Thomas Moran Master Studies - Grand Canyon

Master Studies - Grand Canyon

Here is a landscape master study of one of Thomas Moran's Grand Canyon paintings. This is also one of my favorite paintings by Mr. Moran. The most challenging part of the painting was rendering the surfaces of the rocks; however, it was also the part I found most fun to do. 

Learning to flesh out a painting quickly in a presentable manner is my first priority when doing master studies. This painting took approximately 8 hours for me to reach the final stages. I spent 4+ weeks on this. Took an hour or two here and there. This is not a completed painting for my standard. I would definitely spend extra hours to render the rocks in the foreground more in depth if I were to sell it.  I decided to wrap it up and share it on the web, because it is time for me to move on.

Following is the time-lapse GIF of the painting process and the original reference painting by Thomas Moran.