June 12, 2009
Kathy and I are planning a trip to South America in September to celebrate 30 years of wedded bliss and wretched weddedness (it's about an even split, but either way, we're still married!). Thomas Charles will be meeting us, having completed his stint in the Peace Corp and he will come home with us. Deena and Frank are also coming down for the occasion.

So that got me thinking yesterday about getting all of my projects done before I leave.

I've basically got 90 days to finish three Classic Gunifghts, four editorials, five covers, six Billy the Kid Country paintings and 930 sketches (in a pear tree). I'm torn over whether to be doing the final sketches on the 10,000 Bad Drawing Quest while on "vacation." Part of me wants the quest to be finished so I can relax, and another part of me thinks it would be a great way to end the long quest, doing sketches of the gauchos and estancias (ranches) in Argentina.

Anyway, all this calculating got me super-hyped yesterday to do extra sketches. Here's my first ten:

Very Japanese sequence at the top. Big brush, loaded with a mixture of orange and blue (which creates gray), one pass, six times, then a rider making a sequential pass as the day darkens. Heavy stuff. Also like the dusk rider in middle. Here's the second ten, finished at about 9 P.M. last night:

Rather hurried looking and flat. Illustrates to me just what a fine line there is between dashing something off and meaningful dashing.

"If you always do what you've always done, You'll always get what you've always gotten."
—Alan Cohen