A step-by-step guide to painting romantic Shetland Sheep

SUMMARY: Painting the Shetland Sheep is a great way to play with mixing your own blacks. Follow this easy step-by-step guide.

Most people tend to paint florals and landscapes, but once in a while comes a critter that just screams "Paint me!".

That was the case when we filmed Arts of Course expert Jess Rice painting these 3 Shetland sheep.

Jess grew up on a ranch in Montana and he's no stranger to sheep. In fact, they were his 4H project for many years and while he paints in a romantic style, you almost can hear them bleating off the page.

In this minicourse, Jess uses the wet-on-dry technique, which gives you a lot of control over your paint and is perfect if you haven't been painting in a while.

He also mixes his own blacks for the faces and legs which makes the painting more beautiful and exciting than if he had simply reached for the black in his palette.

If you're not used to mixing your own blacks, then this minicourse is great practice.

After we filmed Jess's Shetland Sheep minicourse I decided to give it a try.

I painted on a 7.5 in x 11 in, Fabriano Artistico 140lb cold press 100% cotton paper.

Including sketching and drying time, it took me under an hour to complete the painting. Jess's instructions were clear and concise. And I really enjoyed his stories about growing up with sheep!

Jess used a #8 round brush for the sheep and a #14 for the mountains and sky.

The colours he used were Daniel Smith: Aureolin Yellow, Alizarin Crimson (permanent), Rose Madder (permanent), Cerulean Blue, Cobalt Blue, and Phthalo Blue Red Shade.

Here are the steps that I followed:

Using a #8 round brush, mix Phthalo Blue and Alizarin Crimson to create an almost black color.
Paint the face of the first sheep leaving a little bit of the white paper for the eyes.
Add a dab of Alizarin Crimson to your paint mixture and paint the 2nd sheep's face.
Varying the proportion of Phthalo Blue and Alizarin Crimson paint the 3rd sheep's face.
Now paint the sheep's legs with the same dark paint mixture.
Taking advantage of the wet paint on the sheep's legs, now paint their shadow by wetting your brush and pulling the paint out to the left.
Moving on to the fleece, mix some Aureolin Yellow with a touch or Rose Madder.
Start with the sheep on the right, painting his fleece against the middle sheep. Be careful not to paint over your pencil lines.
Using your Cobalt Blue paint the rest of the fleece on the lower/shadow part of that sheep.
Now we move to the 1st sheep on the left and paint its fleece against the middle sheep using Aureolin Yellow with a touch of Rose Madder.
Paint the shaded areas using your Cobalt Blue. It's okay if your colors touch and bleed into each other a little bit.
For the middle sheep, its shaded area is on the left, so you paint it Cobalt Blue, a nice contrast with the 1st sheep next to it.
Now, it's time to paint the mountains in the background. Switch to a larger brush (Jess uses a #14) and pull some of your Cerulean Blue. Lay the paint in around the top of the mountain and feather it down. Continue painting the mountain in-between the sheep's legs and across your paper.
Paint the grass by mixing some Aureolin Yellow and Cobalt Blue. Go along the horizon line and the sheep's cast shadow and then feather the paint down to the bottom of your sheet.
Now for the sky, take some Cerulean Blue and paint the top right corner. Then wet your brush and pull the paint out towards the rest of the sky. The very pale blue will look like clouds in the sky.
Do the same thing in the left corner, laying some Cerulean blue and feathering down and across.
For the lower part of the sky, create a very light mixture of Aureolin Yellow and Rose Madder. Add this to the wet paint just above the mountains.
Dry off your painting.
Using a knead eraser, remove all of the pencil lines from your sketch.
Darken up your horizon line. Mix some Cobalt Blue and some Aureolin Yellow for a darker green and paint a line along the horizon line. Rinse your brush and pull the paint down for a nice soft edge.
Add some shadows on the sheep by mixing Aureolin Yellow, Rose Madder and a touch of Cobalt Blue just under where the lines on their fleece was.
Add some shadow on the left sheep where he is shaded by the middle one.
Take some Cobalt Blue to darken the blue shadow areas on the sheep.
Now it's time to suggest the knees of the sheep by painting them negatively. Take your dark color (Phthalo Blue and Alizarin Crimson mix) and paint the legs of the sheep above and below the knees. Try not to do every leg exactly the same.

And voilà! Here's my rendition of Jess's Shetland Sheep minicourse:

In had a great time painting these sheep and I hope you do too!

Interested in learning more?

Buy Jess Rice's Shetland Sheep video minicourse

Categories: Watercolor Paint, Watercolor Techniques, Watercolor tips