three world heavyweight championships in a row.

Harriet Tubman was a slave and abolitionist. She escaped to the North and freedom when she learned she was to be sold, (thereby being separated from her family). She went on to lead over 300 people to safety via the Underground Railroad. She was a nurse and a spy for the Union during the Civil War. After the war she continued the hard work of providing refuge for those who had nothing when they came to the North.

I did these drawings digitally - ipencil on iPad. The Muhammad Ali drawing was also screencast. If I ever get that edited, I’ll post that. Right now I’m just glad to have drawn it. I don’t even think it’s that recognizable. What a handsome man he was. Harriet Tubman so fierce and direct.