Welcome to the latest version of my website, complete with integrated blog! Whoo hoo. I am so cool. What? Huh? Wordpress isn’t new, and my site isn’t even that cool? Oh, nice. Way to pop my bubble, you tech-savvy meany-pants! 😛 Ah well. I’m happy, anyway. I still have to go through my vast library … Read More “Moving around is also an art!”
MomaDigital painting (Artrage Pro)© Xan Blackburn Wow. Well, I’m pretty happy with that, though it did take a lot of hours to get it there. This detail shows a little bit more how much detail I squeezed into this 5 x 7 painting: Moma (detail)Digital painting (Artrage Pro)© Xan Blackburn Yes, those are all individual … Read More “Moma – Another Digital Portrait Painting”
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”
UPDATED Radar’s owner decided the eyes were too closed; not the expression she wanted, so I re-did the eyes with a more alert expression. The client was pleased! Radar’s portrait is one of 5 small paintings of my client Ellen’s dogs, a series to add to two I’d done for her in the past. This … Read More “Radar – Digital Portrait of a Golden Retriever”
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””
I have gone back and forth over the last few years: Keep graphics on my menu of services vs. concentrate on portraiture. On the one hand, I want to grow and develop my skills and career as a fine artist, which argues for being exclusive to the non-commercial work. On the other hand, sometimes … Read More “Split Personality: Graphics & Portraits”
