Home Project Process

Here are the process photos I took of the cow painting I did. I did this all in one day because it was a gift I wanted to give the next day, but I think I spent approximately 6 hours on it. I painted on a piece of water color paper because I didn't have a canvas the size I wanted, which was actually really nice. It took a lot less layering, requiring less paint and less time. I think the painting came out really cute, and it was fun being able to add in random little details that I wanted to that weren't in the reference photo. For example, I added in one of the houses and gave it a little path, along with adding a little road in the mountain greenery. I also added in the flowers and made the trees more pronounced in the middle ground. I did all of this because these are things the receiver likes to look at. I chose to do some indigo flowers to represent Tennessee's state flower, where the receiver is from. I also added the grass hanging out of the left cow's mouth! I like that there is intent behind these elements. From this piece, I learned that I hate mixing up paint colors because having to mix up the right amount stresses me out. I also learned that I like working on watercolor paper with acrylic and to spend more time on the sketch. The left cow became super frustrating because of my poorly done sketch. I had to keep adjusting parts of him, which is shown in the process shot of him being legless. The right cow also was poorly sketched and doesn't match up to the reference super well. I had to repaint parts of him a lot too, just not as much. This has never been an issue for me before because I took more time on sketching out past paintings, so now I know that I should keep doing that because it ultimately saves time and frustration. Easier to adjust pencil than paint.