Process Peek: Wild West

It usually starts with a scribble. Sometimes I ask someone in the room to come scrawl on my tablet and then leave me alone.

I stare for a bit until something takes shape around the scribble in my mind. I might rotate it, or enlarge or shrink it. I don’t usually permit myself to skew or erase it in this moment: if the scribble doesn’t have a doodle lurking somewhere within it, then it isn’t worth working on.

The starting scribble (my own, in this case)

Many times I think I see a face. Its expression indicates what kind of body language I’ll try for.

The original scrawl is now nose, jawline, and (unexpectedly) a high frilly collar

I like this face. I like her set jaw, her whisky-no-rocks posture, and even her high collar and skirt. All of it sort of suggests that I’ve made a stop in a 19th century Western saloon.

But I don’t like the hair. The hair is inconsequential. It bows to convention. It required time and bother to arrange in front of a washbasin this morning. I can’t reconcile the hair with that face.

This doodle will patiently wait for me to Fix That Hair until it deserves That Face.

So I do:

I know which of these women I’d want to sweep a bar for

Much better. This is the hair/face of a woman with a small pistol wedged in her stocking. She probably won’t bother using it. She could drop you with one dry insult.