If you'll be my bodyguard...

Al

The 29 faces are back... wohooo! I'm so excited :-) Let's see how many months it's going to take me this time ;-)
Here's the first face... my cowboy, Al. Based on Anthony Zerbe whom I love and adore :-) I know it's officially the 2nd now... but I started this at 10 pm... so I count it as September 1st :-)

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 :-)

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 Blues...

Brian

The noises in my ears are now so persistent that I find it extremely difficult to abstract from them. It's very annoying. Anyhoo... finally finished this one of Brian. It's all gone decidedly blue.
Enjoy:-)

Hooded poncho

Tried a more sketchy look today. And a poncho... with a hood. I do love my ponchos. I wish my ears would get better.

Cry me an alternate ending...

Brian Jones - still progressing

Having spent the last few days reading The Hobbit painting has been somewhat on hold. But there has been a bit of progress with Brian which I thought I'd post. He is now waist deep in water for one thing. Incidentally I shall probably be drowning in my own tears if Mr Jackson hasn't concocted an alternative ending for his Hobbit trilogy. I read The Hobbit, which I was actually completely unfamiliar with - oh, pipe down Tolkien fans! - because I really liked Mr Jackson's Hobbit film and I was eager to know what was going to happen to the majestic Thorin and his kick-ass dwarfs... Spoiler alert... HE DIES! So NOT cool. I was distraught... and not just him, Fili and Kili too! What rot. So, please, Mr Jackson, on my hands and knees I beg you... don't do us like that! Artistic license was invented for this very situation. Keep the Majesty alive and brooding! Thank you!

The return of Mr Jones

Brian Jones in progress

I may have been preoccupied with the Hobbit recently and fancying the pants off the King in waiting under the Mountain... but there's still room for Brian Jones. There will always be room for Brain Jones, dagnammit!
Work in progress. Enjoy:-)

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.

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....

Return of the poncho

Marshal Undercover

Marshall Undercover - close-up

First design attempt for the main character in the Western I'm writing.
Enjoy.

Lawman

The Lawman

The Lawman - close-up

My first ever cowboy. A bit sweaty, a bit dirty and bleeding. But hey, he's got a lovely poncho!

Inspired by the absolutely awesome actor Anthony Zerbe.