
“Cole”
(greyhound) 8″ x 10″ acrylic on panel, © Xan Blackburn
Continue reading Cole (greyhound), #9 in the 2014 Portrait Marathon
“Cole”
(greyhound) 8″ x 10″ acrylic on panel, © Xan Blackburn
Continue reading Cole (greyhound), #9 in the 2014 Portrait Marathon
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Bud Digital 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 irreversible damage to a painting. That’s hard to resist, and I had a lot of fun trying out backgrounds, experimenting with various brush techniques for the fur, and zoooooming in waaaaay too close to get tiny details that no one else will ever be able to see. That’s the potential down-side! I had to keep stepping back out and lecturing myself about not re-creating reality, but enjoying a more painterly approach in this small format.
Here’s a quick step-through of the painting’s progress:
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Bud in progress Digital painting © Xan Blackburn 2014 |
I kind of like that second step, too, where it’s the sketch with the first whacks of color laid in.
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Memories multi-media on panel, 8″ x 10″ ©Xan Blackburn 2014 |
Here’s a detail, so you can get a little better idea of the complexity:
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Memories (detail) multi-media painting © Xan Blackburn 2014 |
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Sammi – work in progress 5″ x 5″ acrylic on canvas ©Xan Blackburn 2012 |
Fall Portrait Marathon, Sammi
Sammi’s portrait wrapped up pretty quickly.
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Sammi 5″ x 5″ acrylic on canvas ©Xan Blackburn 2012 |
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Sammi – work in progress 5″ x 5″ acrylic on canvas ©Xan Blackburn 2012 |
Fall Portrait Marathon, Sammi
Sammi’s portrait is zipping along now. Even though he’s such a subtle guy (except for his exuberant personality, of course!), some truly deep darks are necessary to make his light face have dimension, to POP it out of the background. So, in I go, with my Payne’s gray and my raw umber and my ultramarine blue, punching and pushing bits forward and backward. I was telling H the other day that when I’m really in the Zone, it feels as if I’m actually sculpting something plastic, like clay, smooshing and poking, pulling up and smoothing actual three-dimensional substance, rather than dabbing or stroking over a flat surface. It’s cool. Almost hallucinogenic or dream-like. Sometimes, as when you wake from a dream, the effect isn’t quite as I’d imagined it, but it’s still a fun state to be in, and does result in a better painting or drawing.
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Sammi – work in progress 5″ x 5″ acrylic on canvas ©Xan Blackburn 2012 |
Sammi was a happy guy!
According to his human, Sammi came to them as an 11.5 year old bounce, wobbly and with a “slight fecal incontinence”. He was a sweet ol’ guy, but had no problem telling his humans he was in want of something by barking until they figured out what it was!
She says,
The pic I sent was him 10 minutes after he walked in the door. It is still the way I remember him.
He slipped in and out of our lives so peacefully, how can I miss him so much ?
The photo is adorable! How could you resist that smiling face?? Unfortunately for my purposes, it’s also both low-resolution, and burnt out by flash.
Even after doing what I could in Photoshop, this is what I have to work with (below). A bit vague-ish. His other ear is a softly blended blob. But, what can you do? Luckily, most greyhounds have pretty similar physiology, and I have a couple laying around for reference.
I thought I’d move him out into a sunny day background, and remove the fingers crawling on his head and hips. I did my drawing to the best of my ability, and transferred it onto my canvas using a pale periwinkle pastel this time.
Addressing the pallet, I saw I still had some useable paint. Waste not, want not! I used some white with glazing medium to set the drawing, for starters. I diluted some ultramarine in the same way, and started washing in some pale shading, working up to the darker areas. It’s not super dark, particularly as I had to get it pretty wet to revive it, but it was good enough for a first round. I also had some raw umber (dark mud-brown), so I started in with that, using it to bump the darks up too. I love the way the cool blue and the warm brown play off of each other!
I also had some red, so I decided to lay in the base tones in the mouth, nose and collar, even giving the eyes and ears just a hint of pink. Sammi’s nose has quite a bit of pink, as his color is so dilute, so it’s an interestingly mottled pink-dark brownish gray*. I like how it’s coming along at this point.
I still had some cyan (sort of a sky blue) that was useable, which fit my concept for the background, so in it went. Once I had some of that down, it also made its way into some reflections on the more shadowed side of Sammi, and on his nose.
I know he looks a little evil at the moment, but the lines over the inside corners of his eyes will be softened in the final round.
So, that’s where we are at this moment. Back to work!
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*I used to work in a comic book coloring studio with some very talented artists. The owner of the studio used to describe colors like this, which always cracked me up. “It’s a sort of pinkish, greenish, purplish orange with a hint of blue.” Oh! Well, that clears that up! 😉
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Matt 5″ x 5″, Acrylic on canvas ©Xan Blackburn 2012 |
Fall Portrait Marathon, Painting #7: Matt
Matt’s painting finished up in one sustained burst, and I didn’t get any more progress pics for you. Sorry about that!
I realized today that I never did give you the whole picture of this portrait from last November. I gave lots of teasers over several posts because it was meant to be a surprise present, so I couldn’t give it away.
Well, the present was given and received, so I’m free to share it with you now.
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Bunny 16″ x 20″, acrylic on gessoed panel ©Xan Blackburn 2011 |
Bunny has a look much like my boy Brilly, so falling into those big brown eyes was easy and familiar.