OLD TEX

OLD TEX: A Elderly Cowpoke in his early 70' or 80's.
Resides in Crook of the road. Tx. A small dust bowl cow town community in the panhandle, He's seen the snow on the Rockies and the cactus of Mexico, en' wasn't impressed!
He's now happy to make his daily rounds to the local watering hole for 2 fingers of sasporila, Then down the boardwalk to the bench out front of the general store, where chews the fat with the locals. as he spits and whittles he don't call it keeping up with the local gossips,
such as that's what the old hens do. as they point and snicker..
His normal rounds take him to the cafe for the daily special before his 2 pm nap.
He's an old cowpoker that has been rode hard and put up wet on many occasions, and finely showing some wear and shrinkage around the edges., now in the sunset of his days on the range. he's just happy not to hurt too bad when he rolls out of the bunk every morn'in.

Most recently Being inspired by Lynn's Droughtys Cowboys, I just can't get them out of my head, they fill my dreams them, as well as other situations cowboys come across in their daily lives that would make good subject, cattle drives, branding, split rail corrals , riding fence, hitching posts, watering trouts, and the occasional bordello, saloon & adobe jail house of course.
but not every carving can or should be turned into a full blown diaharama ether. So in an attempt to settle this notion.. I decided to make a cowboy first out of the patterns I have received and sketched... I Been working on old tex, as I call him, for a while as my prescription medication keeps me dazed and confused half the time plus the 2 year old grand kids get to moving things around on me, so shifting the concentration from doing to hunt for it and then wonder what I was doing before the hunt.? ....
i'm having difficulties with the face, among other things, one hand bigger than the other and fingers went south on the other. guess all along I was hoping that face paint would do cosmetic surgery on this dude and cover some of the defects, or a elf would come and do it while I slept.
Im now faced with some grim options. the wood now around the eyes is pulpy like cutting hair. it seams to move instead of being sheared off. the detail around the eyes is fading fast, one possible solution is just smoothing it over and painting on a face, or cutting off the head, and starting again. "but the hat came out So dang good!" I think my downfall arrives from working on a 6" tall figure, with 1/4" gouges and knife tips modified for better use at carving steak than trying to make fine detailed eyes, never the less I painted the first 'very thinned down coat' last night and im not impressed with the face at all. It shows every mistake, now in my thinking a carving should stand on its own merit without paint. the paint is just a hint of a finish. maybe my standards are too high for my methods. but I pressed on hoping for a miracle. I do like Lynn's method of painting wet wood and very thin layers as it gives you some leeway in the depth of color, and a chance to remove some of the color if it gets too dark. also aids in the showing of wear patterns, and such.Old tex is a AFTERTHOUGHTS: one hand is bigger than the other and the fingers on the left (smaller) are funky looking.