My ‘East Meets West’ series is now two strong! Introducing “The Good, The Bad, and The Fanelli’s” — my portrait of Clint Eastwood as Blondie from The Good, the Bad and the Ugly; hanging in front of Fanelli’s on Prince Street, in Manhattan.

https://www.facebook.com/borbay/videos/1767597819990529/

Here is the entire painting process distilled into a 50-second time-lapse…. peace to Pete Pidgeon and Arcoda for the dope soundtrack. Now, let’s see this baby come to life, step-by-step…

Kicking things off with two basic forms, and a warm underpainting.

A 40″X40″ is not huge, but it isn’t small either. So, I like to work several sections at once. In this case, I gave the building in the background a first go with a deep brown. Simultaneously, I got my drawing on, nailed down the letters on the sign, and let myself indulge with that hot-blue “Fanelli”.

Identifying the shadows = essential in establishing the form. This also ensures you captured the likeness early… again, I let myself get a bit ‘Oscar Wilde’ with the neon tubes in “cafe’.  Oh, yes, I also banged out the sky and windows.

Digging in now… hammering the radiating reds on the sign, as well as the background colors on the letters.

Speaking of background… when I moved from Manhattan (population 1.65 Million) to Victor, Idaho (population 2,088) — it marked a seismic shift. But man, living in the mountains remains a dream… so, naturally, I found myself digging into the best Westerns (ha) I could get my hands on. Having never watched  Sergio Leone’s ‘The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly’ — I was blown away by the Spaghetti benchmark for all Westerns. Eastwood’s Blondie? The archetype for cool, calm and capable. Lee Van Cleef’s Angel Eyes… hard, cold, calculating, dangerous. And, I must say, one of my favorite roles in a Western? Eli Wallach’s Tuco… sinister, humorous, duplicitous. The scene where he is running through the graveyard in search of the golden tombstone sticks with me… his stride carries a perfect mix of anticipation and desperation. I digress…

With the first pass of the sign complete, I went in, re-drew a few windows for future correction, and dove into the shadows.

My first pass of both the horses and Clint were crude… but it helped me further identify the form. Those beautiful quadrupeds, by the way, weren’t from the movie. They are Hapi Trails ponies… an amazing charity here in Teton Valley (in fact, I’m live-painting a Vegas neon at their benefit on Saturday). It’s an amazing organization.

Now, I had me some fun… in a painting like this, it comes down to inventing the reaction between the neon and the subject. The dark horse glows red, while the white horse glows in oranges and yellows. Oh yes, and Blondie’s hat got the treatment.

With the sign letters dialed, and horses painted, I dove into Clint with orange tones. However, I received some valuable feedback on a few features, and realized the tonality was off.

So, I went in worked on some other parts of the painting… the pattern on his famous poncho, his blue shirt…

Going in for a second pass on Clint’s face, I was much more satisfied with the tones. They were missing a certain feel… I also managed to revisit the features, and dial in on the form.  Oh, and I painted a few thousand bricks.

And boom! There is Clint in all of his glory, hanging on Prince Street with a pair of beautiful Hapi Trails’ horses!

One of the great challenges of art? Capturing your paintings accurately. These neon paintings are hell on wheels to photograph. The darker areas catch every sliver of reflected light, creating glares, and the highlights become blown out. So, here is a second look at this painting hanging in Teton Springs. As you can see, there is more definition in the foreground, and the colors are more vibrant. All-in… the original capture is good… but nothing beats the experience of art in-person.

Clint joins Gary Cooper, from ‘The Westerner’, in front of the Seinfeld Diner. Who do you think I should paint next? In front of which sign?