Came down with a summer cold and went home early yesterday. Felt lousy all day, headache and sore throat, general malaise. Did manage to do several more sketches on my big, opus feature on Cowboy Ground Zero based on my photo reference shot yesterday. Got up this morning at 5:30, took a brisk walk, came back and bailed into the big idea of the piece:
Daily Whipout, "Cowboy Ground Zero Splash Page FPO"
Wanted to illustrate all the horseback influences that begat the Cowboy, including the Iberians (Spanish warriors from Extremadura, Spain), the Cau-boys from Scottland, the Conquistadors, the vaqueros and even the knights of King Arthur. What was interesting in researching these horsemen is that all of them carried some sort of lance or spear or pole of some kind. Even the Extremadura cow tenders used long poles instead of ropes. Thus the preponderance of lances and spears along the bottom.
Brought the painting into the office about 9:30 to scan and Rebecca and I are going to start the layout for this very ambitious feature.
Oh, and FPO stands for "for position only".
"If the world were a logical place, men would ride side saddle."
—Rita Mae Brown
