Scaling up a Small Sketch

On an evening walk, I snapped this cell phone photo and used it as a reference photo for this mini nature journal spread.

 The scene was so beautiful, and the process of sketching was so fun that I made a larger painting of it, benefitting from my practice with the smaller sketch.

I went through the same process as with the smaller sketch, drawing the scene in pencil first...

...then inking over the pencil lines with waterproof ink.  Once the ink was dry, I erased the pencil with a gum eraser.

Because the painting was larger than the mini journal sketch, I could delve into more detail in the beautifully wobbly tree limbs and the fascinating wildflowers.

I began painting the sky and the distant hills.

I knew from the sketch that I had to be careful to let the first washes dry, and to be precise when laying in the yellows and oranges of the sunset.  If I mixed the sunset orange-yellows into the blue of the sky, I'd end up with muddy browns and greens.  That's not what I wanted!

I laid in rich, warm sunset colors. I used the photo for inspiration, and followed my intuition.

I got lost in the process, and forgot to take photos of the finishing steps, but followed the same process as in the mini journal page.  I just had more space to explore the textures of the field, the tool shed, and the old fenceline.  

I encourage you to look through old sketches and journal pages to find something you'd like to develop into a larger painting.  You could ask yourself these questions:

What do I like the most about the sketch?

What would I do differently in a larger artwork?

What are the trouble spots that I will need to take care with?

What's my favorite part of the process?

Would I like to use a different medium (pastel rather than watercolor, ink instead of pencil, etc.)?

Would I like to make a series of artworks from this sketch, changing one feature each time?

When I used to farm, I noticed that planting the first row of anything took the longest.  Once I had established a process, I fell into a rhythm of working, making subsequent rows easier.  The same principle works in making a series of artworks.

This process has reminded me how much I love to exaggerate nature's colors, and how pleasing to my eye complimentary color schemes are.  The orange sunset against the deep blue hills draws my eye in, and I enjoy the dance of the wiggly tree limbs just left of center.

I hope you give this process a try and discover what you most enjoy about painting and sketching.

Happy Creating!