June 17, 2009
Working hard to finish the next issue of True West which goes out the door this afternoon to Kansas City, where RR Donnelly will do their most excellent, printing thing. Joey Rocketshoes Dillon is on the cover (he taught Josh Brolin some amazing gun spinning tricks for the new flick Jonah Hex which is filming even as you read this).

Tweaked an earlier study of the Sunset Rider, adding a lava-like foreground. In this one, the rider is a mere spec on the horizon:

I didn't plan this, but it kind of gives a movie, frame for frame, effect with the closer image:

Last night I worked on a bilious cloud, spitting dust and death as it billows right at us:

As you can tell, I love doing these airborne suckers. The roiling pustules are created by loading up my fattest brush with copious amounts of raw sienna and cobalt blue and then dabbing at the puddling concoction with a wet paper towel. Pretty cool effect, no?

Also noodled a gunfighter (to be named later) peering through the smoke of a barroom fight:

I'm in the habit now of whipping out these loosey goosey studies first thing in the morning, at lunchtime and then at night when I get home from work. Gee, I wonder what the old vaqueros have to say about this?

"Habits are cobwebs at first, cables at last."
—Old Vaquero Saying