Cute Flock of Sheep: Watercolor Tutorial

Hi everyone, this is Nia and today we're going to paint some cute and fluffy Veles Black Nose Sheep. I painted this freehand so let me just show you the simple form of the sheep through some sketches so hopefully it'll help you visualize the shapes. Let's start with the head. I like to draw a circle to allocate the space for the head. Then I'm going to add a fringe and a couple of ears under the fringe and if you want you can also add horns. For this one, we're going to draw one facing us so we won't be able to see its behind. I just continued down to draw a fluffy u-shape and added a couple of short legs. When I paint later though, I like to start with a light color so I start indicating the placement of the head by drawing the fringe and then I drew a small u-shape underneath the fringe as a negative space for the head before painting on the body. Only when I have all this basic placement will I add all the rest of the elements and this area that I'm shading here will be the first elements that I paint. Now let's sketch out another position where we can see a bit of the side and the back. I like to simplify the shapes with a circle for the head and a very rounded rectangle for the body before adding on the legs. This is an image I like to think before I paint. Then as we paint, we're going to combine these shapes with the fluffy features, starting with the fringe again to indicate the placement of the head and I'm going to look at the chin where I'm going to draw a barrier to leave out the space for the head. Then I'm going to paint the fluffy body and legs using one color. Only after that will I add the black and the other features. The position of the head will help indicate the rest of the body which is why I like to paint it first. So from the simpler shapes, I like to look at the outer part of the face to see where the body is going to be angled to the right or to the left. Now let's do the same position but flipped. So I'm going to start with the circle and the very rounded rectangular shape. Think closer to an oval before adding on the legs. This is the position that I like to think about before adding on the textures. So now I'm going to draw the fringe first, leaving out negative space for the rest of the head before adding on the fluffy body and the legs. For this one, I've added a little bit more detail by adding the areas of the thigh but if you want to paint them without, it's also completely fine. They'll just look super fluffy. Now going back to the first sheep, you can use the same position and make them look like they're sitting down by adding another part to the body at the back and that's it. Now you have another position from the simple shapes and of course you can also flip this. Lastly, I'm going to draw an angle in between the ones I've drawn out so far so the body is not shown to the fullest and for this you can somewhat think about the sitting position but lift the body instead of dropping it to the ground so you have space for the legs. Now with these angles that I've shown you today, you can flip them around and have multiple positions of your sheep to be placed in your composition. Feel free to get acquainted with these shapes so it's a bit easier as we paint freehand later on. If you want though, I might have the outline in my Ko-fi shop but because the colors I'm going to use are very light for the sheep, if you do trace the outline make sure it's very light so the pencil marks won't distract too much of the painting if it shows through. Next, let's go over the colors I'm going to use for the painting. Firstly, this is Terre Verde by Holbein, Lamp Black by Daniel Smith, Yellow Ochre by Holbein, Puff Titanium by Daniel Smith, New Gamboche by Daniel Smith, and Vermilion by Holbein. I'm also going to use Blue Proof White by Dr. Paige Barnes. I'm going to start with the first color mixture which is a mix of Puff Titanium and Yellow Ochre. I'm only going to add a little bit of Yellow Ochre just to add a bit of warmth to the Puff Titanium. I'm going to start with the first shape in the middle which is facing straight towards us which I find is the simplest angle to paint so I'm treating this as a trial and a warm-up as well. So just like how I sketched it out before, I started by painting the fringe then I'm going to paint a U-shape to leave space for the head. Then I paint the body surrounding the face using the same color. I'm creating small brush strokes so the edges are a little bit uneven and slightly textured and after that I'm going to paint on the two legs. While I'll leave this first one to dry, I'm going to paint another one right next to it. Again, starting with the fringe before I decide the position of the sheep. Then I'm going to paint a U-shape for the face and start to paint the body which I'm going to lean towards the left. I use a lighter consistency for the back so I don't have to be as accurate and I can still somewhat fix it along the way. Then once I'm happy with the position, I'm going to darken on the bottom since it's in shadow and then I'm going to add on the legs. Now moving on to the next sheep, starting with the fringe again. This time I'm going to mirror the previous sheep so you can see the body on the right hand side and I'm painting a U-shape here for the space of the head before adding on the fluffy body. Sometimes I find it a bit easier to visualize when I paint in the chest area first and then just direct the rest of the body sideways. By the way, as I'm painting this, I try to use a light to medium brush load so I don't have too much paint on my brush because I don't want to risk anything puddling. If anything, I want things to dry fairly quickly so I can slowly build on the shadows as well. Like for this one, I'm going to use the same colour to darken the tummy and separate the front or the chest area from the side. I also made the butt a bit too pointy so I decided to reactivate it with clean water and take off the excess with tissue. And from here, I'm just going to keep painting more sheep using the same method and try to distribute them around the page so the positioning looks natural and organic. Creating variety usually does the trick and I also want the sheep to not stack straight up or in a straight line. I mentioned before that I also like to add the darker values or the shadows to help with the form of the sheep and the areas that I like to darken are under the head, at the bottom of the chest area, the legs, and the tummy. I'm just going to paint a couple more sheep and after that, we're going to move on to the other features. Okay, I'm just going to finish off this sheep and then I'm going to activate some lamp black to paint on the face. I want the fringe to still look fluffy and textured so I make sure that the edge touching the fringe is uneven and I do want to make sure that everything is completely dry before adding on any black features or you'll risk the black traveling into those damp places. After I've painted all of the face, I'm going to add on the ears. You can somewhat make them stick out to the sides or make them flop down. I like to paint both to add variation. For some of the sheep, I'm going to add horns again for more variation and for this, I'm using the same mix from Buff Titanium and Yellow Ochre but I'm going to use a bit more Yellow Ochre in the mix. I made them kind of short and stubby and slightly curved to make sure they still look cute. After this, I'm going to go back to the lamp black and add the feet and the black area of the knees. To paint this, I like to run my brush up and down very quickly using a light load so the edges still look fluffy. I feel like the top is too empty so I decided to add another sheep. I'm just going to paint using the same method and when you're painting straight away, make sure each part is completely dry before adding on another feature if they were to touch and to make this process quicker, you can just use a hair dryer. Once I'm done, I'm going to go back to the first color mixture and I'm going to darken the chest area so it looks a little bit puffier and it also helps the form slightly by making the chest look like they're in front of the front legs rather than those areas just looking like a flat surface or a flat plane. After this, I'm going to paint the grass area from Yellow Ochre and Terra Verde and I'm going to paint this per section, being very careful to paint around the light parts of the sheep. Once I'm done with the section and the surface is still damp, I like to add a thicker consistency of Terra Verde underneath the sheep and letting the paint flow while helping direct the dark colors slightly with my brush. It's important that the surface is evenly dampened at this point but not puddling wet. If not, the additional wet paint that you introduce will take a very long time to dry and the direction can also become very unpredictable as the colors all mix together. For this composition, I've decided to add a frame around the green field as well, just leaving the white of the paper but I want the loose feel and I also think that the imperfect curvy border adds to the overall painting looking softer and cuter. If this is too much of a hassle for you, you can also mask off the sides before painting. For the shadows, sometimes I like to use a mix of Terra Verde and Yellow Ochre as well but just in a thicker consistency since we can always add on to the values later on. Once I've covered the grass area, I'm going to darken the shadows and for this I'm going to use a mix of Terra Verde, Yellow Ochre, and Lamp Black. Again, I'm going to place it underneath the sheep. I'm using a medium consistency here and you can paint it on a damp surface or even a dry surface. If you decide to paint on a dry surface or your background is completely dry, you can use a clean damp brush to blur out the edges and make it blend with the background. After adding on the darker green, I feel like the sheep look a little bit washed out so I'm going to add more vibrancy to it by using a light consistency of Yellow Ochre and add to the form. So, I'm just adding to the previous shadows I've painted earlier and redefining the shapes. Once I'm done and the background is completely dry, I'm going to use a dry to light brush load to paint on some grass texture. I'm using a mix of Terra Verde and Yellow Ochre here. You can also add a little bit of Lamp Black if you want the colour to be a bit darker and more muted. If you want, you can switch to a smaller brush but by using a dry brush load, I find it easy enough to control the paint flow in order to create the thin lines that I flick out for the grass. Another cute idea would be adding textures with coloured pencils. I think it'll make the composition look a bit more whimsical and it'll be much easier to draw on. Just make sure that your coloured pencils are sharp enough to create those subtle thin lines. As I'm doing this, I want to make sure that I'm using a light to medium consistency because I don't want the fine lines of the grass to fight with the main subject matter and also risk the composition looking too busy. Once I feel like I've added enough grass textures, I'm going to use Bleed Proof White to add some flowers. These are just going to be very tiny flowers since the composition itself is fairly small. I'm just adding dots and dispersing them in random areas, something that will complement the placement of the sheep as well. For some of the flowers, I actually like to intentionally add them on top of the thin lines from the grass that I painted earlier. This is to suggest that some of the thin lines we painted earlier are really delicate flower stems and I feel like this placement adds a really nice subtle detail. You can leave it here with the white flowers but I decided to add some colour so I'm going to use a medium consistency of New Gamboge to paint over some of the white flowers. After this, I'm also going to use Vermilion so there will be white, yellow and red spots as accents to the composition. To soften the Vermilion, I like to add a bit of Bleed Proof White and New Gamboge into it but it's still mostly Vermilion. After painting on the flowers, I decided to increase the contrast of values and darken the shadows underneath the sheep. I should have done this before but I felt like it looked fine earlier without the flowers so I'm just going to try to do this and paint around the flowers. I'm also using a thicker consistency of the Dark Green and placing this closer underneath the sheep so you can still see the soft transition from the previous layer. Next is just an additional touch that I like to add but it's completely optional. I'm going to make a couple of sheep stick their tongues out. Since the head is black, I'm going to use Bleed Proof White to create a base. Then I'm going to use a pink mix from Vermilion and Bleed Proof White to paint on the white base for the tongue. And that's basically it for this painting. Feel free to balance out any of the colours to bring the composition together. This is probably one of my favourite paintings that I've painted so far just because they're so cute and simple and if you enjoyed this tutorial, please consider subscribing for more. Like usual, the list of tools as well as my social media links will be in the description box. Thank you so much for watching till the end and I'll see you guys in the next one. Bye!