The Illustrated Life And Times of Wild Bill Hickok goes to press today and I have mixed feelings about it. On the plus side, it is done and it should be ready for Christmas delivery. On the minus side, there are quite a few images left on the train platform, so to speak.
Wild Bill Unfinished Business
Here are just a few of the paintings that had promise but time ran out:
Daily Unfinished Whip Out: "Dave Tutt And Wild Bill"
The watch is funky and a glob of mud (my usual default position) and Hickok's pistol butts need some massaging, but I had another version which is running in the book, so I let this one go.
Other images were abandoned in various stages of completion:
A big old pile of nothing.
I was really getting into the rain slicked streets effects (middle, left, above) and had big plans to do more:
Daily Whip Outs: "Wet Streets Studies"
And here's one I feel especially bad about because it represented, perhaps, the finest moment of Agnes Lake's career, during the Battle of Nashville in the Civil War when all her horses were garnished, or requisitioned for the battle and she went and got them back in time for her circus performance in Nashville. Had this little illustration going to cover it. . .
Daily Whip Out: "Agnes Lake Patriot"
There's always next time.
"You can fool too many of the people too much of the time."
—James Thurber
Can't wait for this one. Already got my order in.
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