Still Riding High Trying to Capture The Kid Riding High

April 5, 2015
   Had a Design Review meeting today. Our art director, Dan The Man Harshberger, thinks my "Still Riding High" image of the Kid (posted yesterday) is too rodeo—waving his hat on a soaring steed). I actually had a sketch of the Kid riding high with a Winchester in his hand from a couple days ago:



 
Daily Whipout: "Still Riding High Sketchbook, April 4, 2015"

   Here is yesterday's effort:

 
Daily Whipout: "Still Riding High_05"

   So I went home for lunch and gave it another go.

 
Daily Whip Out: "Still Riding High_06 (this time with a Winchester!)"

    I like the rifle better in the sketch and the "House" better in the first painting. The trick is to successfully combine all the elements into one painting. Beyond that, I'm heavy into the big Billy the Kid package. Lots of BS to wade through, but it is very, very interesting, even the crazy stuff. Of course, the trick in history is to separate the two—crazy amazing stories vs. true stories.

   Speaking of deathly indifference, I recently read about a new kind of history teaching. . . called "Reacting To The Past."

"The deathly indifference that hangs [over the classroom] like a fog bank [in university history classes, which brings into high relief] the astonishing power of of the undergraduate mind to resist the intrusion of knowledge."
—a professor of history talking about the challenge of reaching kids today.