The next step to working on the wool is to create some soft textural lines in the wool. The lines will do two things: add to the feeling of the softness of the wool; and show the contours of the sheep. When adding these lines, avoid making them the same distance apart or the same length. Also, some parts will be darker than others, showing deeper separations in the wool.
With that disclaimer, let's get started.
You can and should work this in small, manageable areas. If you have lost your lines, lightly draw in some lines to indicate the separations in the wool. Lines along the sides will be more vertical; then round a bit at the top and bottom.
Mix up some paint using the raw sienna and burnt umber, basically the color you used before to form the color of the sheep. This should be a fairly creamy mixture. Experiment on scrap paper. Have some french ultramarine handy to create darker areas.
Wet an area about 2-3 square inches. Dip a small pointed brush into the mixture and gently TAP paint along the line you want. The paint should spread out slightly, creating a fuzzy look that is still a line.
If it is too uncontrolled, either let the paper dry a bit or use less water in your paint mix.
If it is too dark, play with the mixture until it is the value you want.
Make some of your lines shorter, especially near the top; make some converge or appear to converge; near the head, make short curly lines. In some areas, drop in blue or darker color in some places. These will look like shadows made by longer deeper wool areas.
If color looks too dark when dry, wait until completely dry and wash over with clean water....or just loosen the paint with a clean brush in places. If too light, you can go over it again after it dries.
The FACE AREA & LEGS
This may sound weird, but wash over the entire face, ear, and top of the lamb with pink. I used magenta, but any red can be watered down enough to pink and used. While that is drying, I moved to the leg area.
Use your brown mixture and some of the blue. I am creating a HARDER edge between the legs and wool of the body. I wet the top of the leg first in a wiggly motion to indicate the wool. I added the brown mix and dropped in some blue to create the dark at the top of the leg, which is shadow from the body.
I pulled down the color with my brush, then added blue wet on wet to the knee area. (sheep knees look a little dirty at all times). I did this to all the legs, paying attention to which sides of the leg is darker and more in shadow and which parts are catching light from the right.
I used the blue and the brown to make a gray mix. I wet the face again (over the pink) and painted the gray mixture onto the face. I layed down the darkest on the edges where the wool and ear meet the face, and let it spread over the rest of the face, except the eye. I left the muzzle white.
For the baby, I glazed over the pink with raw sienna and aussie gold (you can use burnt sienna) and mingled them on the paper. The color only goes down to the top of the baby's legs.
I used blue with a bit of umber to make shadows on the left sides of the legs, the tail, and the rear leg that is completely in shadow
To complete the face of the ewe, I added a little gray over the ear, but much lighter than the face.I tried to leave a rim of white on the ear. I painted the eye in with a golden brown (umber with a little yellow), then let it dry. I used a black fine tip marker to go around the eye and also to make the horitzontal slit of the pupil. (If it had been bigger, I would have used paint....but my hands shake a bit, and pen works when it is to small for me to control.)
I painted in the nostril and the mouth. I tried to leave as much pink in those areas and the ear as I could.
The color of this baby is its skin...there's no wool yet. So you can see its ribs. After I got the color I wanted for the lamb, I used a little cobalt to shadow the belly and the face hiding behind his mom. I used a tiny lifting brush to lift out some hi-lights in the ribs.
Finishing grass and background.
You have choices in finishing. The original photo reference has them against some very dead grasses and straws, so that the background was nearly the same color as the sheep. I wanted it to look more like spring. So I used a combination of greens to create grass that looks trampled The shadowing beneath the sheep keeps them anchored to the ground. Plus the edges between hooves and grass are blurred and obscured, which also keeps them anchored.
If you're wondering where the 2nd lamb in the original painting went, well.....
I decided it took away from the story. I couldn't exactly erase it. I tried to lift some. No matter what I did, that extra lamb showed up. Since these sheep live on a farm with an old stone fence, I decided that might help the painting a bit. So that's where the lamb went....behind the fence.
Did I use any whites? Well, I did use a bit of gouache on parts of the stonework and on a hi-lited spot on the lamb's foreleg. I also used a bit on the ewe's face under the eye.
Here are some nearly finished ones from class:
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