Upside-down frown

Even a marshal needs to brandish his pearly whites now and again. And if his smile doesn't disarm you, he's got guns to fall back on. That's all for tonight, my eye is swelling up again... Work in progress.

Put on your mittens, Spring is here!

Marshal in the Snow

Marshal - close-up

In honour of the recent sunshine an general warming up of the outdoors temperature I decided to add temperatures below freezing and a light sprinkling of snow to this outing for the marshal. Not entirely as inappropriate as it might seem... it actually hailed yesterday... twice.

Got a squint comin' your way, mister!

So after about three hours of throwing colours around I suddenly realised that it's all gone slightly 'Uncharted 2'... I'm sure Nate's Tibetan jacket had similar colours to this, so I decided to call it a night. But hey, on a cold day, even a lawman is in need of a warm coat. And instead of the poncho he sports a severe squint... It may have something to do with the fact that I woke up with two swollen eyes this morning, and I have no idea why... but all day people have been telling me I must have hayfever. Well, there's a first for everything.

Mid-sentence Marshal

the Marshal

the Marshal - close-up

 It's way past my bedtime... but I've wanted to finish this one for days... I got distracted by The Hobbit.

Anyway... I think he's done now... yes, I think so.

It's a gut feeling

... and it's a crap one! My innards have been kicking up a fuss this week, resulting in a really annoying dull stomach ache which has pestered me for almost three days now. I'm always amazed at how much physical discomfort affects your concentration and creativity... I mean it's not like I'm writhing around in agony, but it still distracts me big time.
I attempted some painting these last few evenings, but just didn't get very far... but I thought I'd post the 'progress' on one of them anyway. So here's my marshall again, looking mildly displeased... man, it would suck suffering from IBS if you had to ride horses all day!
WIP

Cranky cowboy

Midday Sun Marshal

Admittedly I was the one getting slightly cranky whilst trying to finish this. Sometimes I become what I like to refer to as 'tonal blind'. It usually happens if I've been painting for too long without a break, suddenly I become hypersensitive to the tiny tonal differences in the colours and I completely loose the ability to see the painting as a whole... It happened while I was working on this... for several days all I could see on this painting was variations on the colour 'brown'. Everything just looked brown.. brown... brooown! And I just couldn't look at it. Until this evening. So here here he is... back with a vengeance, a squint, a lazy eye and a brooown poncho.

Chew that lip!

Today I discovered a sketch I drew about four years ago of  a guy biting his lip. Back when painting in Photoshop was all new and baffling to me. And so not much happened in the colour department and the sketch went in the sketch pile.

Lip - pencil sketch

So I decided to to paint him this afternoon. Took about four hours which I found was ever so appropriate since the sketch is about four years old. One hour for every year in the sketch pile;-)
I love digital painting, but I still can't start any painting unless I have a hand drawn sketch to start from. Hand drawn sketches I salute you!

Lip

Packing a punch-o

Yep... he's back in his poncho. Just a two hour stint from last night... and I do mean night... I started at midnight and decided at 2 am that I had to get some... zzzzz....

Guns 'n' blankets

Campsite Marshal

Campsite Marshal - close-up

So I did manage to stay awake long enough to to sort out the marshal. Who needs sleep?... Zzzzz.

wrap up and saddle up

I am so tired. We returned Saturday evening from two days of awesome off-road motorbiking in Wales at the BMW off-road school. I can't wait to go again! But man it was cold! I have been totally exhausted since we came back but I managed about and hour or so of painting tonight... another crack at my main Western guy with his laaaazy eye;-). Still feeling the chill from the valleys I decided to wrap him in a blanket. Haven't quite decided yet whether to leave him as a rough sketch or finish him a bit more... depends on how long I can stay awa.... zzzzz.