Fancying the bass player

Lawrence

Back to my Western for face number 6 - Lawrence Ramiro Sánchez. Brilliant with numbers, excellent sharpshooter and a mean double bass player. Based on Benicio del Toro.

Blondie

The Earl

Face number 4 for the 29 faces. Another character from my Western - the Earl as a young man. Based on Tom Petty :-) Not finished yet... but I'm tired and must sleep now.

Hold it right there!

Al

So, finally got around to finishing this one of my lawman from my western, Marshal Alexander Breed. Once again he's out and about at night time. Hopefully he'll get paid overtime for that.
Here he is having one of those 'What did you just say there, sonny?' moments, followed rapidly by a 'I wouldn't do that if I were you' moment.
I love moon light... and Anthony Zerbe's face. I love your face, Mr. Zerbe, sir! There, I said it, I feel better now :-)

Dedicated Follower of Fashion

Maxwell Oliver Macrae - wip

Tonight's wip is another character from my western - Maxwell Oliver Macrae. So spectacular they nicknamed him twice as he is always referred to as either 'Mom' or 'Maxo'.
Due to his extremely sunny disposition Maxo has become the natural agony aunt of his friends, since his bright and sparkly attitude towards life lends itself brilliantly to cheering up anyone suffering from the blues. As a result, anyone feeling a bit down is almost instantly advised to ‘go and have a chat to Mom’. Always impeccably dressed, Maxo works for the Earl in the shopping emporium as a tailor and appointed shop floor ‘customer relations supervisor’, a job title made up by the Earl to give him an excuse to have Maxo hang around in the shop and beam his inherent happiness onto any customer who enters the emporium. It is said that his smile is so spellbinding it will inevitably result in a sale. Maxo is an excellent dancer and plays the piano in the Earl’s band.
His dapper looks and affinity for dance are inspired by the ever fabulous and super charming Don O'Connor.

He's not impressed...

Marshal Breed - wip

... So you might wanna consider your next move very carefully.
Face number 21. Work in progress of a moonlit, squinty, Zerbe inspired lawman. My eyes are so dry... I'm going to bed now.

You can call him Al... but he might shoot you

Marshal Breed

On a dark, windy night when you're fighting both the cold and your inner demons a warm poncho goes a long way.
Enjoy :-)

A man of many ponchos

Alexander Aloysius Breed

Seeing as I was working on a painting of the long suffering Earl yesterday, it seemed only right to finish the weekend with a little wip of the marshal who is competing for the affections of the Earl's sweetheart.

The lawman himself is almost as long suffering as the Earl, but for slightly different reasons. After his family was murdered and the culprit escaped he completely lost his rag, handed in his badge and went off on his own personal vendetta... aaand it kinda just went downhill from there until eventually he fell in with a very wrong crowd and got himself shot. But luckily for him a young lady found him, strapped him to a horse, took him home and patched him up. And in spite of him being both grumpy and squinty they ended up getting along very well indeed, much to the Earl's chagrin.

I have attempted the lawman a fair few times by now, and I'm still struggling to get him just right. One of the reasons being that I kept changing my mind about his age. Seeing as he is inspired by the ever fabulous actor Anthony Zerbe my DVD collection has grown considerably since that fatal afternoon where I first came across him in Rooster Cogburn to a point where I've even invested in a box set of season 11 of Murder she wrote because he was in one of the episodes. No matter what he does he always seem to steal the show :-) Also, this is the first time I have shared the lawman's name with anyone. If anyone out there is a fellow Zerbe admirer his middle and surname should ring some bells ;-)

Unbuttoned Earl

The Earl

Took some time to finish this one of the Earl today. He did start out in a suit originally, but he decided to take if off half way through the proceedings. Actually, as I was painting, I was mulling over a scene in my western where the Earl is getting dressed, so it kinda turned into that.
The reason for his slightly melancholy facial expression is due to the love of his life having once again declined his marriage proposal. He has been asking her for years and she keeps saying no. Not because she doesn't love him, but because her outspoken nature and tomboy appearance is somewhat at odds with the Earl's ambition to become governor and she has no intention of changing her ways for any man. To further add to the Earl's heartache, the girl has recently taken a very keen interest in a wounded marshal whom she patched up after a shooting incident. Sometimes the Earl wonders why life seems to hate him... makes me feel kinda guilty ;-)

Commencing Christmas

The Earl - in progress

My Christmas break officially started today, so I made an extra effort to paint something. So I played around with the Earl for a bit. Still feeling awkward though. Work in progress.

The long dark teatime of the soul...

... to quote the wonderful and very much missed Douglas Adams.
Since my painting of the lovely Sean's wrinkles a creative drought has come over me. Don't get me wrong, I have attempted about ten new paintings over the last week and a half. And I have discarded every one of them. They just didn't 'feel' right. I have no idea what has happened... but it's tremendously frustrating. I wait all day to get home from work so I can paint - when I'm not going singing of course - and then... nothing! I paint into the night, then look at it and go 'meh' and then delete it all again.
So for lack of anything else... here's a sketch of the Earl. This time portrayed at more the age that he has in my western.
If you see my creativity lying around somewhere, give me a shout... Haven't got a clue where I've left it.

The Earl - sketch

The Amazing Anthony!

Earlier this year I became rather fascinated with an old Western. The John Wayne classic, Rooster Cogburn. It wasn't John Wayne or indeed his co-star, my all-time favorite female actress Katherine Hepburn, who enticed me so completely. It was the oddly compelling character of good guy gone bad, Breed, played by the actor Anthony Zerbe. I just fell in love... with his voice, his persona, the way he could ride a horse like you wouldn't believe. He also had the best squint imaginable. Next to him everyone else just looked... hammy.

Breed from 'Rooster Cogburn' -  a squint to die for<3

As is my obsessive way I instantly had an irrepressible urge to make my own squinty cowboy as an homage to the fabulous Breed, resulting in my first ever cowboy painting, my 'Lawman'... which was posted on this blog earlier this year.

This painting is incredibly special to me as it brought with it a change in painting technique and was also shortlisted for the most recent edition of the amazing digital art book series 'Expose' by Ballistic Publishing. And though it didn't make it through the final round I'm still in complete awe to have made it to the final selection from a combined 12000 entries.


'Lawman'

I also looked into the the career of the actor himself. Anthony Zerbe has an impressive track record. At 77 years old this year he is still a working actor with more than 40 years in the business. He is awesome in every way and have played so many amazing roles. I found that I had actually seen him in a fair few films without even realising it was him. It turned out that he played a rather sweet Bond villain called Milton Krest in 'License to Kill' and I suddenly remembered seeing the film on telly as a kid and being very angry with Bond for setting Milton up and getting him killed by the big, bad main villain. And he's been in a ton of Westerns.

Milton Krest from 'License to Kill'

And then I had this crazy notion... Perhaps he'd like a print of my 'Lawman' painting, seeing as he inspired it and it was so special to me.
So I found his address on-line and sent him a letter, giving every contact detail imaginable, asking if he would be interested in a print... And he e-mailed me back less than a week after I had sent the letter! And he said yes:-) Turns out he is the loveliest, sweetest, politest person imaginable... and very, very funny. So I had a big, high quality print made and sent to him in California. Once it had arrived he sent me this picture:-)

Anthony Zerbe and the 'Lawman'

Mr Zerbe you have inspired me more than you could possibly imagine and made me so very happy:-) I wish you all the best in the world, may you continue to squint your way into the heart of everyone who comes across you!
A truly wonderful actor and person:-)

Don't come around here no more...

Thomas Earl

So... as mentioned earlier, there was a reason I chose to backtrack a bit and paint the Earl in his late teens. The Earl's father was a really nasty piece of work, particularly when he'd been drinking. He never did like his oldest son much. Thought he was a girlie looking push-over, and so had a habit of regularly pushing him over... with his fists. Luckily he stepped out onto rail tracks in in a drunken stupor, right in front of a train. Nothing left but his shoes. 'All is well that ends well' as the Earl likes to point out.

I've wanted to practice bruises and such for a while so the Earl's troubled childhood seemed like a good place to start.
Here he is below, sans injuries. See, it's all just done with a Wacom pen;-)

Thomas Earl

Even Earl-ier...

So somehow I seem to have been dragged towards the Earl's teenage years rather than towards the area of mid-life crisis which is the age he is actually meant to have... Did they actually have that back in the old west? Did men start buying swanky stage coaches and ride around with young ladies in them? At any rate, if the Earl did have one, I'm sure he'd just buy lots of silk ties and fancy hats.
There's a reason for this Earl-y portrait though... which will become clear later.
Work in progress... enjoy:-)

Brilliant Blue...

The Earl

Another wip of the Earl. This time looking rather youthful... and wearing one of his trademark top hats.
The Earl says 'There is always an occasion to wear a silk shirt.'
He also says 'Go to bed darlin', it's almost three in the bloody mornin'.'
And who am I to argue with the Earl.
Hope you like him.

The Earl

The Earl

I've got an ear ache again... I should have seen it coming since my ear started making peculiar noises a few days ago... I am not amused.
So, since I couldn't sleep for it.. and I tend to burn the midnight oil anyway... I decided to do a bit of character exploring for my Western.
At the other end of the spectrum of my dusty, squinty lawman we have 'The Earl'. Entrepreneur, banjo player, one with the ladies and owner of the local shopping emporium in which you can buy almost anything. This is one of the few occasions where he is not wearing one of his many top hats. He usually dons a top hat at any occasion since he feels it gives him the distinguished appearance of a Victorian gentleman... also, it hides the fact that his hair is starting to thin at the top. I've always seen him looking akin to an older Tom Petty.
Ever keen to be the trendsetter the Earl is always ready with a spot of good fashion advice... The Earl says: This season the 'in' colours to go for are teal and turquoise, and don't forget to accessorise with a matching bolo tie... you'll find all the latest styles at 'The Earl's Shopping Emporium';-)
Hand drawn sketch, painted in PS... Work in progress.
Enjoy and good night.

Keep smiling...

This one just isn't playing ball right now... So I gave him a beard and moved him outside... the battle continues.

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.