Spring Sheep Painting on Canvas

I have seen similar images on instagram, but no directions so thought I would post this lesson for anyone who wants to try it.

I really like the contrast of the warm colored background with the cool colors of the rest of the painting.  

It gives the art a nice energy and earthy feel with the orange under the green looking like the ground under the grass.  This is a great color mixing lesson, foreground to background,  and also highlights and shadows.

You will need:

8X10 Canvas or Watercolor Paper

Acrylic Paint:  Orange, green, blue, yellow, black and white

Brushes

Sponge dauber

Patterns if you want to use them

Here are the patterns for the sheep if you are teaching a group that would feel more confident using them.

If you want to teach it without the patterns a sheep is super simple to draw, an oval for the body, triangle for the head with long pointy sideways triangle ears.  The legs are a curved v.

I'm going to pre paint my students' canvases orange to save drying time.

Then they can sketch or trace their sheep and landscape layers.

 I'm going to have them paint their landscape first then add the sheep.

I used a flat rectangle brush and went up to the line I drew.  Then around the sheep.

For the next color I left a little orange between my next color and went up to the line again.

Then repeated this method.

The Bottom is just green from the bottle.

The Second layer adds yellow, not a whole lot but enough to look lighter.

The 3rd layer adds white to the green/yellow you mixed.

The top is a turquoise blue with a bit of cobalt blue and white.

I wanted the turquoise because it adds a little green.

After I get the layer of light blue on top (while it's still wet) I added some streaks of darker blues and also some white clouds.

After the background is dry (I used a blow dryer)

The sheep's wool is made with a sponge dauber.

Just use plain white and if you twist the sponge as you daub it make a woolly pattern.

I like to leave the edges fuzzy but the middle solid.

Next add a little blue to the white and add some blue shadows under the head and on the lower body with the round sponge.

These are the colors I mixed to get the lighter grey for the Sheep's black areas.

A little black goes a long way. I used a smaller pointy brush for the head and legs.

Now add some more white to the grey for highlights on the head and legs.

And finally just a little bit of plain white with a small brush to the lighter gray highlights.

This all adds depth to your composition.

Finally you can just draw the eyes, nose and mouth with a fine tip sharpie.

I did add two tiny white highlights to the eyes using a toothpick dipped in white paint.

A little about these very cute sheep, they are Scottish Blackface Sheep.  I left off the horns so mine is a youngster : )

Happy Spring!