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 … Read More “Bud – Digital Pet Portrait, and my Other Job”
Katie8″ x 10″, Acrylic on Aquabord© Xan Blackburn 2014 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 … Read More “Greyhound Katie’s Portrait: Done”
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 … Read More “More Katie …”
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 … Read More “Katie the Greyhound, Portrait”
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 … Read More “Truman”
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 … Read More “What I did on my “Summer Vacation””
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 … Read More “Shawn’s Portrait: Love story”
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, … Read More “Shawn’s portrait progressing”
TexAcrylic 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, … Read More “Portrait Marathon: Tex, #17”
Hannahacrylic 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, … Read More “Portrait Marathon: Hannah, #15”
