Bud – Digital Pet Portrait, and my Other Job

BudDigital painting (Artrage 4)5″ x 7″ @300dpi© Xan Blackburn 2014 My series of paintings of Ellen’s dogs continues with handsome Bud.  I loved his gentle, relaxed smile, his soft hair and wonderful markings, but who could resist those bluuuuuuue eyes! Working on paintings in a digital way allows a lot of freedom to experiment without committing …

More Katie …

Katie – work in progressacrylic on Aquabord panel© Xan Blackburn Some good work on this, today.  Building up more layers of color in the background, approaching the values (light/dark) I want around the portrait in general, and pretty close to done in some areas. I had the idea today to make the shadows warm, and …

Katie the Greyhound, Portrait

Katie – work in progress, detailgraphite on Aquabord panelcopyright Xan Blackburn 2013 Now, here’s a challenge.  Katie the greyhound was a lovely girl, much loved by her humans.  Okay, that’s not unusual for my clients and subjects.  Katie was mostly white, which presents the challenges of subtlety in shading, particularly where there is no strong …

Truman

Truman11″ x 14″, Acrylic on Canvascopyright 2014 Xan Blackburn Truman … I loved this big boy.  He was my first big greyhound crush who was not my own dog.  I rarely get to meet the subjects of my artwork, but Truman and his family are friends I’ve visited with all up and down the west …

Shawn’s Portrait: Love story

Shawn greyhound portrait
ShawnAcrylic on canvas, 9″ x 12″© Xan Blackburn 2013 Well, there you go. I swear I took some progress pics along the way, but the changes were so subtle that it was hard to see, once I got going with the colors.  So, yeah.  That’s that.  Done. Oh, but I promised you a love story …

Shawn’s portrait progressing

Shawn – in progressacrylic on canvas,  9″ x 12″© Xan Blackburn As I mentioned before, Shawn’s portrait has been a long time coming.  I made good progress on him today, and will probably work a bit more this afternoon.   I started this one by covering the entire canvas with a pale coat of cobalt, …

Is it Spring, yet??

Kyle Broflovski, as seen on his  South Park Wikia page As they say on South Park, I’ve learned something today.   Okay, not just today. Okay, it’s taken me eight years to learn this (sheesh!) Here’s the thing:  I suck at winter.  Yeah, pretty much.  Every single year, my artistic juices dry up, or freeze …

Jilly Bean Memorial Portrait

Jilly BeanRIPacrylic on canvas panel, 8 x 10© Xan Blackburn A dear friend to many, a mascot to the greyhound community, a girl who has taught many foster hounds to respect little dogs, Judy and Mike’s little Jilly Bean passed away on Dec. 18.  That afternoon, a mutual friend asked if I’d be willing to …