Curly Calf

7x9 watercolor and ink using White Nights paints along with Winsor Newton grey 0.3 fine liner pen on Canson 117 lb cp paper, completed first week of July. This cute curly haired calf was featured on another WetCanvas challenge and it was a challenge! COPYRIGHT Kay Smith 2026

Curled up Calf

6x6 watercolor and ink using 0.5 STA Lictin pen on Masters Touch 80 lb paper done over the weekend for another WetCanvas weekend drawing event. We have 2 hour to select an image then paint it; image courtesy Kat. Her reference had two other cows so they were cropped out to focus on the youngest who was curled up by a bucket. COPYRIGHT 2023 Kay Smith

Funky Cow

11x14 mixed media collage on matboard, a reworked Holstein cow done previously that I finished yesterday. I used paper collage on the black and white areas only. The cow was a large fake head I saw in an antique store. Mod Podge was used as my adhesive. COPYRIGHT 2020 Kay Smith

Painted Calf

7x4 watercolor done this past weekend for a WetCanvas event.  Paper I used was a backing sheet portion put under smaller works, hence the drips and dabs marks.  The markings on this little Holstein fellow were too attractive to pass up.
COPYRIGHT 2018 Kay Smith.

Cows at the Farm

15x22 watercolor on 300 lb cold press paper, begun yesterday then finished after work this evening. This scene is on our home place between Ackerly and Vealmoor TX and I photographed this cute brown calf et al years ago but never painted it. You can see the old cement stock tank in the background and of course dust everywhere. I especially liked the long evening shadows from the animals' bodies across the picture plane foreground. Fence posts were negatively painted and Daniel Smith pigments were used.  Splattering was done to indicate rocks, hoofprints, and debris in the foreground.

Brown Calf and Cow ink sketch

5x7 ink sketch using black Tombow brush pen on Strathmore Bristol 400 series, doing only dark areas first, then using a rigger brush with water for grey midtones.  I used one of my old photos taken at my mother's west Texas farm in the late 90s.  The calf was brown and the cow black.  This was done today and already posted in WetCanvas! Southwestern and Western forum in the Sketch Thread, where your work cannot be longer than 1 hour; my time was less than 30 minutes.  I was captivated by the shadows as well as their bovine shapes.