Last night's skies and initial sheep sketches

Hebridean Summer Sunset: North Uist Islands - 9 Aug - 20"x16", mounted - available (click on the image)

Last night's drawing of the beautiful skies was one of those that only came together at the last minute and provoked a huge sigh of relief. There's a degree of memory needed to capture a fast-setting sun (it took ages to start and then was over in a jiffy) and I wanted to get it right. I never draw the pastel landscapes from photos, always from life, so there's a sense of pressure and speed that has to happen in order for anything to be produced.

​Sheep on the other hand, are a completely different ball-game. I've spent some time attempting to draw the sheep happily grazing on the croft over the road and failed to capture them in anything that looks

Hebridean black-faced sheep - charcoal sketches

remotely sheep-like! Soooo frustrating, but probably very good for my skills. The sketches were so bad I can't actually bring myself to upload them here (imagine donkeys with horns, or indeed rabbits and you'll have an idea). So I decided I'd study bone structure and form in a more close up way that I'd ever get to do so from the edge of a field with sheep that although appear still, in fact move constantly. Yes, I got photos of the particular breed (Hebridean black-faced sheep) from the internet and did some charcoal sketches this evening. I know there's nothing wrong in working from photos but I don't usually in my other work and am somewhat loathe to do so. It has proved educational though - I'm particularly liking the mouth and nose of the lower sketch of the two. Animals have never really been my specialist area so it's all new. I had an idea of maybe basing this years Christmas cards on the local grazing cattle but I'll see how it goes.

​On another tack, the oil-commission has commenced! Starting to feel that I might just become a 'proper' artist...