February 19, 2008
Worked late last night and early this morning on a Classic Gunfights painting.

Bright Lights, Big Illio
I have been itching to do a technique I only recently have become aware of. I'm speaking of the back lit figure, where the light from behind is so strong it bleeds out the edge of the object (usually in silhouette) in front of it. Case in point: the ad for the number one movie in America last week: Jumper. The sun is behind him and see how it eats away at the solid silhouette of the "Jumper" standing atop the Sphinx?



I'm illustrating the unsuccessful train robbery at Steins Pass by the Black Jack Ketchum gang in December of 1897. The robbers built two bonfires on either side of the railroad tracks about two miles west of the train depot at Steins. Two of the robbers commandeered the train when it stopped at the depot, then rode the engine as they told the engineer to go until they got to the bonfires. Three of the outlaws took the horses and waited at the bonfires for the train, right at the foot of Steins Mountain. I wanted to illustrate the three guys waiting for the train with the bonfires blazing behind them. I nailed the effect on the second guy from left (Sam Ketchum). Notice the bonfire light behind him, eating away at his right arm. Very effective, if I do say so myself.



By the way, the bonfires did in the gang, as the train had two extra express guards on it (an undercover stock detective, George Scarborough had ferreted out the info that a train would be robbed in that district and lawmen put extra guards on the trains). When the outlaws demanded the express agent open the doors, he did, and all the outlaws were lit up and exposed by the bonfires as the shotgun weilding guards let them have it. All the outlaws were hit by "blue whistlers" and one of them, Ed "Shoot-em-up-Dick" Cullen got his head ventilated by the barrage.

Old Exits vs. The Even Older Exits
"Glad your rehearsal went fine. Loved what you had to say about the 'olf folks'. Whenever i see older people grooving to some 60s or 70s music i at first say to myself, how do those old folks know the words to that song? Then i remember, that was the music that was popular when they (and myself) were young! Why do we have a hard time believing they were young once . . .and that their youthful years paralleled ours? Imagine some stranger in his 60s stumbling upon the EXITS concert and thinking how do those old guys know those songs?"
—Gus Walker

Speaking for everyone that's going to be in attendance, that's exactly what they're going to think. Mike told me when his father-in-law showed up during our practice last Saturday, his bandmate Roger Enrico, thought it was another Exit showing up for practice. The father-in-law is in his seventies. Ha.

"“Tough times make tough men.”
—Benny Binion