October 10, 2003
Started at the end, of course. Got in a blue wash for the last page of the introduction. Big painting, trying to stay subtle, not my strong suite. Kept it to one color all the way through. Stopped at nine. Mulling it. May move on and come back to it.

Switched gears and started a big image of Charlie’s Pitts’ last words. Got some good foliage and decent underpainting. Looked at the first image. Not good. Dried too harsh. Can’t get it back. Got to keep going (10:30 A.M.). Made some decaf coffee (over my limit on real).

Worked until three, shot images and took them up to Foothills Photo for one hour developing ($7.56, cash). Came back to office. Dan Harshberger drove out to do a design review on the book. He had many excellent suggestions. Saved numerous pages, tweaked our typography to make it more classy and refined. He really improved the book, maybe as much as 10%. It’s amazing what a good designer can do. And he did it for no pay. If I owe anyone a car, it would be Dan.

Got home late, at around seven. Tired but have to get on to other paintings. Kathy went to Spanish class at PVCC and I stayed home to work. Got in about two hours of good solid painting, working on the Wyatt Earp with the gunbelt around his thighs. Got a very nice underpainting in, knocked off, turned on the neck massager (really sore, but a good sore).

Got up this morning and went for a walk with Kathy. Quite cloudy out. Smells like rain. Went up the hill, came back, just as we got to the house, It started coming down. Still raining (7:15). We really needed it.

Back to work. Need to finish two more images before two. Driving to Kingman tonight. Speech tomorrow at Mohave County Museum.

”Nothing relieves the monotony of a job like finding ways to improve it.”
—Old Vaquero Saying