PASTURE WITH A VIEW

I love the beautiful rolling hills that these beautiful longhorn cattle can graze upon contentedly. I find a certain peacefulness painting such a scene. I can’t help but let my mind wander aimlessly to what is on the other side of these hills, but I suspect more rolling hills are in store. These longhorns look quite contented and peaceful, as well as picturesque.

When I started this painting, I looked at every nook and cranny of the photo furnished by Dickinson Cattle Company, to see how to lay it out and bring it altogether. I then nit-picked finishing touches to the longhorns, i.e., painted the horns, put highlights on the longhorns where they should be, and then the eyes. Next, I painted in the rather tall twiggy brush surrounding the longhorns, painted the sky a lighter blue to take emphasis off the subject matter and set back the horizon with a wash of a tinge of ultramarine blue and titanium white. Then, I painted a yellowish wash over the trees in the background and a smidge of it on the foreground.