Sheep Clipart

Sheep are wooly ruminant mammals that have been domesticated by humans for thousands of years. There are over 200 different sheep breeds, descended from various wild sheep species. They are raised mainly for their wool, meat, and milk. Some key characteristics include their docile nature, herd behavior, grazing diet, and tendency to follow a lead sheep.

History of Domestic Sheep

• Sheep were among the first animals to be domesticated, about 11,000 years ago in Mesopotamia.
• As early as 3000 BC, sheep wool production and trading played an important economic role in central Asia and the Middle East.
• Romans further spread sheep farming across Europe and England for wool and meat production.
• Today, China, Australia, New Zealand and a few other countries have large scale sheep farming.

Common Sheep Breeds

Some popular modern breeds of domestic sheep include:

• Merino – Very fine wool, raised in Australia and New Zealand
• British Milk Sheep – Dairy and meat sheep in North America and Europe
• Blackface – Hardy breed from Scotland, raised for wool and meat
• Dorper – Meat sheep known for fast growth, originated in South Africa

Sheep Behavior

Understanding natural sheep behaviors is key to properly caring for them.

• Sheep spend most of their time grazing grass, wandering in a flock to new grazing grounds.
• They have a strong instinct to follow the sheep in front of them, allowing sheep dogs or shepherds to guide the herd.
• If left on their own, sheep establish a dominance hierarchy in the flock.
• Sheep tend to avoid eating close to their own excrement, helping avoid disease or parasite transmission.
• Predator awareness is maintained by having a few sheep keep watch while the rest graze.

Sheep Husbandry

Proper feeding, shelter, health management and human handling helps ensure sheep thrive under human care.

Facilities and Shelter

• Barns, rotational pasture grazing, and fences/pens provide shelter and containment.
• Access to shade, fresh water, salt licks, and supplemental feed needed.
• Proper ventilation, drainage and cleanliness prevents respiratory issues.

Feeding Sheep

• Sheep’s main diet is grazing grass or hay. Supplements provide additional nutrition.
• A full coarse grain ration supports growth, pregnancy and lactation nutritional needs.
• Access to clean, unfrozen water is essential year round.

Health Management

Routine health management prevents illness and maintains fertility:

• Hoof trimming every few months
• Shearing annually to collect wool
• Vaccinations and deworming
• Care of pregnant and lactating ewes

Sheep Products

Sheep provide several useful products to society through agriculture.

Wool

• Sheep are sheared once a year, yielding roughly 5+ pounds of wool per sheep.
• Wool can be spun into yarn for textiles, clothing and other fabrics. Merino wool is exceptionally fine and soft.
• Wool felting is popular for crafts and arts.

Meat

• Lamb and mutton provide lean, high protein red meat for human consumption.
• Market lambs are harvested at 5-8 months old. Mature sheep meat is considered mutton.

Milk

• Uses for sheep milk include gourmet cheeses, yogurt, and other dairy foods mostly in Europe.

Sheep in Art and Culture

Beyond agriculture, sheep play many interesting roles in human culture.

Religion and Mythology

• Ancient Greeks used sheep sacrificies to honor gods.
• Abrahamic faiths considered sheep important forms of livestock and wealth.
• The Chinese zodiac includes sheep personalities and attributes.

Literature and Language

• Biblical references portray people as the sheep under Christ the shepherd.
• “Sheepish” and “bleating like sheep” convey embarrassment and weakness.
• Counting sheep is a well known insomnia and boredom cure.

Sheep Clip Art Overview

Clip art provides casual, ready to use images and illustrations of sheep for graphic design and creative projects.

• Developed in the 1980s as small vector or pixel images to accent documents.
• Found often online in royalty free digital media clip art galleries and aggregators.
• Features cartoonish, simplified sheep in various poses, flock configurations, and colors.

Types of Sheep Clip Art

There is a wide variety of sheep clip art styles and themes available:

Realism

• Detailed artistic renderings of authentic sheep breeds
• Similar to livestock illustration but simplified graphic form

Cartoons

• Cute anthropomorphic sheep with smiling, expressive faces
• Colorful images aimed more for kids, greeted cards, etc

Country and Farm Themes

• Iconic red barnyard backdrops with white sheep grazing
• Often paired with rural motifs like fences, meadows, farmers, etc.

Using Sheep Clip Art

Sheep clip art allows adding quick decorative images of sheep to designs and documents.

Sourcing Sheep Clip Art

• Search royalty free online media sites for files to purchase or use for free
• Curate selections of sheep clip art in themes needed
• Respect artist copyright terms on all clip art used

Inserting and Editing

• Copy/paste or insert files into computer graphics programs
• Size and position sheep images as needed
• Alter colors, add text, crop, or otherwise edit images

Sheep Clip Art in Projects

Sheep clip art finds use in various applications:

• Greeting cards for spring, farms, wool products, or just because
• Marketing farm products like wool clothing, cheese, livestock sales
• Children’s crafts, stories, coloring books featuring cute sheep characters
• Church bulletins and programs to tie in with Biblical themes
• T-shirts, mugs, calendars and other customizable merchandise

Future of Sheep Clip Art

While classic static clip art remains popular, new technologies will expand sheep imagery options:

• Wider selection available as more create and share digital artwork online
• Animated sheep GIFs and video clips gain traction
• 3D rendered sheep models come in various poses and configurations
• Customizer tools allow tweaking sheep images to perfect needs and tastes

The simplicity and nostalgic style of vintage clip art ensure sheep artwork remains attractive for years to come, even with new technologies. Sheep images complement kid crafts, country culture themes, farms, fairs, spring time motifs, and more.

In this page clipartix present 69 sheep clipart images free for designing activities. Lets download Sheep Clipart that you want to use for works or personal uses.