Hot Tuna: Spotlight on Jack’s Jawline

Posted on July 19, 2026 by portfoliolongo.com

Jorma Kaukonen has appeared on this illustroblog multiple times to one degree or another as you can see here. He’s legendary, not only around here in Athens, OH where he lives, but pretty much everywhere else. We’re lucky, we get to see Jorma and John Hurlbut playing around Athens pretty regularly, and what a treat it is! Getting to see Jorma and Jack Casady reunite as Hot Tuna, that doesn’t happen so frequently. Check out this clip of them in 1969. So, Annyth and I, thanks to some good friends who jumped on 3rd-row, Stuart’s-Opera-House tickets for all of us back in February, got to see Jorma and Jack doing what they do best; and they did that and more along with special guest, harmonicist extraordinaire, Ross Garren! I wish I had four ears instead of only two!

When my ears weren’t completely blown away by the music, my eyes would wander off and dwell on Jack’s expressive face. If I had brought a 25 lb. block of clay with me, I would have sculpted it right then and there!

That was Friday, July 17, 2026. The very next day I sat down with Jack, well, a photo I took of him, and spent some time with him and a few of his features.

Jack, rounded up to the nearest 100

Technical: I painted Jack’s “portrait” on my iPad Pro using an Apple Pencil and these apps: Sketch Club, Procreate, and iColorama. It’s pretty orange, isn’t it? Here’s the reference photo I took and used. Because of the lighting, things got pretty orange.

Reference photo… 🍊

Nevertheless, lot of fun!

Subaru Dealership Waiting Room Guitar Man

Posted on February 12, 2024 by portfoliolongo.com

Waiting Room Guitar Man…I put it that way because, one a Jorma scale from 1 to 10, this is maybe a 2, maybe a 2.5.

30,000 mile service. Time to dig in. Looks like I deviated a little from Jorma’s actual countenance based on this screenshot of him and Jack.

Jorma & Jack

Jorma & John live in Athens, OH

Posted on January 1, 2024 by portfoliolongo.com

A few weeks ago Annyth and I got to see Jorma Kaukonen and John Hurlbut at the River Of Time Boutique in Uptown Athens. That was on December 16, 2023. Now that we’re back in Athens we get to see first hand cool things like this. I took a photo between songs which I used as a photo reference for this freehand iPad digital painting. It was a beautiful Saturday afternoon, and the live music warmed our souls. Annyth bought a really cool apron there too.

This isn’t Jorma’s first appearance on this illustroblog. Check out these two other posts, one of which tells the story of my weekend at the Fur Peace Ranch back in the early 2000s when I learned at camp directly from Jorma himself that, when it comes to finger picking, the secret is in the thumb: yep, click here. See a couple of must-see links below the following image:

Check these out too:
1. Click here
2. Click here too, this is cool!.

Jorma’n Tommy

Posted on December 9, 2023 by portfoliolongo.com

A freehand quick sketch based on a reference screenshot from a YouTube video (see below) featuring old friends Jorma Kaukonen and Tommy Emmanuel playing a Roy Book Binder song in 2023. See also this 2014 post of Jorma in which I refer to my own weekend at the Fur Peace Ranch back in the early 2000s.

Jorma and Tmooy

Jorma Kaukonen: The Secret Is in the Thumb

Posted on December 20, 2014 by portfoliolongo.com

When we lived in Athens, OH, we were right up the road from the Fur Peace Ranch, where Jorma Kaukonen and other extraordinary maestros take beginner-, intermediate-, advanced-, and master-guitar players and move them along to their next levels over the course of a few jam-packed days, breaking now and then to strap on the gourmet feed bag, in a down-home, country retreat setting. It’s much more than a guitar camp, check it out.

Ann got so tired of hearing me play the same old stuff that she secretly registered me for a weekend at the Ranch! That was back in the late 1990s.

There were folks from all over the country, mostly good, some great guitar players!

One thing Jorma said about finger picking that I’ll never forget, “The secret is in the thumb!”

How true! How true! Fortunately, I learned a few things that have made an enduring difference.

What brought back this memory? I saw a Facebook post that the short documentary, Fur Peace Ranch: It Doesn’t Get Any Better Than This!, has been selected for a screening at the New Jersey Film Festival on Saturday, January 31, 2015! Check out the preview.

Jorma: