Continue reading #12 2014 Portrait Marathon: Feyd the Silken Windhound
Category: blue fawn brindle
#4: Cash’s Portrait
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!
Starting with this reference photo ...
stage 1
Once my drawing was ready, I dove in with Payne's gray for the underpainting.
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.
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.
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.
8" x 10"
acrylic on canvas panel
© Xan Blackburn
Truman
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| Truman 11″ x 14″, Acrylic on Canvas copyright 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 coast. When he passed last year, it was a blow to everyone who loved him (which is the same group as everyone who ever met him). Lori asked me to do his portrait, and I jumped at the chance to share this tribute with her. But wow. It was tough. I was choked with emotion, the need to do him justice, and got stuck a lot along the way. There are only a few progress pictures, because when I finally got going, I didn’t stop to take pictures.
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| Truman – work in progress, stage 1 starting the under-painting |
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| Truman – work in progress, stage 2 crawling forward on the underpainting |
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| Truman – work in progress, stage 3 getting a handle, developing the underpainting |
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| Truman – work in progress, stage 4 most of color is laid in, developing detail |
If you look at them closely, you can see how I had to re-adjust his eye focus as I went along. Other than that, everything went forward pretty much as planned from the start.
I will miss gazing into those almond-colored eyes, as I know Lori is also missing her blue-brindle coyote hound ever-puppy.
What I did on my “Summer Vacation”
So, “vacation” might not be the right word for when you’ve been too sick to work much, but let’s just gloss over that for the time being (except to say, if you’re old enough for the shingles vaccine, go get it!!) (NOW!) (If you want to be seriously grossed out by my shingles story, click here.)
I actually have several graphics I’ve gotten wrapped up and haven’t told you about along the way, and have a portrait of one of my favorite dogs EVER on my table at the moment. Sadly, it’s a memorial portrait, which I still cannot believe. *sigh* Truman was one of the few of my portrait clients that I’ve actually had the honor and joy to know in person.
Let’s start with the graphics and illustrations, shall we?
After completing two logos for Brian Southwick (the his real estate logo here, and this real estate development logo here), Brian’s wife got in touch with me to work up a logo for her. Also a real estate agent – broker, actually – she wanted something to reflect her own interests in gardening as well as to give a sense of the sophisticated homes she sells, with colors that would work with the identity colors of the company she works for. We kept this very clean and the symbology clear.
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| Kiens Logo ©Xan Blackburn 2014 |
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| SilkenFest 2014 (primary logo) ©Xan Blackburn 2014 |
I have had a lot of fun working with Iola and Penny on this next one. An earlier project they were involved with resulted in some graphics that ended up on the cutting room floor, but which had a lot of support. We recycled part of that un-used imagery to create a logo for the 2014 SilkenFest; the big annual event for fanciers of the Silken Windhound. This one has three versions, so far, which can be used in various settings, including a backdrop for photographs of the winners of the various events.
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| SilkenFest 2014 (variant) ©Xan Blackburn 2014 |
Awhile back, we took a jaunt down to California and stopped in at a tiny dog show in the Sierra foothills. I met a woman who was showing her Lagotto Romagnolos, a breed I’d never run across before. We got to talking, I gave her my card, and we’ve worked on three projects so far. The first was a logo for the Lagotto Club of America, which I talked about here. These two are for the Lagotto club specialty; one for the specialty logo, and the other for a custom wine label. I really enjoyed building up a watercolory effect with these two. I tried doing actual watercolors for the wine label, but the learning curve was too steep to get the effects I wanted with the editability we need for logos, so back to Photoshop we went!
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| Lagotto Specialty Logo ©Xan Blackburn 2014 |
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| Larcan Lagotto Wine label ©Xan Blackburn 2014 |
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| Starfyre Silken Windhound Kennel Logo ©Xan Blackburn 2014 |
This one was fun! (I have such nice clients!!) Working from a photo of one of my client’s gorgeous hounds, we played with the wonderful silky fur, and the kennel name (Starfyre), for this treatment. They thought they might even want a black line version as a tattoo (now that’s a lot of like!), so we also have this version.
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| Starfyre Logo/tattoo design ©Xan Blackburn 2014 |
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| Illustration for water field guide ©Xan Blackburn 2014 |
Work continues on my husband’s field guide for water use. I mentioned the cover design here. It’s been enjoyable doing this pen and ink-style drawing. I’m doing the drawings digitally, but they still feel very old-school to me.
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| Illustration for water field guide ©Xan Blackburn 2014 |
Now, on to Truman’s Portrait
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| Truman – work in progress ©Xan Blackburn 2014 |
Truman was a big, beautiful greyhound, a blue brindle, which is a coloring that never fails to just make my heart go pitter-pat. Besides being a knock out physically, he was a knock out personality, too. Huge. This portrait captures an especially quiet moment, I expect after so much throwing himself around that he was exhausted. Lying in the grass in the cool shade of summery trees, I want to focus in on his pale amber eyes, that resting-but-ready attentiveness, and of course the classically long greyhound schnozzle.
On the left you can see the beginnings of the under painting. I’ve transferred my drawing to the canvas, and have basically nailed down the main elements using my old pal, Payne’s gray. The next steps show the building up of the underpainting, establishing the darker tones, building up what will be almost a full grey-tone painting, to which I will then add the colors.
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| Truman – work in progress ©Xan Blackburn 2014 |
Note that the pupils are a little out of control, and that I have reclaimed them in the next phase below. His spare brindling is also becoming more noticeable, as well as the overall light/dark focus. His face will have the most light, the most contrast, while his body will recede into the shadow a bit, and the background will hold atmospheric light to allow us to feel the sunny day surrounding this quiet moment.
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| Truman – work in progress ©Xan Blackburn 2014 |
So, that’s where I’m at as of today. Always plenty to do, right?
The idea got tossed out that I might do a graphic novel/comic book using sighthounds …
(and other breeds, probably) as the characters, maybe some super-hero action, maybe serialized, maybe digital and/or print-on-demand …. Anyone have any thoughts on that? Would you actually buy something like that? What kind of story-line would be more compelling, to you? I’d love to hear from you! Drop me a comment!
Portrait Marathon: Tex, #17
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| Tex Acrylic on Aquabord, 5 x 5 © Xan Blackburn |
Handsome, lovely, almost ethereal Tex! His mom is a wonderful photographer, an artist in her own right, and I’m honored that she trusted me with interpreting one of her own images.
Despite a number of distractions today, and the fact that it’s Day 19 of the marathon, and I’m pretty bushwhacked Tex’s portrait came together with a peaceful feeling of joy throughout. Maybe his calm look soothed my rattled nerves, despite listening to the news reports of the school shooting ever hour, despite the cabin-fevered dogs getting into things every few minutes, despite my husband being in far-off Ghana for business. It was like listening to “Silent Night” while death metal raged in the background. Ah, holidays in the U.S.!
So, thanks, Tex. Thanks Petra.
Tomorrow, the penultimate portrait, Robin’s Iker.
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| Tex – in progress © Xan Blackburn |
Portrait Marathon: Hannah, #15
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| Hannah acrylic on canvas, 5 x 5 © Xan Blackburn |
Hannah Banana! I’m told that she was getting told off right before the reference picture was taken, which explains the look in her eye to begin with. Goodness knows what the little trouble-maker had gotten into! I decided to give her a little more relaxed look however, as you can see in the progress pics below. With her pink collar, and her softened brindling, I couldn’t resist a sort of sunset range of colors in the background.
Pretty Hannah! Now, stay out of trouble, young lady!
Next up is Liza’s 6Pac, a break in the greyhound pattern, but still a hound. A hound of a different color, you might say.
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| Hannah in progress © Xan Blackburn |
Portrait Marathon: #12 – Wookie
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| Wookie acrylic on canvas, 5 x 5 © Xan Blackburn |
Wookie, a rescued borzoi who has blossomed in his loving home, is dear to my own heart. His story could almost be that of my own girl, Katie (rescued from an awful “shelter” in S. Korea). Like my own Katie, Wookie’s self-confidence is still a little shaky, but with the love surrounding them, can only grow.
I had to do some rearranging on the list over the weekend, so if you’re following along and confused … join the club! LOL Looks like I”m going to make it all the way through the list, though, so that’s good! Here’s who I have left, in current order:
- Jan Buckwalter
- Rebecca Rohrbeck
- Tena Keefe
- Liza Lopez Ortiz
- Petra Postma
- Robin Waldman
- Darlene Young
At this point, Darlene is the only one I do NOT have photos for yet. I hope you’re getting those ready for me, Darlene! 😉
Alrighty. I think I’ll take a break for the night, and set to work fresh on Jan’s Fletcher in the morning.
In the mean time, here’s Wookie, in progress …
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| Wookie, in progress © Xan Blackburn |