Diary of A Daily Whip Out: When to Stop?

 March 21, 2024

   Last weekend, one of the stragglers in the Triple B Art Studio Yard Sale came out and bought two pieces, but as Steve Enyeart looked around my studio he told me he was also was interested in buying this painting:

Daily Whip Out: "Wyatt Earp Raw!"

   This rather large, unfinished, board has bounced around, in my studio for at least 25 years. Every time I stumble across it, I think the premise is solid and I just might be able to improve it and complete it, nay save it! So, it's interesting that Steve wanted to buy it as is.

   Therein lies a tale worth telling and exploring on the road to a Daily Whip Out Keeper.

Evolution of A Whip Out: When to Stop?

   Here is a sequence that speaks to the issue. I started out with a rough idea of a Rurale coming at us straight on. Here is my first pass:

Scratchboard: "Rurale On The Jump #1"

Rurale On The Jump #2"

   To my eyes, the horse's legs are a little too truncated, the dust is a little too anti-translucent, and the foreground perhaps needs to be darker, so I took another pass.

"Rurale On The Jump #3"

   So the question remains, is the looser version stronger? Is the second verson stronger? Or, more importantly, did I work it to death? This is an endless debate—When to stop? There is an old artist saw: every artist needs another artist to stand behind him with a hammer and when the time comes to start beating him with it: "Stop! Stop! You're ruining it!"

"When you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth."

—Arthur Conan Doyle