FINISHING BOAT, SHEEP, BACKGROUND

REVIEW OF THE SHADOWS BENEATH THE BOAT

Here are some tips for making those shadows look real:

1. Shadows will follow the lay of the land. This is a very horizontal "meadow" of some sort, so the shadows will tend to appear horizontal. (even tho they are generally followng the shape of the boat, they lie on a flat plane)

2. The sun is coming from the right side of the picture, so the shadows will tend to be underneath and to the left. The darkest shadow is both underneath the right side of the boat AND following through to the left of the propeller.

3. The shadow of the boat and the shadow on the grass appear to merge together in spot. This is important in making the boat feel "anchored" (excuse pun) to the ground, not floating above it. To do this, I darkened both the boat and grass with purple, melding one area into the other. 

BOTTOM OF THE BOAT

There is a triangular shaped propeller mount and another shape on the bottom right of the boat. These are dark and rusty, but not as dark as the rest of the bottom. I made a rust by dabbing with burnt sienna and then with French ultramarine, keeping it darkest next to the boat. 

TIE LINES

 I glazed over the two yellow lines on the right with yellow ochre or raw sienna. On the wider tie, I made a gray shadow above and below where the rope appears to twist. I painted a shadow on the grass beneath the ropes. 

BACKGROUND

If you want to put in a tree line or distant buildings, remember there are 3 things to do to appear distant: Less detail; grayer; softer edges. For houses I painted in some roof tops then quickly dabbed them with tissue to keep them from being hard edged. I painted in some green tree line, also quickly dabbing them to keep them faded.

THE SHEEP

The foreground sheep are my addition. I wanted to give a sense of size and place to the boat.  I also thought it gave a sense of curiosity..."What are you doing in our pasture?"

I used a stiff brush ("scrub brush") to lift some white space in the approximate size and shape of a sheep body. This does not mean you scrub...let the water do most of the work before you gently lift off green paint.  I used some of my neighbor's photos of her sheep as reference. 

I lifted out little shapes in the distance, larger shapes close to the boat.  I had to dry it before I could paint in a little triangle face and some black legs and ears.  If I wanted it whiter than that, I could put a little gouache on the wool or simply darken the grass around it.  The farther away the sheep, the lighter the faces. 

Below are some of my practices.

FINISHING TOUCHES

I needed to make the peeling paint look more real. First I washed over the sections left white from masking with water to calm down the white. When dry, I took a #2 brush and dabbed some dark paint where the peeling paint would cast a shadow. 

For more texture, you could scrape the paint with the flat edge of a razor blade/craft knife.