Ostriches, wrinkles, and large scale drawings

Here is the progress of my attempts at rendering a life-size ostrich with mixed media on a large Fredrix "watercolor" canvas started earlier this year.  I find that drawing things on a larger scale is almost another art form.  It also becomes a task requiring more physical activity (which is probably good for you too).  I've only drawn on this scale few times before working on this project.  Without thinking, I started with a pencil sketch and painted a background on the un-stretched canvas with a dilute ink mixture which caused some serious buckling.  After many an hour of ironing it to a flat state I started painting/drawing with ink, gouache, and pastel.  I looked at what seemed like a million images of ostriches before drawing the first smaller version. (Without having a live ostrich to pose it can be tricky to come up with a novel natural looking stance.)  Not sure if it is coincidence, but usually after starting any project I always find that your subject pops up in life somehow.  In this case the HP tablet commercial with Russell Brand and the ostrich seemed to be all over the place--all I could think is forget the tablet, that lucky guy, he has the real thing running around his place!  Honestly, I started the project before seeing the commercial. 

I want to darken things up (I always tend to go too light) and add a sky but wasn't sure yet of how to display an un-stretched canvas which is where I've left off.  I may sew a piece of canvas across the top and put some eyelet holes from which it could hang. (I'm thinking kind of like the Leon Golub canvases.  Speaking of which here is a link if you haven't seen any of his work. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R0IiAYeHKBc )