Chester: A Sheep’s Story of Love (um . . . sort of)
Post #118
Here’s my progress thus far on my lambs. Still not liking the cute thing, but what am gonna do about it? I put down brown paper so when I color the deckled edges I don’t completely mess up my drafting table.
These lambs are from our first year crop of lambs. A few years after we moved to Iowa we decided we needed to raise some livestock and we thought sheep were the critters for us.
We bought about a dozen ewe lambs of mixed heritage and let them mature fully. We like to think of our critters health in terms of the long haul, and waiting a little longer to breed them was they way to go. So when the time finally came, we went shopping for a ram. Since we had so few ewes, and since we intended to keep the ewe lambs, we picked out an older (cheaper) ram, which we would replace the following season.
He was a handsome stately gentleman, whom we named Chester. (why? Mike liked the sound of it. And of course “He just looks like a Chester.”) Chester was gentle, and there was nothing bully-like in his behavior at all. (You know, what you actually picture a ram’s personality to be.)
Well the girls loved him. He was always surrounded by two or three ewes, nuzzling his nose and ears, leaning against him and just in general following him around like a bunch of groupies. They never gave him a moments rest.
A few short weeks later we found him dead in the paddock. No coyotes or anything noticeable as to why he died. So we just surmised it was old age. Chester had done his job though. Every ewe had at least one lamb.
The following season we got a new younger ram. The girls wanted no part of him. He was course where Chester was gentle. He harassed them while Chester just let them come to him. It was then that it dawned on us that perhaps the girls had just sexed Chester to death. I mean he was older, but they really just kept after him the whole time. Nothing rough, just always gently touching him and surrounding him, grinning and winking.
Not sure if there is a moral here. Maybe, guys be kind to the ladies and you’ll get all the nookie you can handle? Hmm. Probably not appropriate comment for my g-rated blog huh? All I know is we never got another ram who the ewes like half as well as Chester. And oddly enough in the many years that followed, we never liked any other ram half as well either.
Well I am back to working on my lambs. They are coming along well enough. The photo here is (as usual) not so great. It is missing all the subtle soft color changes that I worked so hard on, and is making the colors transitions look harsh.
Well . . . I warned you that I might decide that it was in my best interest to do several smaller pieces, rather than commit to trying to get one large painting done. I still have a few sheets of the smaller handmade paper left. This one is on a 8 1/2 x 11. She is just barely begun though I should finish her up tomorrow. (most likely) The background is going to be an emerald green.
Bear drawing reworked
I’ve got a couple of good excuses as to why I haven’t been posting new artwork. Honest First of all, I finished up my article for the next issue of Apples N’ Oats magazine, a week early! That’s two times in a row. WhooHoo! Also been doing loads of bookwork, like preparing my sales tax figures. Not really a whoohoo, but nice to get it done. And then of course, tis the season for the gallery to get busy. So now that I feel perfectly righteous in my slacking off with the art thing, I thought I would go ahead and show you some of what I have been doing art-wise.
So I decided to go large-ish. And of course to add to the challenge, I not only used a reference photo with water, but also decided to move his legs around. This is a zoo bear and it is overweight. Or I may have taken this photo in the fall when it was gaining for hibernation. But it is still more pudge than I want. I am not sure that my painting will reflect any particular season, so best shed a few pounds. I imagine it would be hard to keep a captive bear at its ideal weight. I mean it’s not like zoo bears are running after elk or anything.
Well, it has been a chaotic ten days or so. Budda has been sick. We’ve had multiple vet trips (the last one we traveled an hour away to get some blood work done.) He quit eating. Not entirely, but only a handful of pieces of cat food per day. He normally consumes about 2 cups. I even offered canned stuffs, not cheapo ones either. He got Fancy Feast chicken and cheese soufflé. Let me tell ya, I think had I nuked it and put it on a plate, Mike would have eaten it. Anyway, I have never had an animal with this sort of problem. After much $$$ turns out he is healthy. Or should I say, disease or organ problems were not the cause. Best professional guess is, he was partially impacted in the gut. As long as he ate something, it was a wait and see. Had he stopped eating entirely, it probably would have meant surgery. The good news is, he is back to being ravenous and is bouncing off the walls. (literally)
Latest WIP
From Concept to Creation
Composition
Subtle Differences
So here’s the latest on my work in progress (WIP) on Catch’s portrait. I am totally loving working with watercolor pencils again. But it is really kinda of hard on my hands. The callus that was on my index finger from years of being a pencil artist, has all but disappeared in the past two years of working in oil pastel. Maybe it’s because I am getting older and my joints can’t take the stress like before. Or maybe it is just because I am going at it full tilt, and working 4-7 hours at a whack every day, (having too way much fun to stop.) But my hands are all achy and crampy. Sigh.
I had big plans on doing a proper post today, about watercolor pencils. But as I am feeling a bit under the weather it will have to wait until tomorrow. I did however, get the go-ahead on my
I had completely forgotten (or blocked from my memory perhaps?) The amount of effort required in layering in the color. This represents about 8 hours of work, and the face is not yet completed. However, I am having a blast working with the pencils again. I love the effects that they provide. And apparently, I also forgot how much fun, being anal about all the tiny little hairs was. (Sigh, its like coming home.)



