Letter H and Hippie Cow

H and Hippie Cow or Highland Cow

This project is part of a watercolor and ink study in letter styles and object styles beginning with that letter. Each week will focus on one letter and one object beginning with that letter in order to collect and practice various artistic styles and alphabets.

As I considered letter H and what I wanted to work with in watercolor, many words beginning with H came to mind: honey bee, honeysuckle, hippo, hyena, hummingbird, Hungarian horntail, Hogwarts and Harry Potter (Yes! I’m a huge fan. In our house, we spend much time talking about the story, characters, and places. It’s an amazing story from the standpoint of a reader and also a writer).

I nearly settled on hippo and was tempted by Harry Potter (there are so many H options in that series) until I remembered one of my favorite animals … the hippie cow. The real name for hippie cow is highland cow. They live in Scotland, but I first discovered these huge, shaggy animals on a safari trip near our home (no where near Scotland, unfortunately). They looked so calm and happy standing there wearing their long dreadlocks, not a care in the world.

Here are the creative results of letter H and Hippie Cow.

Dip Pen Letter H Style

• When I started with H and my dip pen, I thought I would be limited by two sticks and a crossbar. It turns out that a lot can be found there, and when you turn the paper upside down, sometimes more styles appear.
• Favorites: Most of the styles, especially 1, 8, 13, and 18.
• Less than favorite: I just can’t get into the bubble-type letters of style 15. Maybe they need some color. Style 10 doesn’t stand out to me either.
• Style 16 needs color … metallic color.

Watercolor and Dip Pen Letter H Style

• Letter H in watercolor and dip pen styles was fun. I love that I could vary the size of the second side to create an off-balanced effect.
• Even though I love all of these styles, my favorite styles for H are the bottom left, the middle right and the bottom right.
• The bold, gothic H is quick to catch your eye, accented nicely with the bronze.
• The bottom two styles show off their unique flair.

Hippie Cow Styles

• I didn’t know how many colors hippie cows can be, black, light brown, reddish brown.
• The long hair made me want to see a hippie cow with colored bangs in turquoise and purple … which led to my abstract. Can you picture it?
• Baby hippie cows are the cutest things. They look like teddy bears! My watercolor baby hippie came out with oodles of curls.
• Favorites: the top right and middle right pictures.
• The top right hippie cow looks like he needs a surfboard and a beach. Wouldn’t a surfing hippie cow be a sight to see?

What H word did you work with this week? I’d love to see your projects or letter studies. Just tag me on Instagram @joanneegroff.

If you want to see previous weeks and letters, click here.

As always … Happy creating!