greyhound – Page 2

Stella, the Sleeping Beauty

Stella greyhound portrait in progress — Stella - work in progress, stage 3
acrylic on Aquabord
8" x 10"
© Xan Blackburn

Stella, the sleeping beauty! Okay, she's not sleeping in this portrait, but her owner tells me that she sleeps a lot, and sent me several photos of her in that state. Sounds like a greyhound to me! (Contrary to popular belief, greyhounds sleep a lot more than they run. A lot more. Like, mostly, they sleep.) But, I couldn't resist this pose, even though it shows her being awake. At least with this portrait, her owners can imagine what she looks like standing up when the memory grows dim between naps.

The image above shows where her portrait stands at quitting time, Friday evening. I'm seeing a pattern of slow starts, and quick finishes, so far. My budget of 2 days/portrait for this marathon seems about right.

The panel I'm using for this portrait is called Aquabord, which is an archival panel with a clay surface that has a texture and absorbent quality rather like watercolor paper. I've used it before and really enjoyed it. This time, it wanted to fight with me, but I've taken the upper hand. It is too absorbent for what I wanted to do here, but once sealed with a layer of acrylic, it behaves much better. I probably should have chosen one of the other panels, but ... oh well!

Stella - work in progress, stage 1
acrylic on panel
8" x 10"

This type of panel requires being flushed with water, to allow air bubbles trapped in the surface of the clay to escape, and to manage the absorbency a bit. I almost forgot that, but they handily put a little "tip" sheet in the packaging, thank goodness. Flushed, allowed to dry a bit, and the drawing transferred, I decided to start laying in the background, first. I thought it would help me keep the balance of tonal contrast right if I had a good sense of the background while working. It will take several layers, but I wanted to start with this raw sienna, to warm the later layers of burnt umber from within, rather like Stella's warm rusty stripes alternating with the almost-black stripes on her coat.

Once I had a couple layers down in the background, I started in with her eyes, but the one on the right wasn't quite working, and the Payne's gray seemed too cool, so I left off for the moment, and started the underpainting in raw umber. Beginning to layer up the shadows and darker tones.

Once I switched to the raw umber instead of the Payne's gray, it started to come together better. Plenty to do tomorrow, but we're off to the races, now.

I'm hoping for a view of the meteors tonight. I hope you got a chance to see them, too. Back to work tomorrow!

PM – Luki’s portrait complete

Delicate Luki! I really enjoyed building up these hot and cool layers to create this pup's portrait. It feels like that may capture her personality, in a way, maybe echoing her own internal contrasts.

I only took a couple pictures besides the final scan today, but I think you can see enough to give you an idea how it went. I'll go with the tried and true, "a picture is worth a thousand words."

Tomorrow, Eliza is passing her turn to the next person ready to go (we'll get back to her soon), so attention Lynn! 😉

PM – Luki (greyhound portrait)

I began. First, I transferred the drawing I had refined in photoshop by re-drawing on the back of the printed paper with conte crayons (dry pastels). I chose to use different colors for this, as this method does leave definite traces in the painting, and I wanted to enhance the painting, not create something I'd have to fight with later. Cool gray for the muzzle areas, and a hot yellow-orange for the rest. Taped it to the panel, and drew over it again to transfer the drawing to the panel. I set the drawing using a brush wet with a bit of dilute acrylic polymer, letting the color of the pastels act like paint as it spread into the acrylic.

Surprising Sadie, Done

Sadie greyhound portrait — Sadie
8″ x 10″ Acrylic on Claybord panel
© Xan Blackburn 2014

Wow. Well, once I got rolling, this just went like a flash! Isn’t it funny, ha ha, that the painting part of this portrait actually went quickly, but all the hair-pulling, sketching, sighing and laying in bed at night imagining the painting took days! I should be used to that, but there ya go.

I have to show you some details, as I really enjoy how there’s both opaque and translucent layers, strokes showing over/under strokes. I like the life, the potential for motion, the undiluted immediacy of the overall effect.

Sadie (detail - muzzle) — Sadie (detail)

Okay, I know I didn’t invent impressionistic painting, but it’s always seemed oddly out of my reach ’til now. Allow me my moment of rejoicing, eh?

Well, now that Sadie is done, and the Portrait Marathon doesn’t start for 5 whole days, what will I do with myself??

I do have a few donations I need to be doing. Okay, a whole truck-load of donations! One is a graphic illustrating the different sighthound shapes for easier identification by non-sighthound-savvy rescue volunteers (for Team Inch). That should be interesting. Then, there’s the Hope for Hounds collar design for 2014. And a top-secret project for Kindred Hearts Transport Connection.

So, yeah, no problem with idle hands, here!

Bud – Digital Pet Portrait, and my Other Job

Bud digital pet portrait © Xan Blackburn

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:

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.

My OTHER Job

As I have mentioned, my OTHER job is all about rescue and animal welfare work.

Team Inch: Right now, Team Inch is having our first online Auction, and I invite you all to be part of helping us rescue and find forever homes for sighthounds by bidding on some really pretty fabulous items.

Team Inch coalesced last fall, out of a nebula of folks already rescuing dogs from S. Korea. In just a few months, we’ve been through so much, bringing over 8 sighthounds, partnering with established adoption groups in N. America to find adoptive homes for them, establishing a Facebook and static website presence, and having some heart-breaking losses. The risks and veterinary costs for these dogs is comparable to some of the worst-case scenarios we see anywhere in the world, and transporting these mostly larger dogs to N. America where they have a better chance at life is expensive. But many hands make light work, and in this way YOU can be part of Team Inch. See you over there!

Kindred Hearts Transport Connection:

I’m also doing a top-secret fundraiser for this group which I can barely keep to myself. Believe me, you’ll know about it as soon as I can tell you! Great bunch of hard-working volunteers. Maybe you can be part of the network!

Greyhounds in Gettysburg:

Nittany Greyhounds runs this very popular event for greyhound families every year. While I can’t go in person, I will be sending a painting to their Special Art Auction – a first this year, I’m told. This painting is very personal to me, and I’m proud to be able to send it out into the world for this.

This painting is a more experimental piece for me, using various media (paper, acrylic, graphite, pastel on Claybord panel) in one piece. I love the layered depth, the complex feel, the moody emotional possibilities that arose from both my own emotions and the materials working together. I’m going to title this one “Memories”.

Memories (multi-media painting) © Xan Blackburn 2014

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:

Memories (detail)
multi-media painting
© Xan Blackburn 2014

Now it’s on to Ellen’s Moma.

Greyhound Katie’s Portrait: Done

The differences between this and the previous stage may seem small, but they are the difference between not-done and done. Or thinking I’m done. I thought I was done last night, but apparently, that was not the case, as I saw some things I wanted to work on some more after I had started this post!

I’m always disappointed with how well these translucent layers show up here. 🙁 The subtleties in the layers of colors is flattened and dulled, no matter how I try to approach reality in Photoshop. In this case, especially in the background, which is jewel-like in person. Still, you will get the general idea. I hope Gayle and Steve enjoy the original, when it gets to them. Working on this was terrifying in a whole new way because they are both artists, and Steve actually did the original photograph, which was gorgeous just as it was.

Okay, so NOW I’m done. I hope. Here’s how that went, in review:

Rescue: My other job

I’m maybe not the best at dividing my time between rescue-related work and actual money-making work, considering that we are not independently wealthy. I believe my hard-working (but always supportive!) husband concurs.

Meanwhile, what I do in “my other job” is also often artwork.

Team Inch is a collection of volunteers that have been working together in various arrangements over the last several years to rescue dogs in S. Korea. As part of my contribution, I’ve developed the website, logo, Facebook pages and fundraisers (Virtual Bake Sale, Total Fantasy Dog Accessories Shoppe {with the help of a classroom full of kids doing illustrations}, and New Years Resolution Special Dispensations). I also gotten to give a few dogs rides, and even got to foster one for a whole 5 days we’re not likely to forget (although the bruises are finally gone 😉 ).

We’re having another fundraiser in March, and I would be remiss if I didn’t invite you all for your shot at the goods. This one will be an online auction, and I swear all the stuff is real this time. If you’d like to donate any items, let me know, and I’ll get you all squared away. Everyone else, mark your calendars!

And some other rescue-art things

Another aspect of my rescue-art work is donating to various other groups’ fundraisers. I donated a small portrait recently, which was won by a very nice lady, and will let you know how that goes once we get started. I’m also going to be donating a piece to a new Special Art Auction at an event called Greyhounds in Gettysburg. I’ve been bemoaning (privately – poor husband!) about my lack of opportunity to play around and experiment with my art, so I can continue to grow and explore new techniques. It occurred to me in a classic light-bulb moment that donations offer that opportunity. So, I’m going to try out an idea I have been incubating, and I’ll show you that as it develops as well. I still have no idea what I’ll be donating to our own Team Inch auction!

See what I mean about balancing non-paid work and paid work? *sigh*

More Katie …

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 the highlights cool, which is the opposite of my general rule (very general), and I like how it’s working. My idea is to make the shadows, which is where all the detail is in this portrait, reveal the life, the blood under the skin and fur, the translucence of a living being by allowing that warmth to glow through. The highlighted side of her face is almost featureless, a silhouette in reverse, but making that side glow with an almost blue light will give a sense of reflected sky, and really make the warm shadow areas pop. In the end, the background will suggest a leafy background on a sun-filled day, and Katie will be emerging from that like the bright spirit she was. Her lower body will fade gently back, so all our attention will be on her face, her expression, the gesture of her tilted head and half-raised ears.

It’s really hard to show you what’s going on in some areas. My scanner can’t capture the layers of color bouncing around in the background. This just mostly looks like green, but there are blues, greens and gold-greens all laying on top of each other like leaves in the sun. The eyes are too dark to scan well, but there is more subtle color going on there, too.

Katie (detail) – work in progress

This shows a little bit more. There’s a sketchy quality to this that I like right now, but it will get a bit more smoothing out before it’s done, with more glazes pulling it all together.

So, that’s where we are tonight.

Category: greyhound

Stella, the Sleeping Beauty

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PM – Luki’s portrait complete

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PM – Luki (greyhound portrait)

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Surprising Sadie, Done

Well, now that Sadie is done, and the Portrait Marathon doesn’t start for 5 whole days, what will I do with myself??

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