Small Work to Big Painting

While some artists who paint outdoors consider their plein air pieces to be finished works of art, many others use these studies only as inspiration for larger pieces.

In the past I have rarely used a plein air study to create a larger painting but, because I am a member of a plein air group that is planning an exhibit of larger paintings done from small studies, I have been challenged to explore this further.

I chose a small painting, The Dairy, to begin with. I was fairly pleased with this painting, but I knew there were things I could improve upon.

Black and White Sketch

I did several black and white sketches to see if I wanted to make changes to the composition. I decided to move the buildings to the left a little and to increase the slope of the distant mountain to make it more interesting. I also lowered the trees behind the buildings, showing more of the mountain and allowing the tree on the right to appear larger and more dynamic.

Plein Air study with grid applied

Wrapping the plein air study with cellophane allowed me to draw a grid over it for easier transferring of the image to a larger canvas. Notice that the center point is to the right of the center. This is due to my decision to move the buildings a little to the left on the canvas. Before beginning to paint, I drew a corresponding grid onto the larger canvas with pencil. Using the grid as a visual guide, I lightly sketched the large shapes of the composition onto the canvas with vine charcoal.

18x24 painting blocked in

Using thin paint, I did a block-in of darks and lights using local color.  In the image above, I have also begun to add thicker paint to the dark and medium dark areas of the building on the left.

18x24 painting with more detail added.

My next step was to continue painting the darks and medium darks, adding the fence and other smaller shapes.  This is still a work in progress; the light values will be addressed next and then I will add smaller details in some key areas.