Portrait Marathon: #7 - Tip Top!

Tip Top
Acrylic on Aquabord, 5 x 5
© Xan Blackburn

Tip Top's portrait was a special challenge in that I only had one photo to work from, which was small and low-resolution, as well as being fairly dim.  Her head is lit from the rear, leaving most of her face in shadow, with just a rim of ligh  Since she had passed, there was no opportunity to get any better pictures.  Still, this one held an almost dreamy magic, and she had this subtle Mona Lisa smile that was irresistible.

I was also using a painting surface new to me, and a little anxious how it would work.  Oh.  My.  GOSH!  I love it.  It's my new favorite, I think!  Aquabord (formerly known as claybord textured) solves the issues I've experienced with claybord (too smooth, shows brushstrokes in a most vexing way), and takes the paint beautifully.  Anyway, I'm really pleased with how it worked here.

Now, on to #8, Stefani's Alfie!

Tip Top - in progress
© Xan Blackburn

Portrait Marathon: #5 Miss Star

Note to future participants:  Have your photos ready!  Keep an eye on your email if you know your turn is coming up, so I don't have to skip over you.  ;)  

Miss Star
Acrylic on canvas
© Xan Blackburn

Star's portrait took a whole different direction than ... any portrait I've ever done, I guess!  Why is that?  Who knows?  A question for the Art Fates, and they're not talking.  (I know; I sent them a very polite email, left a few voice messages, sent a registered mail or two, and ... nothing.  Crickets chirping.)
Those of you who've been watching me for awhile know that I usually start with an underpainting to establish values, then glaze in colors and top with details.  Not Miss Star!  She had her own ideas!

Star's softly faded blue brindle, her sleepy-eyed gaze, her pink collar, and those little teeth revealed in her relaxed mouth, inspired a sort of hazy love affair.  Her coat looks just as her "mom" says; bunny soft, plush.  Somewhere in all that gentleness though is a sparky ol' gal, who will bark 'til you get it right, and I hope I got some of that in a certain pointedly self-confident look in her eyes.  She sees no competition for her crown, you might say.

So, Miss Star shed her soft light on my easel for awhile, to my great joy.  As her portrait moves to the varnishing and shipping side of the studio, Emily is up next, with her boy Dave.

Miss Star- in progress
© Xan Blackburn

Portrait Marathon: #4 Wali

Wali
Acrylic on panel (Claybord), 8 x 10
© Xan Blackburn

Whew!  Wali's portrait, on 8 x 10 panel, took me a little longer than the smaller 5 x 5 canvasses, but I could have been more efficient, I think.  Also, working on the very smooth panel requires a different touch, as it shows watery brush strokes in a that isn't always desirable to me.  I thought I would get around that by starting with a coat of gesso and paint, but alas, still took a bit of getting used to again.

Ah well.  He's done, and I really like the vibrant background setting him off, with that intelligent and friendly stare!

For my progress developing the painting, see the animation below.

Tomorrow, I have another larger painting, this one of a senior greyhound gal who is the Star of her home.

See you tomorrow!

Wali in progress
© Xan Blackburn

Portrait Marathon: #3 Riley

Riley
Acrylic on canvas, 5x5
© Xan Blackburn

 Gorgeous whippet-guy, Riley, with those smokey bedroom eyes ... I'm in looooove!

Riley has a brother who's portrait I did awhile back, with a sort of flowery background.  Riley's reference photos included one with a fallen leafy background, and I liked that, but didn't want to get too finicky with the leaf look, so I went with a more impressionistic approach, using the basic colors, and letting the details go.

Then I could concentrate on Riley's handsome face!  Yeah.

You can see how this painting took shape in the animation below, which I thought to add the reference photo to, along with my conceptualization (aka "sketch") of the background, and a couple close-ups of the finished painting at the end.

Next up is Craig's Wali.  Another whippet!  This guy is a smiley fella, white and brindle.  Tomorrow we'll see how his painting shapes up!

Riley - in progress
© Xan Blackburn

Portrait Marathon: #2 Darcy

Darcy
Acrylic on canvas, 5 x 5
© Xan Blackburn 2012

Alrighty!  Darcy swam up out of a clear blue lake, or anyway, that was my experience of painting her!  Watch the animation to see what I mean.

Darcy's mom calls her a "heart healer".  At almost 12 years old, with this sweet face, you can just see her wisdom and compassion.

Next up is Riley, a handsome whippet guy with serious bedroom eyes!

Darcy in progress
© Xan Blackburn 2012

PM #1: Beaufort the Westie

Beaufort
Acrylic on canvas, 5x5
© Xan Blackburn 2012

That was fun!  Man, this will be great if I can keep up this speed, eh?

Here's Beaufort, who taught his daddy it was okay to love (oh, lordy! where's my hanky??)

Below, you can see a really funky animated gif of the steps of this painting, which will have to do, as I'm on to the next one!

Enjoy!

Beau- progress
© Xan Blackburn 2012

FPM Finale: Cosmo is Complete!

Cosmo
5" x 5" acrylic on canvas
©Xan Blackburn 2012

Fall Portrait Marathon, Cosmo

Done.  Cosmo's portrait, and the Fall Portrait Marathon of 2011, both done.

Cosmo's portrait was based on a black and white photo, which has such power on its own that, given the option, I decided to stick with a monochromatic approach.    I did try some coloring in Photoshop, but I couldn't get happy about spots of color.  It seemed gimmicky or false.  So here he is.

Back in my comic book coloring days (yes, it was a real job!), we often were called upon to create scenes that were monochromatic.  For some reason, I found certain colors harder than others, but working on The Savage Dragon (this particular page lists me - Xan Micka at the time - as a colorist, but thinks I am a male.  Hmf!), for instance, I learned a lot about greens, or working on Spawn, I learned about a lot of red.  Ick.  I think I'd take a different approach now, but my comic book days are loooong over.  (That's a whole 'nuther story!)

What was I talking about?  Oh yeah.  Monochromatic painting.  Well, enough said.  I'll just let Cosmo do the talking.

FPM #10: Cosmo, still black and white

Cosmo - work in progress #5
5" x 5" acrylic on canvas
©Xan Blackburn 2012

Cosmo - work in progress #6
5" x 5" acrylic on canvas
©Xan Blackburn 2012

 Fall Portrait Marathon, Cosmo 


I managed to resurrect one of my tinier brushes, which sure helped with the little hair details.  I've been working on building up that fur texture, particularly on Cosmo's face, and also with continuing to develop the overall shape of him, his various roundnesses, and the soft layered shadows on his white chest and legs.  


You'll notice in the second picture here (#6) that it seems I've lost some of the hair detail.  I did!  I was washing in some general tone, and it washed OFF some of my painstaking detail work.  :P  Oh well.  That's when I broke out the glazing medium.  Once that stuff dries, it does not come off.


You can see where that took me in #7 below.


I'm quite pleased at the progress at this point.  Next phase, I'll work in some texture from the other direction: the lighter hairs and whiskers. 


Way down at the very bottom is a detail showing how the texture is evolving.  It will be fun to see it build up with the lighter hairs, too.


I'm liking the black and white so much, I'm thinking I'll be very restrained with adding any color.  I'll start with the eyes, and see how I like it just like that, then go from there, or call it done.


Happy Monday, everyone!

Cosmo - work in progress #7
5" x 5" acrylic on canvas
©Xan Blackburn 2012

Cosmo - work in progress #7 DETAIL
5" x 5" acrylic on canvas
©Xan Blackburn 2012

FPM #10: Cosmo, leeeetle update

Cosmo - work in progress
5" x 5" acrylic on canvas
©Xan Blackburn 2012

Fall Portrait Marathon, Cosmo 

One more little update for today.
You know what?  It's not as easy to "draw" with acrylic as it is to draw with a pencil, say.  Anyway, it's coming along!  We'll call this stage 2a.

Have a nice Friday night!

FPM #10: Cosmo progresses

Fall Portrait Marathon, Cosmo 

I'm going to try to remember to take more scans along the way for Cosmo's portrait, and write a bit about each stage as I go.

Cosmo - work in progress
5" x 5" acrylic on canvas
©Xan Blackburn 2012

So, with the washy start from our last look as a starting place, most of the darkest darks at least indicated, it's time to really start filling in.  As always in this portrait, the texture of the fur is going to be important at each step, though the sharpest detail will be reserved for his handsome face, to keep our attention there.

Cosmo: reference photo

My philosophy there is to avoid getting stuck in a technical distraction, where the viewer is more involved in the technique than the overall effect; Cosmo himself.  When we look at something naturally, we focus our own sharpest attention right in the center of our field of vision, with the edges getting progressively soft.  So, to take a photo, which is indiscriminate in its focus across a whole depth of field, and re-imagine it as a painting in a sense is to translate it to a more natural way of seeing, while giving the artist control over what will become the focal points, and therefore the emotional impact, of the painting.

I would love to hear from you if that kind of discussion is enlightening about my choices, or just a lot of bla-bla-bla that you sort of skim over.  It truly is the stuff going on in my head, at least at an unconscious level.  Bringing it up in words to tell someone sort of explains it to me at the same time!

Cosmo - work in progress
5" x 5" acrylic on canvas
©Xan Blackburn 2012 

Cosmo - work in progress - detail
5" x 5" acrylic on canvas
©Xan Blackburn 2012 

Anyhow, moving on to the next stage, I started with his eyes, darkening the pupils, and defining his eyeliner.  Then, I let my attention sort of wander, picking out areas that needed more generally dark tone, and then more picky hair texture.  You can see in the detail below how the balance is shaping up, in terms of soft focus/harder focus.  I've kept the texture sort of fluffy in the edge of the cat bed, and intend to keep it in soft focus, with the exception of a suggestion of its carpet-y texture at the edge nearest his face.

At this stage, the shape of Cosmo, his roundness, is starting to be more evident.  I'm pleased so far.

Now, back to it.

FPM #10: Cosmo kitty

Cosmo
all rights reserved

Fall Portrait Marathon, Cosmo 

Cosmo the cat chose his family by befriending every person, dog and cat in the house, and then just walking in the door for good one winter day.  A sweet and congenial guy, his people are still missing his gentle presence since his passing 3 years ago.

We see him here obviously in the prime of good health, evidently surveying his chosen domain, maybe looking for just the right lap, or fuzzy side, to jump down and snuggle with.  You'll also notice that this photo, while in relatively high focus, is also in black and white.  So, Cara-Lea gave me the option to play around a bit.  Add color or not.  Add it all over, or not.  Get creative with my whole approach, or stick to the tried and true.

Cosmo in color
all rights reserved

She gave me the photo on the left here for a color reference, and that eye color just demanded to be taken into account!  So, that's part of the decision.

Cosmo-color added
all rights reserved

I'm going to play it a little bit by feel, and start with a very careful monochromatic underpainting, with the assumption that at least some of it will stand on its own in the finished painting, while some areas will likely get some color.  This colored version of the photo is sort of how I'm thinking of it to start.  Maybe less color in the cat bed, or just confine it to the edge closest to Cosmo's face.

I want to be able to get that wonderful texture that stripey cats have, where the hairs follow a general flow, but interlock, and each hair is multi-colored, making a complex pattern in any tiny given area.  Whew!  As I'm working on canvas, which has texture of its own, I won't be getting every hair everywhere, but I want to have the ability to get the ones I really want, to suggest the whole.  So, as I always do, I sanded the canvas before transferring my drawing, being a little more vigorous than usual.  I wiped it with a damp cloth, applied a mid-tone gray pastel to the back of my drawing, carefully taped it in place over the canvas, and drew over it to transfer the drawing.  Once it was all there, I carefully removed the paper, and cleaned it up with a kneaded bit of Blu-Tack.  Where the wooden frame defines the edge of the canvas gets especially smudgy since it's solid where the rest of the canvas is stretchy, so special attention there.

Cosmo - work in progress
5" x 5" acrylic on canvas
©Xan Blackburn 2012

I still have my trusty Payne's gray on my pallet from Sammi's portrait, so I dilute that down, and wade in, sketching with my wet brush over the lines, trying to get the feel of the hair directions right from the start, checking against my reference photo for the inevitable vagueness inherent in the transfer method.  I went ahead and washed in some general tones as well, in the background as well as in Cosmo himself.  I like that this color separates as it settles into warmer and cooler particles, making the color very rich and interesting, like watercolor paints do.

So, this is where I'm at right now.  Stage one is always pretty interesting, and full of potential: will it turn out well?  Will it fail?  Only time and work will tell!

FPM #9: Sammi is done!

Sammi - work in progress
5" x 5" acrylic on canvas
©Xan Blackburn 2012

Fall Portrait Marathon, Sammi  


Sammi's portrait wrapped up pretty quickly.  

While I wait for it to dry enough to scan, I'll show you this intermediate version.  Some of the "magic" white glazing has gone in, and is particularly visible on the tongue here.  The background has gotten several layers, including a worrisome yellow around the edges.  Dear reader, hang on.  All is not lost, but only scaring you so that you'll appreciate the final trick that much more.  

Okay, it's dry enough to scan.  Let's take a look and compare.  I'm not feeling too wordy today (for a change!), so I'll just give you the visuals.

Sammi
5" x 5" acrylic on canvas
©Xan Blackburn 2012

That's better, right?

Now, on to the very last portrait for the FALL Portrait Marathon: Cara Lea's kitty, Cosmo!

A fitting end to the marathon, since it has been a fundraiser for the feral cat rescue organization, Creatures Comfort of Bellingham, WA!

FPM #9: Sunny Sammi begins to pop

Sammi - work in progress
5" x 5" acrylic on canvas
©Xan Blackburn 2012

Fall Portrait Marathon, Sammi 


Sammi's portrait is zipping along now.  Even though he's such a subtle guy (except for his exuberant personality, of course!), some truly deep darks are necessary to make his light face have dimension, to POP it out of the background.  So, in I go, with my Payne's gray and my raw umber and my ultramarine blue, punching and pushing bits forward and backward.  I was telling H the other day that when I'm really in the Zone, it feels as if I'm actually sculpting something plastic, like clay, smooshing and poking, pulling up and smoothing actual three-dimensional substance, rather than dabbing or stroking over a flat surface.  It's cool.  Almost hallucinogenic or dream-like.  Sometimes, as when you wake from a dream, the effect isn't quite as I'd imagined it, but it's still a fun state to be in, and does result in a better painting or drawing.

Next, I'll be laying in more yellow-browns, some more background colors, and then the white to tie it all together, and make that bit of magic happen.  

FPM #9: Sunny Sammi!

Sammi - work in progress
5" x 5" acrylic on canvas
©Xan Blackburn 2012

Sammi was a happy guy!

According to his human, Sammi came to them as an 11.5 year old bounce, wobbly and with a "slight fecal incontinence".  He was a sweet ol' guy, but had no problem telling his humans he was in want of something by barking until they figured out what it was!

She says,

The pic I sent was him 10 minutes after he walked in the door. It is still the way I remember him.
He slipped in and out of our lives so peacefully, how can I miss him so much ?

The photo is adorable!  How could you resist that smiling face??  Unfortunately for my purposes, it's also both low-resolution, and burnt out by flash.

Even after doing what I could in Photoshop, this is what I have to work with (below).  A bit vague-ish. His other ear is a softly blended blob.  But, what can you do?  Luckily, most greyhounds have pretty similar physiology, and I have a couple laying around for reference.

  I thought I'd move him out into a sunny day background, and remove the fingers crawling on his head and hips.  I did my drawing to the best of my ability, and transferred it onto my canvas using a pale periwinkle pastel this time.

Addressing the pallet, I saw I still had some useable paint.  Waste not, want not!  I used some white with glazing medium to set the drawing, for starters.  I diluted some ultramarine in the same way, and started washing in some pale shading, working up to the darker areas.  It's not super dark, particularly as I had to get it pretty wet to revive it, but it was good enough for a first round.  I also had some raw umber (dark mud-brown), so I started in with that, using it to bump the darks up too.  I love the way the cool blue and the warm brown play off of each other!

I also had some red, so I decided to lay in the base tones in the mouth, nose and collar, even giving the eyes and ears just a hint of pink.  Sammi's nose has quite a bit of pink, as his color is so dilute, so it's an interestingly mottled pink-dark brownish gray*.  I like how it's coming along at this point.

I still had some cyan (sort of a sky blue) that was useable, which fit my concept for the background, so in it went.  Once I had some of that down, it also made its way into some reflections on the more shadowed side of Sammi, and on his nose.

I know he looks a little evil at the moment, but the lines over the inside corners of his eyes will be softened in the final round.

So, that's where we are at this moment.  Back to work!

_______________
*I used to work in a comic book coloring studio with some very talented artists.  The owner of the studio used to describe colors like this, which always cracked me up.  "It's a sort of pinkish, greenish, purplish orange with a hint of blue."  Oh!  Well, that clears that up!  ;)

FPM #8: Emmet is done. Probably...

Fall Portrait Marathon, Emmet!

Emmet
Acrylic on canvas, 5" x 5"
©Xan Blackburn 2012

Well, I almost never totally leave a painting alone even after I've told you it's done, but we're at that stage with Emmet now.  I've grown very fond of his little wrinkled brow and arrow-shaped face, but we'll be saying farewell soon.
...
Case in point: I just repainted the entire background between the last sentence and this one!  Typical!

Emmet - work in progress
Acrylic on canvas, 5" x 5"
©Xan Blackburn 2012

Anyhow, when last we saw Emmet, he was sporting this look.
The color was basically in, still kind of washy, a little coarse.  The magic transformation always happens almost paradoxically by glazing whites over all.  You wouldn't think that would help to make things seem more three dimensional, but somehow it does.  In the real world, light bounces all over the place, including deep into more translucent objects, like skin or eyes, and also off the surface of those objects.  It seems like the last glazes of white give it that surface light, while still allowing the sense of things below the surface to be seen as well.

Anyhow, I love watching that little magic trick work!

Take a look at these side-by-side details to see more of what I mean.

Emmet - progress details
Acrylic on canvas, 5" x 5"
©Xan Blackburn 2012

Doesn't it look more like flesh, more dimensional on the right, after the whites have been applied?

Well, that's about it for Emmet's portrait.

Who's up next?  Let's see ....
Ah, yes!  Robin's kitty, Allen!  Allen is a tabby, with fur and all, so that will be a different kind of challenge altogether!

Thanks for looking!

FPM #8: Emmet stage 3

Emmet - work in progress
Acrylic on canvas, 5" x 5"
©Xan Blackburn 2012

 Fall Portrait Marathon, Emmet!


Emmet is really coming along nicely.  

He got another wash of diluted red, which doesn't look so weird now, but seemed very sun-burn-ish when I first looked at it.  Lots of layering of shading and color has gone on.  See the difference? 

Emmet - work in progress
Acrylic on canvas, 5" x 5"
©Xan Blackburn 2012

I'm still not thrilled with the modeling on the sweater, but it still has time to come together.  I do like how the color is building up dimension on his face.  I'm headed towards glazing in some white, which will pull it together in an amazing way.  

I'm calling it a day for now, but I wanted to share with you what Merann has to say about Emmet, after looking at the first two installments.  (She has several nicknames for him, including PoPo.)

What to say about PoPo - he has quality of life with his meds.  Never could you meet a sweeter cat who for 7 years endured such pain - that he could barely walk.  He KNOWS when I sit down - how - I don't know.  but when I do - here comes his nekkid butt running and I mean RUNNING down the stairs and leaps in my lap.  He then proceeds to head butt me - and smear my lipstick and knock my earrings out of my ears.  My little Mo.  This tiny little baby curls up in my arms at night - takes one of those poor injured paws and pats me on the cheek.  (OH great now I'm gonna cry). He drifts off to sleep and has little kitty dreams where he twitches and I sincerely hope - runs without pain.  He is my dear darling PoPoLITO - my little purrito.  He is 10 years old and I hope he is with me for a very very long time. 

We won't talk about the peeing on the bathroom carpets. hhahahahhahahaa

He's a special little guy.  The peachy feel to his naked skin makes you feel very protective of him, and his tiny toes, deformed without their final claw and joint, are incredibly touching.  Merann totally saved this little guy's life.

FPM #8: Emmet gets some color

 Fall Portrait Marathon, Emmet!

Emmet - work in progress
Acrylic on canvas, 5" x 5"
©Xan Blackburn 2012

Little Emmet still seems to be scowling, but that will be resolved right at the end.  In looking at the painting this morning, it was clear to me that the underpainting was really not done.  The darks were nowhere near dark enough: my usual timidity!  That pop that gives the final sense of reality is really in the contrasts of darkest darks and highest highlights, so you can't really be wimpy about that.

Still, I was excited to start laying in some color, so I cheated and did the first color glazes first.  I'm not recommending that, just sayin'.

I'd been thinking about how I would achieve that glowing translucence of skin with barely any pigment in it.  I decided I'd start with the way it is in reality: from the blood out.  I diluted a cadmium red hue, and washed it over all Emmet's exposed areas.  It looked VERY pink, but I know it's going to have lots of layers of "skin" on top, so I didn't worry about it.

While waiting for that pink to dry, I got out a couple blues to start on the non-Emmet areas.  I chose a cyan blue to start on his sweater, and ultramarine for the cushions around him.  The ultramarine is a blue-violet, which is cooler than the cyan, so they won't just become one big blueness with a cat head peeking out.

Once I had indulged my need for color, which really did help to define what was what, and give Emmet some life, I dutifully got out my old faithful Payne's gray to develop the shading more.  I started right in Emmet's eyes, deepening the pupils, the upper lid, and the watery shadow that casts right into the eye itself.  I spent quite some time washing in shadows on his sweater and the cushions, and pushing his elbow and tail back into the shadows a bit.  Even though the reference photo was lit more generally, I want the focus - the spotlight if you will - to be on his distinctive little face, so I'm moving the light source over to our left and up a bit, which will give me more interesting shadows to give him dimension.

I also brought that cool Payne's gray into Emmet's face, giving him some more subtle shape, with the shadow cast by his nose and the curve of his muzzle, and his eyebrow area on our right.  I also got that dilute red working again around his face, bringing more depth to the pinks around his nose and mouth, his eyes, and particularly his ears.  I think that's going well.

Emmet - work in progress (detail)
Acrylic on canvas, 5" x 5"
©Xan Blackburn 2012

Merann told me that Emmet's eyes are golden-greenish-golden, depending on the light.  Okay!  I mixed a light golden yellow with the glazing medium, and gave him that first glaze of gold to back up and light up his eyes.  When that was dry, I went back with a little of that cyan in his sweater, mixed with a touch of the yellow glazing medium to add some areas of that green, preserving areas where the light would be likely to pool from my chosen light source.

There's a lot still to do.  I'll just get back to it, shall I?

FPM #8: Emmet the nekkid Cornish Rex

Emmet sharing the love

 Fall Portrait Marathon, Emmet!

My dear friend Merann is a woman who looo-oooves her pets!  She has 3 greyhounds as well as a bunch (how many is it now?) of cats.  Her Cornish Rex, Emmet, is a special guy.  He had his claws removed in a previous home, and suffered great pain until Merann got him sorted out.  He has no fur to speak of, which reveals what most cats hide under their thick fur.  He's a study in smooth elastic skin and wrinkles, the gathers that allow him to have such expression and to move with the fluid grace of the feline kind (I'm laughing here - any other cat people rolling their eyes and thinking of their klutzy cats upending potted plants or knocking over the knick-knacks during some pell-mell race through the house?)

Anyhow, Emmet.  The photo Merann chose is not so great for my purposes: low-resolution and a bit dark.  It's hard to tell what color his eyes are, even zoomed in.  I did what I could in Photoshop, and played with the background, also removing the plaid, as I thought it competed too much with Emmet's subtlety and his own delicate patterning.  Here's what I'm using for a reference.  Don't worry about how crude it looks.  It's just for my own purposes.  I also have asked Merann to tell me the eye color.

I thought I'd throw in some wrinkles or patterning in the background behind his head to sort of echo the wrinkles on his forehead.  I'll keep them subtle.  I'm also going to give him a bit of a makeover to clean up his ears.  (Merann says that condition has cleared up, so yeay!)

I transferred my drawing to my canvas, this time using a pale gold pastel so it wouldn't be too dominant even under the paint.  For my underpainting, this time I mixed some warm burnt umber with my usual cool Payne's gray, to warm it up.  I want to accentuate his pinkish skin, so like human skin.

Emmet - work in progress
Acrylic on canvas, 5" x 5"
©Xan Blackburn 2012

He looks a bit punky or angry here, so I'll have to tone down the wrinkles between his eyes.  I'd say the underpainting is pretty much done though.  Tomorrow, the rest of the story!

FPM: Matt is Done!

Matt
5" x 5", Acrylic on canvas
©Xan Blackburn 2012

 Fall Portrait Marathon, Painting #7: Matt  


Matt's painting finished up in one sustained burst, and I didn't get any more progress pics for you.  Sorry about that!  

We left off here.  One of the first things I did when I picked my brushes back up was to start laying in the dark green background, so I could get a good fix on my values (darks and lights) on Matt himself.  I worked in various layers of Hooker's green, thalo blue and Payne's gray over the initial pale yellow-gold.  Some of it I washed over the daisies as they needed to be part of the background, and recede in areas, instead of looking like they were printed on top.  But they got a little too subdued, so I brought them back into the sunshine with a few dabs of yellow, white and raw sienna.  They're actually a little brighter in real life.

Once I was relatively comfortable with the background, I went back in and had more fun with Matt, enhancing the underpainting some, and then glazing in the color.  Then it's all about details!  Clarifying the eye details, the fine hairs around the nose and eyes, the complicated ears, with all their different hair movement, picking out the beads in the collar, defining the edges of the ears, and the tiny hairs around the muzzle.  Once the color was in, it needed to be toned down, as Matt's color is very subtle.  Glazing in with white, tinted this way and that, brought a much more realistic feel to his coat.  The water-colory early stages I like a lot, but they are more flat, simpler, lacking in depth.  The more glazing I do, the more it begins to have a feel of a real animal, with real fur, and real liquid eyes and leathery nose.  

My husband thinks Matt's expression is very like our own greyhound, Brilly's.  I have to agree, and once again, it will be hard to part with this little painting!  But, as interrupted as this marathon has been, it's definitely time to move on!  So, he'll be in the mail this weekend.  

Next up is my own dear friend Merann's sphinx kitty Emmet!  He's a cute little guy!  Just wait 'til you see him!  

FPM: I'm baa-aack! Meet Matt

Matt - reference photo

 Fall Portrait Marathon, Painting #7: Matt 

This is Matt.  Those bedroom eyes with their serious gaze are inspiring feelings of warmth, and a distinct desire to give him cookies!

His owner, Christine, got in on an earlier marathon, giving me the chance to paint her boy Hamilton in a field of lupines.  For Matt's portrait, we chose to sprinkle some yellow daisies into his background, so I decided to warm up the whole tone of the image and imply a sunny day.  It also gave me the opportunity to get more of that soft gold tone into his colored areas.

With the reference approved (a process that took a few rounds), I prepped my canvas (sanding down the rough, raw primer a bit, and wiping with a damp rag), printed out my drawing, chalked up the back with conte crayon (hard pastel), taped it carefully in place over the canvas, and traced over the drawing to transfer it to the canvas.

Matt - reference 2: sunny

That has by far been the most successful method I've used to get the drawing onto the canvas.

I mixed up a (too generous) puddle of cadmium yellow medium (a warm yellow) with acrylic polymer, to thin it out and make it more transparent, then carefully brushed it over my drawing and the rest of the canvas.  That set the drawing, but also gave an overall tone to the painting that will fill it with that sense of sunny warmth even as the layers build on top of it.

I got out my trusty Payne's gray, thinned it with the glazing medium, and started in on the underpainting: all the shading, basically.  Working in the darkest areas first - the nose and eyes - sort of got me anchored, and allowed me to move into paler tones to set the overall dark-light balance.

Starting with a wash of yellow means I'd need to come back up to some high whites, as Matt has some white areas, and he's in the sun.  So, out with the titanium white.  I toned it with just a teensy touch of the yellow, to preserve my whitest whites for the final touches, and moved back into the painting to pull out the lighter areas.  I worked on layering up the whites in the lightest zones, keeping that subtle shading, and continuing to play back and forth with the Payne's gray in the shadows.  At this point, I'm almost done with the underpainting.

Matt - work in progress
acrylic on canvas, 5" x 5"
©Xan Blackburn, 2012

I always enjoy the subtle early phases!  :)

Okay, some of you may be asking, "Hey, where the heck have you been?  Isn't this the FALL portrait marathon?  Hmmmm???"  Yeah.  Ahem.  

Well, you know.  

 I got busy!  

I started working with a rescue group bringing sighthounds out of S. Korea, took on my very first foster, dove into working on her fear issues, meanwhile pretty much devoting all my remaining time to the workings of the group itself, eventually failed fostering (that is, we adopted our little charge!), and began to surface to the reality that I hadn't painted in about TWO MONTHS!  You can read about our adventures with Katie on my non-art blog, starting here.  I stopped writing just after Christmas, which was days before we gave in and made it official.  After that, I was just buried in the group's work.  Balance must be attained (or re-gained!) however, so, as I said in this post's title, "I'm baa-aack!"