Les, in a cowboy hat, at my request.
 

For the usual crowd, I was in an afternoon open studio with my good friend Les.
I worked for three hours and had such a good pose! He is a craggy faced old character model who is the ONLY cowboy I have painted. Must branch out or have other models bring hats ;) but I got him to pose. I was hoping for some motion in his usually still face. He is a great sitter, perfectly still, but not very creative. This hand was a joy.

In reverse order, here is my piece fixed up with photo ref. and the bottom is the three hours at the end of studio.

This is terrific, Debra. Having painted Les once myself, I'd know him anywhere. In fact, his craggy face is staring down at me right now, on my office wall.

This is a wonderful painting, Debra, strong and confident. It looks to me like you didn't have much to "correct" after the end of the three hours!

HoDeeDoe Debra!

This is certainly the Les we all know and love! I could just look at your "sketches" all day. I bet he loved this one, especially since he likes to give the Litany of those who have painted him!

Bravo, oops, Yahoo! :thumbsup:

That one made coffee come out of my nose!

Monday was the first day he brought an armload of his snapshots. Did you know he was a model for a Vampirella comic book too!? I may have to run by Rawhide and drop a copy off for him. He was not sure of his son's email address to get a reproduction and I think my referenc photo is nice enough to stick in his little model book.

I was hugely surprized that of all his hotshot snapshots, my very favorite was from a local instructor going national, Bob Lemler. I know Bob is a massing and shapes sort of guy, but side by side with his Leffel, Bob was RIGHT on the likeness... again, familiar faces help a lot.