Last Light On The Apaches

April 7, 2011

Finally got some traction on the Orme aerial map I have been commissioned to do. Worked last night on it and about a half hour this morning, before I came into the office. I have some fifty sketches and numerous failed washes, trying to capture the right overhead, exaggerated perspective needed to make a map like this compelling. Not easy: in fact, it looks easier than it is, probably because it involves taking very complex perspectives on overhead sight lines and simplifying them at the same time staying true to the actual buildings and their unique angles. Hope to have a finish this month.

Before I came into the office I grabbed a painting out of my failure pile and tweaked it to a rough finish. I call this "Last Light On The Apaches."

He does look tired, no? Need to work on the stock of the Winchester. Kind of tubed it. Not right, but it has potential.

Speaking of Apaches, found this in one of my 10,000 bad drawings sketchbooks:

The most accurate head dress is the one at upper right-hand corner. How come we never see this in movies? That headgear is so unique to the Apache and I don't recall ever seeing it in a movie.

Interviewed Lynn Anderson ("I Never Promised You A Rose Garden") at Festival of the West a couple weeks ago for our What History Has Taught Me department. Got about two-thirds done when this goonball came up and started harrassing her about tripping horses as a training method. Really upset her and she fled the tent, promising to finish later.

Our computer wizard Gerard came out to my house yesterday and hooked up my third computer in the studio. The third one is the oldest and is, according to Gerard, on it's last drive, as in hard drive going down. Need to transfer some of my files over to the newest computer. Many of the files, including all my Mickey Free notes, are in a program called WriteNow which no longer exists and my new computer will not recognize it. Need to copy each file and place each it in email, send it to my account at the office and transfer it to Word, etc.

So glad that computers have made my life more simple. Ha.

"Life is not so much about beginnings and endings as it is about going on and on and on. It is about muddling through the middle."
—Anna Quindlen