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 | The Gunfighter was commissioned by Steve Sossin as a gift for his dad, Roy Sossin, who is a fan of the film "Shane" and also a highly accomplished quick draw artist. Roy is able to "draw and fire a Single Action Colt in under 2/10ths of one second. At age 75! "
Steve emailed to me some old, grainy, black and white photos of Roy Sossin as a young man, photos of the horsehead grips, and some video of his Dad wearing the hat, shirt, belt and holster. He also sent me a picture of Alan Ladd as Shane, which I used for the fit of the shirt on a younger, more slender man. Steve had requested alot of attention be given to the details on the shirt, conchos, custom holster and the unique carved horsehead grip on the Colt firearm. There were several challenges for me with the project. First and foremost was my lack of knowledge regarding guns. To familiarize myself with Colt's, I visited local museums, websites, and looked at books. I did several sketches of Colts, some at the museums and some from books, to be sure I had the details correct. Another challenge was de-aging Roy. I used the old photos for the shape of his face and used the recent video of Roy for the shape of his nose and eyes. Finally, due to the dark belt, holster and gun, some of the details were difficult to see in the video. However, with the Lord guiding my hand, it all came together as a beautiful gift for Roy. This was a fun project for me, and I enjoyed the research and challenges it presented. |
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| | Closeups - click on any image to zoom more
 
The hands, horse body, pants and saddle were deliberately painted without much detail to not compete with the gun, holster and conchos. The gun was requested to be positioned to give a full-facing of the grip and its unique detail.
  
Sketches of face, grip and colt, click for larger view
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Comments from Steve Sossin:
"I contacted Artist Sue Sasso based on many factors...some of which I will mention here. First and foremost, a God-given gift that Sue gives our Creator full credit for. Also because of her open mindedness in working with those who commission her work. I shared dozens of e-mails with Sue and some phone calls too. Another factor was viewing her works which show depth and poignancy that is astounding! I knew that she was capable of doing a portrait with only a few photo's and that she would "de-age" my Dad. Now a main concern was this; my Dad always LOVED the Movie "SHANE" starring Alan Ladd. He actually has some of the movie props, costumes etc and I sent Sue some video of him wearing one of the actual shirts, the actual hat and one of five concho belts ever made of the same style by the same maker. He used his own Holster he designed himself and an 1899 Colt on which I asked Sue to paint the "Shane" carved Ivory Horsehead grips which my Dad also has. I told her I didn't want a portrait of Alan Ladd, but rather a portrait of my Dad in Wyoming with the beautiful Grand Teton's, some of Shane's Costume and some of my Dad's things. I also sent her a photo of the portrait from The book "Shane" and told her I wanted a cross between the movie version and the book version. What I wondered was, 'would she be able to capture my Dad's very essence with a minimum to go on?' I was amazed as the first sketch's came via e-mail that she quickly did exactly that! Captured my Dad as I remember him say in his mid-30's! She worked closely with me to bring this special gift to my Father to reality, yet put so much of herself into the finished portrait. I believe this portrait will one day be known by many......"
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