The sheep were very far away, up on a mountain ridge, so I decided to paint them as tiny as they looked on a more abstracted, bold mountain. The contrast of the large, abstracted landscape and the carefully delineated sheep lets the viewer realize how vast this scene is.
Fabriano cold-pressed watercolor block
Burnt Sienna, Cadmium Yellow Medium Hue, Phthalo Blue, Quinacridone Burnt Scarlet, Quinacridone Gold, Ultramarine Blue, Yellow Ochre
Olive Green
1⁄2-inch (13mm) and 1-inch (25mm) flats
no. 1 round
I sketched the shape of the ridge with an Olive Green watercolor pencil, then added a graded wash for the sky, from Cadmium Yellow Medium Hue on the right to Phthalo Blue on the left.
I mixed a strong wash of Ultramarine Blue, Burnt Sienna and Quinacridone Burnt Scarlet and laid it in quickly, following the shape of the ridge. Then while that was still wet, I dropped and spattered in Yellow Ochre and Quinacridone Gold to suggest the desert plants, with a bit of scratching or scraping into the damp wash here and there to ground the plants with branches.
MOUNTAIN SHEEP
Watercolor on Fabriano cold-pressed watercolor paper
9" × 12" (23cm × 30cm)
Finally, I added details and shadows to the mountains and painted those tiny, tiny sheep with a no. 1 round and a mix of the same colors used previously.