About one and a half months ago I enlisted the aid of Professor Elliott West of the university of Arkensas as part of my research for the Saloon project, and already he has proven to be a valuable part of the project having given me numerous tips on assets both to create as well as to change.
I dropped the barrel for the piano of course, my thought was that it would be a cool improv repair but since im going for a historically realistic look that was one of the first things he said.
the painting itself is too modern, it needs a more victorian look to it, i've found several alternatives, although not as perfect as I would want them, but thats the evolution of projects; its never going to look as how you first envisioned it.
I asked him for information about the building itself and what a saloon really was at the time period im goin for (1880-1890) and this is his reply:
"A saloon of the sort you are aiming for was often slightly deeper
than wide. On one wall would be the bar. In front would be an open
area with tables. Toward the rear, usually, would be the piano if there
was one, and sometimes a smallish dance
floor.
In re: rooms to rent. There were bars/saloons in hotels, of
course, and saloons with prostitutes had rooms, or sometimes huts out
back, for their business. But saloons did not generally rent rooms.
It would have been a pretty noisy place to rent.
Regarding prostitutes: saloons were overwhelmingly male institutions.
If women were there, they might have been strictly for dancing with
customers (in somewhat larger saloons with a dance floor and sometimes
band). They were paid by the dance or indirectly
through overprices liquor bought for them by customers. Sometimes
these were paid for sex, sometimes not. And other saloons had
prostitutes pure and simple. There to drink with customers, just for
companionship, but there for sex if requested.
Besides bar and booze, there were virtually always tables, for
sitting and drinking but often for gambling. Some had tables simply
there for card games if customers chose to play. Larger saloons had
gambling apparatus--routlette, monte tables, etc.
These probably would not have been in the sort of saloon you indicate.
Many saloons, even more modest ones like yours, had a billiard table,
most often manufactured by Brunswick. Very popular. An ongoing mystery
is how owners were able to get these table
to very remote mining camps; they are very heavy and featured a bed of
solid slate.
Decor: besides the nude (not always there), there was usually a
large mirror behind the bar, some of them astonishingly elaborate.
Many saloons featured stuffed animal heads, especially deer and elk.
Also on the walls were "sporting prints," most
often of race horses and the more famous boxers of the day. At some
point a print of "Custer's Last Fight" became common, given for free by
Anheuser Busch to saloons that bought their beer. You can look it up;
original by Cassily Adams.
Lighting: There some sometimes lamps of the short you drew, but more often lamps hanging from ceiling, fairly ornate ones."
I am currently modelling the building itself, although quite a while has passed since I received his last email and now, due to technical difficulties.
The light he's referring to is the latest model I did before this correspondence
