Tuesday, April 29, 2008

"I am beholden to no human..."


I loved "Deadwood". It was such a foul, dirty, violent show... but it was brilliant. Written in a language that usually took repeated viewings to decipher (for me, at least), it was filled with all kinds of crazy characters, each of whom seemed to walk the razor's edge between civilization and complete chaos. It was funny, smart, and never led you in the direction you thought you were going. Happy endings were few and far between in Deadwood. And no one was who you thought they were.

Take Al Swearengen. When you first meet Al, you're pretty convinced he's the "bad guy" of the show. He's filthy, abusive, violent, and runs a gambling and whorehouse. When he meets the "good guy" you know there's going to be trouble; no way would anyone want this guy around. Except, he's not really the bad guy. He loves his town, and just wants what's best for it. It's just that his ideas of what's best don't always agree with the straight-laced sheriff. Plus, you see more and more sides to Al. I wouldn't call them "softer" sides, but he's very recognizable as a human being. And then once again, everything gets turned upside down.

This was really just a quick sketch based on one of the DVD covers, then gussied up in PS a bit, and finally given the sepia treatment.

Hopefully more Friday.

Music: "I Walk the Line" - Johnny Cash

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Ha! 'Sweargn, @#%$sucker!' (at least according to Woo)