I Got A Plan

 January 8, 2022

   The right show at the right time.

The Right Show at The Right Time

   Yes, I know there are a couple holes in the story and there's a few sketchy weapons and random wardrobe anomalies, but I just love the spirit of the show and the honesty it tries to convey. In the opening, for example, which actually appears to be the end of the show, we see In-dins attacking a wagon train and many of them are wearing civilian, or, anglo clothing. I have never seen anyone portray this in battle scenes in Westerns and it was, in fact, a big problem for the U.S. Army in the Custer era. He wrote a scathing report after a dust up with the Sioux saying how hard it was to fight them in battle because the reservation authorities had gifted the In-dins civilian clothing and it was difficult to make out who was who in a running fight. For guys like me, this is just the coolest.

Patina Practice Made Patina Perfect

   I've been experimenting with a new idea. Or, at least it's a new twist on an old concept.

Daily Whip Out: "Patina Background #3"

   If you love Old West photographs, like I do, you are no doubt enamored of the wear and tear on the images. In the photo biz this is called noise. I often try to capture this noise with my warm-up passes on art paper, like the above. Many times this subtle background gets obliterated by the resulting painting—the main character(s) I end up placing in it cover up the subtle aspects and I wondered this morning if I scanned a few of the background patina pieces and saved them, to perhaps marry, or sandwich together on a finished figure? It's a work in progress. Here's a few more.

Daily Whip Out: "Patina Background #4"

   And, then sometimes, the scene is born straight out of the patina painting, like this.

Daily Whip Out: "Veil of The Maiden"

   Love this one. Hope I can marry it to something compatable. . .

Daily Whip Out: "Patina Background #1"

   Yes, I see the skull. Others have a mind of their own and I can't help add stuff. . .

Daily Whip Out: 

"There She Waited In The Doorway"

Meanwhile, in the Sierra Madre

   "So there we were trailing along behind Mickey Free and we went straight up into the dark heart of the Sierra Madre with Doroteo Arrango and his bandidos on one side and the Mad Russian and his Rurales on the other. We rode like that for several days and, I for one, never got a wink of sleep."

—James Young

Daily Whip Out: "The Lone Sentry"

   And, thus a new story comes to life. But, the important thing is, I have a plan.

"Cinema is a proxy reality, storytelling as the process through which ugly little facts are transubstantiated into grand, emotional truths. . ."

—Doreen St. Felix