plein air into larger work?

[LarrySeiler]

I'll encourage you to delve into and become familiar with Carl Rungius....
He was America's first professional wildlife artist early to mid 1900s ...doing his very large 90"x 120" wildlife scenes from his 11"x 14" plein airs....traveling into mountains on horseback...

He would paint nearly brushstroke by brushstroke...larger brushes...and then treat his animals in a similar fitting style. Moose, caribou, bears...etc. I had abandoned my career in wildlife art then eight to nine years into plein air...as I had been regimened into detail upon detail...but Ruguis awakened for me what was possible....

[artistinmemphis]

I looked up Rungius. Here are some examples of his work:
http://www.WildlifeArt.org/artists/a...ex.php?aID=262

Wonderful.

The Rocky Mountain Sheep painting is awesome. http://www.wildlifeart.org/ViewArtwo...ex.php?tID=740

[Davkin]

I visited the wildlife art museum in Jackson last year, they have a whole wing devoted to Rungius, very impressive indeed. I highly recommend a trip to Jackson Wyoming for any landscape and wildlife art lover, the quality of paintings and sculpture in all the galleries and the musem just bowled me over. Seeing that stuff in magazines and books is one thing but seeing it on person is a whole other world. I sat on a couch and stared at a Scott Christensen painting for at least twenty minutes, I just couldn't beleive what I was looking at. Christensen is another artist who works field studies up into large studio paintings, as does Clyde Aspevig who's work was also in that same gallery and if there was a couch in front if it I'm sure I would have sat in front of it for twenty minutes or more as well.
I too like to work small in the field but I'd also like to learn to develope those plein air pieces into larger studio works, something I have yet to try but will get around to it soon I hope.

David

[helen_c]

Thanks everyone for taking the time to reply.

Kevspainter: Thanks. I'll have a look at Edgar Payne's work. Yes, I will post my finished effort - as long as it's not too frightful!

marcdalessio: Practice does seem to be key to most things, that's a valid point. I'm certainly going to work through the process a few times before I even think of starting the commissioned piece.

LarrySeiler, artistinmemphis and Davkin: Thanks for bringing Rungius to my attention - an excellent painter, and also very colourful work, which I like. To enlarge from 11x14 to 90x120 is quite a daunting prospect!

[helen_c]

Not sure if I should revive my old thread but it adds the context to these images ...

I promised I would post the resulting painting after taking advantage of all your helpful suggestions. The client was happy with the work and I sold my first large piece. Thankyou!

Here is the 6x8 inch sketch, followed by the 24x36 inch large canvas. I decided not to stray too far from the original plein air work, even though I think it has several faults, as I was not sure just what the client liked about it. So, overly strong tones in the clouds have been left etc. The colours are quite close in reality but they have come out looking different on screen.

Plein air forum members (and my Mum!) gave me the courage to see it through to the end.