July 12, 2010
Cave Creek actor and all around handyman, Roy Hunt, came out to my house on Saturday morning and replaced a pine pole on our back porch that has been decimated by wood termites. Roy and his helper Paul did a seamless job and the pole fits right in (he aged it) with the other five poles.

Since I'm bachin' it, I got in some good work over the weekend. Started with shadowing William R. Leigh's pen work:



Leigh does great line work build outs, fades and blends. The Mexican with the big sombrero is from a photo I found. I tried to apply Leigh's line to that image. Not bad. Dig the posture. A cocky little rooster. Kind of reminds me of a kid I grew up with whose name rhymes with Mickey Campa.

From there I worked on the cinematic scenario of the mule drop in the Sierra Madres. Shadowed Remington here, especially the hind hocks of the mule:



That's a study for Tom Horn at top. I see him as being a packer on the expedition, but still dressing as a cow-boy. This doesn't set well with his fellow packers and one of them gives him grief about it: "You know what your problem is Horn? You dress like a God damn cow-boy." Horn, ever the smart-ass, replies, "You say that like it's a bad thing."

Took this sketch of Horn and refined it into a scratchboard:




He's in the process of giving Al Sieber some grief over the mule sliding towards the cliff ("Relax Al, the drop will air out the stink.") Here's Al reacting to that drama:



Need to work on Sieber's face a bit. He looks too much like Hitler! Ha.

Anyway, that was my weekend. Did watch Akira Kurosawa's "Stray Dog" and enjoyed it immensely.

Got some sprinkles on Friday night, otherwise humid and muggy out. Woke up today slightly discouraged. It's taking me way too long on this mule sequence. I've got maybe three usable images and I need at least ten more to launch this sequence. Gee, I wonder what ol' Thomas Paine has to say about this?

"The harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph. What we obtain too cheaply, we esteem too lightly; 'tis dearness only that gives everything its value."
—Thomas Paine