Drawing for information

To get enough information to do a large studio landscape, Jack does several very careful, tight drawings.  He uses a mechanical pencil and toned paper.  He is drawing for information, not for a broad general effect or gesture, but for specifics.  This is one of the drawings that he is using to create the big painting, and it is clipped to the easel to the right of the large painting, so that he can refer to it often. 

Working on the BIG painting

Because the painting is 6' tall, Jack uses a step ladder to reach higher areas of the painting, but stands on the floor to work on the grasses and rocks in the foreground.

Jack's BIG landscape painting

Doing a large studio landscape from plein air studies takes a lot of work.  This summer Jack did several plein air, or on the spot, paintings at the swimming hole in Jeffersonville.  He does these outdoor studies over a number of days, rather than in one shot.  Then, he goes back and does several drawings of particular detail that he will need when he composes his larger painting in the studio.  The completed painting shown here is the plein air study, and on the easel is the start to the larger painting (4'x6') that he is painting from the study.  His drawings and paintings are on the skinny easel to the right of the big painting.