Yeeee-HA!

While riffing with several different ideas while I was working on Quest(Shun), I tested out how this large cowboy head looked/interacted with the rest of the piece.  Bottom line:  I liked the shape, but proportionately the cowboy head was too large compared to everything else.  I liked how it looked enough though, that I made a smaller one.  While staring at the smaller cowboy head/silhouette, I was reminded of a metal helmet for a conquistador.  You can read more about that evolution of Quest(Shun) by clicking HERE.

That still leaves me with a decapitated cowboy (conquistador?) head to mess around with.  I've already started to play around with ideas regarding the frame, now I need to dive into the canvas proper.

Part of the reason why I want to include this Cowboy (working title) in Pop Culture Palimpsest is on the larger piece, Quest(Shun), I pushed this same shape towards the conquistador/Don Quixote interpretation.  If I reuse the same shape in a more 'Wild West/Cowboy' theme/motif, that expands how both pieces can be interpreted/contemplated.

A little bit of line work.  This drawing is from one of my treasure trove of matchbook covers.  For you hardcore insomniacs, I've included a link to a previous post that show the pile of matchbooks.  You can check it out by clicking HERE.

Now with some color added.

Here's what the first layer looks like.  Remember the part along the right hand side that says 'space walk'.  It will come up again later in this post.

I comb through my sketch books in order to cultivate ideas for my second layer.

Like this!

Time to dive into the line work.

Did you remember the 'space walk' part like I asked you to?  C'mon, that was just six images ago...

Anyway, if you notice on this next image the 'space walk' part (which I really liked incidentally) is now obscured by my Amoco sign.  That is just an occupational hazard for how I work.  Sometimes, the bits I really like get almost completely obliterated by the completion of the piece. To console myself, I added just a hint of a new partial 'space walk' running perpendicular to the old one.

Now for some color.

See?  'Space Walk' is totally obscured.  All I get for my troubles is 'Spa'.

The painting is basically complete (I think).  Now on to the frame...

Pop Culture Palimpsest opens in less than 3 weeks at The Figge Art Museum.  Eeeeek!