Back to Bados, and Beyond!

Bados, the BadAss Puppy
©Xan Blackburn, 2011

Let's take another look at Bados.

I've re-done the background pretty much entirely, removing the hills and sky, which seemed distracting, a separate thing going on in Bados' painting.  I've been sitting with this state for a couple days, and I'm now sure I'm done with it.  I'll be giving it a final coat of clear glaze to give it a consistent level of shine across the whole thing, so there's no bothersome shiny patches.

I pronounce Bados complete!

So, on to the mystery dog, still un-guessed (well, ONE person guessed, but it's still a secret!)

Work in Progress
©Xan Blackburn, 2011

I spent quite a lot of time working on the background, making a suitably blurry wall of dark foliage behind the dog (I'll be happy when I can give him/her a name!  Keep guessing!!), and a bright sun-lit summer field of wild grass sloping towards us.  The dog is still only a pale silhouette.  I've washed some of the sunny yellow up into the underside, to catch the glow reflecting up from the warm ground, but that's about it.  The grass is full of color, with layers and strokes of different yellows, purple, greens, and some white-mixed highlights just starting to go in.  Still a lot of work to get this where I want it.  I meant for it to be more impressionistic than it is, but it's these along-the-way evolutions that keep things lively!

This scan isn't all that great (it's too big for my scanner), but you get the idea.  My pallet is still covered in background colors, with no room for dog colors, so I'm stuck working on the background exclusively for now, since I'm much too thrifty to throw out perfectly good paint.  I'm champin' at the bit, though.

I'm still waiting for that correct guess, people!