Petey's portrait

Petey - Work in progress
Acrylic on canvas panel, 8" x 10"
© Xan Blackburn 2012

Petey is a handsome young devil, isn't he?

Jumping right in, I took the reference photo, re-sized it, got as much information as possible out of it (luckily, most greyhounds have a lot in common, so I can use locally available models for anatomical clarification as needed) and settled on my drawing and my color scheme.  I transferred my drawing, using conte crayon on the back onto a dampened canvas panel (more on the panel in a minute).  I actually intended to make a trip to the store at that point, but you know ... "I'll just wash this cad orange here to seal the drawing ...."  Well, I liked the orange to heat up most of the undercoat, but didn't want to fight it quite so hard later in the areas where he's clearly lit to a soft gold.  So, I stirred up some Naples yellow with some glazing medium, and washed that in too.

Petey: reference photo

I like the loose, sloppy look to him just as he is!  But, that beautiful blue-black mask and stripiness must have their way with all that, so stay tuned!

Note about the canvas panel.  At the recommendation of a fellow artist, I decided to try this brand of artists' grade canvas panels.  So far, I like it fine, but it has this stupid label on the back which is basically an advertisement for the panel.  Very annoying!  I tried painting it out with gesso, then more color, and made a nasty mess of it, set it aside, and started over with a new panel.  I've applied an adhesive label to the back, which pretty much obscures it, but what a pain!  Even if I really like the panels, the cheesy label might be enough to keep me from buying them again.  *huff*

Now I'm going to the store!