Recently, I completed a  Private Landscape Commission taken from a smaller 8x6 painting. The new size is 24x30. It's a common practice to use a smaller field study or a smaller painting as a reference for a larger work. In fact, Many plein air painters use their field studies for larger more finished studio paintings. 

          

I feel that a good painting involves filtering the scene through our individual senses as an Artist, a process that goes beyond merely transferring/copying the visual information that we take in with our eyes and our cameras.

 In most cases, there is too much information, an Artist's first task in design is to begin an editing process that eliminates unnecessary detail, much like telling a good story. A good storyteller has a method of crafting a memorable tale, and any painter worth their salt has a method as well.