March 8, 2010
It's been raining off and on for the last 48 hours. Stayed home yesterday and worked on True West Moments illustrations, like this one for Nazi Westerns filmed in Arizona, "Heil Hickok!":



The stain at the top right stems from our new cat Honey Boy Roy, who tipped over my brush cleaner jar and the water stained the Esdee scratchboard on my desk.

Also worked on a Sedona landscape for use in the background of the above scene:



This is a Sedona outcropping known as The Nuns Formation. While I was looking for this image in my files, I found a potential dead ringer for "'Ol Pinetop," a character from Old Arizona I plan on using for a True West Moment. According to Marshall Trimble:

"The White Mountains of Arizona boasts the largest stand of ponderosa pine in the country. In the early days the soldiers at Fort Apache made the long ride up to the top of the Rim and followed the Crook Military Road all the way across to Fort Verde. Right at the top of the hill, a tall, lanky fellow with red, bushy hair named Walter Rigney had a saloon. His hair stuck out like a pine bough and the soldiers called him Ol’ Pinetop. The boys in blue were always happy to stop at Ol’ Pinetops place and belly up to the bar before continuing on to Fort Verde.

"When the Apache Wars came to a close people began building cabins around Ol’ Pinetop's saloon and pretty soon a town was born. And they named it Pinetop, not because it was located midst the largest stand of ponderosa pine in the world but for a tall, bushy-headed bartender."

So, barring a photo of Walter Rigney, I wonder if this guy would fit the bill?



It was done for something completely different, but he has a bit of an "Ol' Pinetop" look, no?

My first print version of True West Moments appeared in the Arizona Republic yesterday. I thought the layout was fine, although our art director Dan The Man Harshberger was miffed that they paid no heed to his creative design layout. And Robert Ray was miffed that they converted a carefully constructed bit map into a halftone, which washed out the blacks, robbing it of a crisper tone.

While I thought it looked fine, it is an issue that we are spending a whole bunch of time creating these and then they are sent down to the Republic and dismantled and rebuilt as per their specs. Not sure quite what to do about this, but something needs to give. Still, I have to keep it in perspective and remember that the important thing is, they ran it along with a good plug for our website and magazine.

Gee, I wonder what ol' Samuel Clemens has to say about this?

"Many a small thing has been made large by the right kind of advertising."
—Mark Twain