This was an exercise that I really enjoyed. I did get back to photos rather than painting from life – again for practical reasons, because in view of my time restrictions, I can’t afford spending a day on a trip outside New York without actually being sure there will be some kind of animal… I’m hoping that things will come together later, maybe after the course, when I’m sensitized to all kinds of different subjects and when making excursions, just grab the chance of whatever presents itself.
So this time, I did a Google image search on farm animals – chicken, sheep, and cattle. Then from my selection of photos, I just chose whichever I felt like trying to draw. I began with monochrome pencil drawings, then did a coloured and a graphite drawing with wash, and then tackled the watercolour “landscape with animals”.

I think the sequence of drawing shows growing confidence and how I got more and more involved with the subject. I’m quite happy with my work for this exercise and didn’t anticipate that drawing animals could be so much fun.

The watercolour with animals also went very well. I felt at ease with painting the cows and the most difficult part in this picture was the landscape in the background, with rows of trees in different green tones. I recognized aerial perspective with the blueish green tones in the farther distance. I struggled but I think the trees in this painting are better than earlier attempts.