"Cash" 8" x 10" acrylic on canvas panel © Xan Blackburn

"Cash"  8" x 10"  acrylic on canvas panel © Xan Blackburn
“Cash”
8″ x 10″
acrylic on canvas panel
© Xan Blackburn

Chris’ greyhound, Cash, at age 10, is on her second life!  That’s pretty good for a spooky grey, I’d say!  She had a bad reaction to routine shots, actually died, but was brought back to life – a modern-day miracle!  And, a gorgeous, blue-brindle gal, to boot.

Cash’s portrait is painted on a canvas panel, which is a very big switch from the much smoother Aquabord panel I used on Red’s portrait, right before this one.  The rougher texture was a nice change, though it makes getting good pictures tricky.   Let’s see how we got to stage: Done!

Cash, original reference photo
Cash, original reference photo

Starting with this reference photo …

Cash, work in progress stage 1
Cash, work in progress
stage 1

Once my drawing was ready, I dove in with Payne’s gray for the underpainting.

Cash, stage 4 almost there ...
Cash, stage 4
almost there …

This is where I left it last night, with some serious tweaks, and lots of fine-tuning to do, but generally close.  Notice the lighting changes between this and the final version, especially on the right side of her face.

Cash, altered reference
Cash, altered reference

I cropped, played with the lighting a little, made the bed a little more luxurious, but removed the pattern that I felt would compete with Cash’s subtle stripes.

Cash, stage 3
Cash, stage 3

The underpainting is well under way, here.

Unfortunately, the photos I attempted of the early color phases just did not come out at all, so you’ll have to content yourselves with a big jump here.

"Cash"  8" x 10"  acrylic on canvas panel © Xan Blackburn
“Cash”
8″ x 10″
acrylic on canvas panel
© Xan Blackburn

Tags:

2 Responses

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *