FPM Painting #4: Spencer is Done!

Spencer
Acrylic on canvas, 5" x 5"
© Xan Blackburn 2011

Fall Portrait Marathon, Painting #4: Spencer


I finished Spencer's portrait the evening before Thanksgiving, but, well, you know, I got busy and didn't post about it right away.  But, hey, you were busy too, right?

Sleepy boy Spencer evolved from looking like a blonde guy with lipstick to this in the usual pattern of layers of color and detail, highlights and shadow, color washes and then some softening, to bring back that feeling of kitty fluffy fur.

Spencer - work in progress
© Xan Blackburn 2011

Let's see it in stages.  When we saw him last post, this is where we left him.  Blonde guy with lipstick.  

Spencer - work in progress
Acrylic on canvas, 5" x 5"
© Xan Blackburn 2011

The next thing I wanted to do was to layer in more color in to his colored areas, and really deepen the darks in the stripes.  I used both raw umber and Payne's gray to deepen the stripes and other darkest details, and just Payne's gray to continue to wash in more general shading, even in the white fur, and in the background. I wanted a sense of a soft warm light coming across the corner of the couch to fall on his face, and just glance off his outstretched paw.  Cat fur is so soft that it carries light through it in an almost fog-like way, creating softer shadows than you'd find on, say, a chair or a greyhound.  Shadows filled with soft light.  The area to our right of his muzzle is a good example of this.  I also corrected the shape of the ear on the left a bit, and started shading the background.

Spencer - work in progress
Acrylic on canvas, 5" x 5"
© Xan Blackburn 2011

This stage may only look subtly different, but the difference between "okay" and "That's my boy!" is often apparently minor.  I've started refining the couch fabric a bit here, but it's still fairly crude.  I've added in some higher whites on the areas I want the light to play on most; the triangular zone of his face, a touch on his shoulder, a haze on his foreleg.  In glazing in some white on his nose, I've softened it to more of a real nose than a rough red patch.  I've started adding in tiny white details, like some particular swatches of white fur under his eye on the left, and above it, as well.  I've been working on the tone of the colored fur areas, where in some places the background tone is deeper or lighter, with various glazes of raw sienna and raw umber.  Might have been some Naples in there.  

After that, I moved in with glazes of white mixed with a touch of Naples yellow, to warm up that critical triangle, and continued with detailing overall.  Below is a detail shot of Spencer's face in the finished painting, giving some idea of the overall look of the layering and detailing.  Cute little wink, Spencer!

Spencer - Detail
Acrylic on canvas, 5" x 5"
© Xan Blackburn 2011

I hope this little painting gives Lisa joy in the years to come.  It was a joy to spend a few days lost in his gentle spirit.

The next portrait in the marathon is another sleepy couch potato.  This one is a sweet-faced black greyhound girl, and the apple of her dog-mom's eye, Faye Oops.  Gotta love that name!