True Grit - Peril in the Orient

 What may be more fascinating than this painting itself was the process in which it was done. I enjoy pulp illustrations of the 50’s and 60’s so for this one I wrote up a bunch of items you’d find on a pulp/ spy magazine cover onto little sheets of paper, for example, a snowmobile chase, a vial of poison, a scorpion, etc.  Then I loaded them all folded into a box and randomly drew five. The five ideas I had picked out were: Tiger, Ticking Bomb, Erupting Volcano, Chinese Villainess, and Motorcycle. Somehow I had to come up with a good composition using these five random items. Having drawn the tiger and Chinese villainess I knew there would be strong Asian influences so I knew plenty of rich yellows and reds would dominate the piece. The 60’s era villainess, obviously the mastermind behind all this strife, looms large over the composition while our square-jawed hero tangles with a fighting tiger. His love interest in distress is tied to a bamboo pole with the ticking bomb while a Chinese thug arrives on motorcycle. The erupting volcano, probably the silliest element of the piece, add just another element of over-the-top danger to the whole composition. By this point, I had learned that Photoshop can save valuable hours and makes it easier to experiment or change any wording or fonts in no time. Here you see two versions, with a text overlay and in its original form. I eagerly look forward to another chance to create a composition by randomly drawing pulp cover elements from a container. This was great fun!

Measures 22" x 28"