It’s evident that a lot of fun was had with February’s ram, in all sorts of mediums! Thank you to everyone for sharing your photos; it’s been a joy to look at them.
By B: “my first attempt at the ram in ink with a twig.”By Barbara: “Next try in pastel, there have also been some disasters in acrylic!!”By Barbara: “Some more rams, again in pastel.”By Bayberry: “I gave it a shot. It was fun!”From Erika: “Well, I had no idea how to tackle those horns! Then I noticed a wood-working magazine and someone’s home that had a wooden ceiling…..and it all became a collage. If nothing else, this little guy makes me smile.”Detail of Horns by ErikaFrom Claire: “I dug out my copy of Henry Moore’s sheep sketchbook and loosened up by copying the way he showed form and tone with quick, loose scribbles. No horns but so relaxing!”From Claire: “My first attempt at the ram – the dominant horns make it hard to fit hnm in the landscape. I tried spattering in the garden but after the wind blew it off the easel and then an unexpected shower…..”By Claire W: “Here I tried to scale the rams down in size to put them in a simple landscape, again working freehand with a brush on quarter imperial watercolour paper. The rough texture made it impossible for me to use a fine pen for the horns and I should have spent more time on the grasses and the ridge but maybe I will have some spare time in March!”From Eddie: “When I saw the photo I was very excited and couldn’t wait to get started so I did some thumbnails and quickly found a composition which appealed to me. I tried some drawings and hit a reality check when I realised I couldn’t draw the horns like you or indeed much like horns at all. Feeling a little despondent I was delighted to see the Monday Motivator which told me to stop stressing about whether it was any good and just go for it, which is exactly what I did.
I took a pad of A2 watercolour paper, made a rough map in pencil and drew two versions using the pipette of a bottle of Payne’s grey acrylic ink. I decided to do a watercolour and a gouache version.” From Eddie.From Eddie: “While waiting for these to dry I did a version in chalk pastel. From Eddie: “Since I enjoyed doing the pastel so much I decided to try in oil pastel as well.”From Eddie: “I think doing the other versions gave me a feel for the image so I then was able to be fairly loose when painting the final version in acrylic (65x45cm.). I did this carefully but fairly quickly since I know I could have fiddled with it forever. I am not always so hard-working but I was inspired by the image and thoroughly enjoyed the whole process.”
By Lesley: “What a magnificent creature! Those horns were so much fun to paint.
Acrylic 30cm x 40cm.”By Cathi: These are the results of a fun month with sheep. Your photograph inspired me to go down the ‘texture’ route. First up came some sketches and ideas. Then a friend gave me a newspaper cutting advertising a concert but what represented a cello neck also gave ideas for rams horns. I followed the idea of focussing on the horn itself and using wax resist or masking fluid to show the texture…. this lead to thinking in different colours which lead to my first watercolour attempt. By CathiBy Cathi. Watercolour.By Cathi. WatercolourBy Cathi: I didn’t really like the watercolour effort so got out the acrylics and the texture paste! On little 8” boards I played around with the partial sheep head, rather overworking it I think. My second attempt was to just focus on the ram’s horn. While waiting for the paint to dry I did my little girl for fun!By CathiBy CathiBy Gail: Had a really good time with this ram. Colored charcoal rendering on mixed media paper.By Gail: Collage Rendering on mixed media paper made with bits and strips of magazine paper and gloss medium for glue.By Gail: Acrylic rendering on mixed media paper done in acrylic paint and ink.By Marion BE: Three small paintings I did while preparing the project.
MORE PROJECT SUBMISSIONS:
From Helen for January’s project: Here are my efforts, ink, wash and pen with a bit of collage that crept into the purple one. From Helen.
I’ve created a new page with links to all the projects; you’ll find it here and in the menu under “blog”. Reminder: It’s never too late to do a project nor submit your photo(s), they’ll get added to the next project photo gallery.
They are all great, love all the details. I especially loved the bright colors of Erika’s collage.. How fun!