Sharing the beauty in life...

The cow is not in the corn this time- she's in the flowerbed! This is a commissioned piece for a lady who grew up on a farm and has fond memories of cows. I jumped at the chance to do it because I felt like I needed a change. Commissions are good that way. You often end up trying things - like subject matter or mediums - that you normally wouldn't - and always - you learn something in the process. This piece challenged me in the imagination department because I'm used to painting what I see. Since I don't have cows I could pose in a flower bed or reference photos of anything close to that I had to combine a reference photo of an angus cow and a reference photo of a flowerbed that looked like it would work.

After finding some reasonably good reference photos in my files I pulled them up on my computer screen, used masking tape to tape some clear plastic (cut up freezer bags) over them on my computer screen and  drew the cow into the flowers and vice versa until I felt sure the shapes would work together. After that I did some thumbnails emphasizing the values and big shapes in my sketchbook in a square format since my collector wanted this on a 12"x 12" canvas. Once I felt the composition was right I drew the basics on the canvas. After placing the cow I sketched in the flowers knowing that I might change my mind about the placement. Since I was using acrylics I was able to paint the big shapes in with thin paint and wipe them out and repaint until I had everything placed. Then I went back in with thick paint, reinforcing my darks and working up to the lights. I learned some new techniques for combining different images and that is something I'll use again for sure since I would like to try more "imaginative" works in the future.