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 :-)

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.

Recuperating Marshal

Lawman with a fever

Tonight I was once again irreversibly drawn to one of my most favourite faces. The face of the superbly wonderful Anthony Zerbe. It was his performance in the western Roster Cogburn that inspired the look of my lawman and instigated my quite frankly baffling desire to write a western of my own.
In this particular rendition of marshal Breed he has been shot, has a slight fever and generally isn't feeling to brilliant. But don't worry, he'll heal up just fine and meet a really nice girl too. This leading man gets a happy ending :-)

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 ;-)

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:-)