Thursday, September 11, 2014

Blue Skies & Trash Can Contenders

September 11, 2014
    This is the day we all kind of hold our breath when we first turn on the radio or TV or check our phones. So far, so good (10:05 a.m.).

   Got up today and did five skies.

 
Daily Whipout: "Five Skies"

   These are prep washes for a doubletruck I've been tasked with doing for the Holiday Gift Guide in the December issue of True West.

   I also started to fill the 16th garbage can with discarded art and here are some of the contenders:

 
Trash Can Contender No. 1

   This was used to illustrate the Turkey Springs Gunfight in New Mexico but it just seems very weak to me now.


 
Trash Can Contender No. 2

   A failed train cover from about ten years ago. Liked some of the effects but it's overworked and under committed.


 
Trash Contender No. 3

   This was used in Classic Gunfights, Vol. II and illustrated Doc Holliday coming back into the Oriental with his pistol blazing (he hit the bartender in the toe). Seems undone, half-assed. May give it another pass, or write it off as a lost cause.


 
Trash Can Contender No. 4

   A series of paintings I did on the theme of Billy's Backyard Ballet. I had big plans for this and perhaps that's why it fails so completely.


 
Trash Can Contender No. 5

   This was a failed cover idea for In Search of Cowboy Ground Zero.


 
Trash Can Contender No. 6

   A failed cover on Davy Crockett taking Ol' Betsy to downtown San Antonio.

"Talent is a muscle: you have to use it."
—L.Q. Jones