You can read my blog story of how this portrait originally started further down.
Thus was a good example of a botched painting! A painting that did not want to come out the way I had intended it to. And, looking back at the first versions, with hind sight, I no longer dislike it so much as I used to do… But I did dislike it a lot, enough so that I figured out an alternate subject that would still fit the first version.
Complicating factor was that I had played around with moulding gel.
When working with acrylics as opposed to oils, one of the distinguishing factors is the lack of relief in acrylics. Oils can be smashed at the canvas, leaving clear brush strokes and relief. Acrylic paints do not give the artist the same effect and usually come out flatter, even when applied thickly.
So what was possible with the relief in the sheeps coat? Should I throw the painting out, or would I be able to think of a creative solution to still make this painting board work?
Judge for yourself….
I was musing about the theme of the sheep and landed on an option to create a portrait of a bearded shepherd, with the sheep hidden in that beard. And once the idea was born, I executed it. The painting is hung high in the house, so you may not instantly spot it, or the sheep hiding in his beard. But it IS there and it gives the portrait, created without a particular reference, an extra dimension. So in fact this is two paintings in one!
Read more about the process in this blog post:
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