A New Work In Progress Painting From The Sheep Incognito Studio: “BOARD MEETING”

Since we’ve been back doing some outdoor events this year, the collection of paintings has been shrinking - thankfully, the flock has a group of outstanding collectors in many places we head to, which makes all the difference!
Of course, that means that new paintings must be created - so here is a new one that I started recently, that is about halfway finished.
The painting process starts with a quick layout sketch directly on the canvas. To be honest, starting with a thumbnail layout sketch on paper would probably be more sensible. However, I’ve never claimed to be sensible - more like a bit of “Lazy Artist Syndrome”. Faster is better, skipping steps takes the annoyance of extra time out of an already limited painting session. (Let me know in the comments if this is a general thing for artists, or if just maybe I’m the weird one here… lol).

So here are the steps so far:
- Quick sketch directly on the 12 inch x 36 inch gallery wrapped canvas, using Dioxizine Purple and a flat bristle brush, about 1/2” wide.
That establishes the darks, the layout, sizes, and some of the textures that will be evident with later layers.

- Next, I started adding more critters, some texture darks to ensure I have the darks on the correct side, with the highlights on the other. In this case, the light is coming from top left, so the right side of all the critters is going to be darker.

- Once that has had a chance to dry well (acrylic paint is fabulous for this process! I use Liquitex Heavy Body Artist Grade Acrylics), I start adding color to various parts of the painting. I’m trying to ensure that animals placed next to each other aren’t the same color, so that they are visibly separated.

- The fence received a wash of warm yellow and dark magenta mix - it contrasts nicely with the dark purple of the initial sketch, which adds to the “Zing!” later. This will still be darkened, get some wood grain added, and then the shadows from the animals’ arms underneath.
When I added the fence post in front of the goat, I tried placing it in a location that made sense, trying to avoid having to have two fence posts, to keep it slightly off-balance for visual interest. That might change a bit as we go along.

-Once the animals were sketched in, I did a quick background wash in a transparent blue - I LOVE this color, I use it a LOT in a LOT of my paintings. But a you can see, the transparency leads to quite a bit of splotchiness - so it will be needing multiple layers, possibly some with white mixed in for extra coverage.

- Initially, I had an otter snoozing in his jammies with his nightcap laying on the right side of the fence board. But it just was not working well with the swine there - so he got replaced by a chicken (If you’ve ever been let go from a business board meeting, you well understand how that situation goes: “Go get your stuff, you’re leaving”, and before you can gather your cactus from your desk, there’s already a new peon sitting in your spot at the table. It’s usually a chicken-brained one, too…

- Halfway through painting the background I noticed the off-kilter-ness of the Highland Cow’s horns…that had to be fixed, so those might still get shortened, as well. It’s more balanced now, but I actually liked a tilt to his head better. So that might still change as well.

- The duck trying to keep the sheep and the cow separate was an afterthought. Though I’m not much one for business meetings in real life, I would imagine egos getting in the way of decision-making frequently. The worl would be much improved by the addition of “Peace Ducks” in EVERY board room and EVERY meeting, I think.

-The goose is hopefully going to look more like she fell asleep with her mouth agape - kind of how I would be in a board room setting, I think. There is a good reason for me having the career I saddled myself with….

And this is where is at right now. More to come over the next few weeks.

As always, I love hearing feedback, comments, and even critiques of my work - It keeps me from just tossing stuff around in the echo-chamber that is my own brain.

Interested in owning this original? Drop me a line, or contact the gallery!