Big ball ....what to do

A cowboy sitting on his horse silhouetted against a fantastic rock formation (at sunrise or sunset) as a general theme would offer endless possibilities for invention when you don't have a model to paint from. Stylistically and mood themes. That image is so common its almost cliche but it never goes out of style in this country, and especially when its well done, as it can tell a whole story in itself.

Ever wonder why they call 'em cowboys when they don't have anything to do with cows? Or Indians? The answer lies in the fact that the very first "western" stories began, not in the west but in the east so that as settlement of the nation progressed across the continent, the location of the "west" was relative to various points in time as settlement marched westward. In the earliest western stories cowboys, often as not, really were employed in cattle ranching. Pretty hard to raise cattle in the western deserts.

More modern western movies are a lot more true to form and depict the cowboy more accurately as to who they were and what they did, which was a lot less inspiring than all those stylized pictures and sculptures would have us believe. Speaking of that, you might check out the works of Frederick Remmington, American painter/sculptor of the American west.

BB8

What about an Indian Chief on the higher side with his head-dress starting at the weld and going down the back? Or an antique looking globe/map of the world?

Cool... And I was going to suggest the Death star.....

I like the head dress idea, especially if you could somehow design it so that the weld becomes a rib of a feather??? Don't know how feasable that is. The only other thing that I can think of is if the design has to go all the way around and be viewed 360, you could maybe do a monument valley scene and have wagons, cattle, a native american settlement (teepee's etc) and cactus etc in the foreground. Looks like a fun project

How about a cowboy playing a guitar on his horse or sitting on the ground beside his horse while watching his cows at night with the ball being the moon coming up over the Prairie

OR Miley Cyrus so wrecking ball!

how can you not do a reflection or optical illusion on it as if its a crystal ball Think escher ..Jeez that would be a fun thing to paint..But personally if I ever get balls LOL I'll make a sculpture of this and use eschers ideas and translate it into real life, I could even imaging the hand sculpted from a log to hold the piece But lots of good idea's for that one, be interesting to see it come along and what you go with..

That's kinda why I suggested it, want people to share my love for straight jackets....
But its an interesting thought, Escher was a master at making 2d appear 3d to take an idea from his two dimensional reality and return it to that true world of 3d would give it an interesting premise..

But heck yer it would warp the painters head a bit LOL, but zooming in on a face and forgetting the shelves and background more like a fish eye look potrait would I think bring in maybe not a full 360 or 100% 3d appearance but maybe close..

But will be a fun project whatever you paint on it..

Nothing on that level, (I can but dream) but after coming up with a design, which seemed to take forever, where skulls kind of flowed into each other and made other skulls (or rather thats the effect I was hoping for Lol) I can say it def bends the brain trying to paint it. . Was only semi sucessful, and I was hoping to make it more 3d, but my lonely braincell was on overload. Lol. Might have to revisit the idea someday though, but have my cuddle me coat on standby LOL!!

Anyway back to the plot. I think the head dress will look awesome, looking forward to seeing it