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Size matters.
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Message
Posted
Well size matters to me.
I am constantly amazed at how SMALL peoples paintings are . Marjorie made comment on an earlier thread about not painting twiddy little things ( my terminology).
Unless the size is stated on gallery postings it isnt possible to have any idea what the scale of a piece f work is..
I tend to work quite large A3 upwards to A1 . My smaller pics are in my sketch book and even then I work across two pages .
So how big is yours 😉
Posted
Not so with me. The only time I worry about size is when I think the concept might be good enough to frame (I'm invariably wrong about that), then I make my picture to a standard frame size. Often that's 16 x 12 inches. I'm just as happy painting 6 x 4 inches...these vary from sketchy pics to detailed. I've got a large album that takes postcard size pics (about 300), a long way to go before I fill it. Often these little pics spark larger versions, but if I'm painting a face...the 'face-size' on a 6 x 4 is often as large as faces on my larger pics anyway, so I don't feel cramped. The largest size I've painted is 24 x 30 inches. Planned the picture (French cafe scene-not in cartoon style), did sketches, bought the canvass, and painted it in oils. Right out of my comfort zone. A disaster. Some day, when I feel stronger, I'll paint it over and have another go.
I take Maria's point about scanning, it's much better. My scanner takes up to A4 size...I use it for that. Otherwise, I take a photograph. I have scanned larger pictures by scanning two 'halves' of a picture and then joining them together in photoshop. But it's a lot of fuss. If there was a specific reason to have a larger than A4 size scan, I have it done professionally.
Edited
by Lew
Posted
I wonder why Sylvia's comments so often seem to have a double-meaning ..... perhaps it's just my own dirty mind...... Hmmm.
I don't usually work up to A3 or A1 size, more your quarter Imperial for watercolours, 16" by 12", or a size up, for acrylics and oils (and I know I've mixed metric and Imperial measurements - but we all know what A4 means). It can be fun to do a smaller painting now and then - eyesight does present a problem with anything much smaller than 10" by 8". There does seem to be a slight renewal of interest in big pictures - mostly abstracts, for big rooms in the more expensive houses. I would be happy to cater for any such demand, if any keen art-buyers are looking in, but I don't have the more abstract sort of brain: like them when I see them, sometimes; actually producing one .... not so easy.
Posted
I brought this very subject up last year and we had quite a discussion about it because I find it so frustrating when people don't put the medium or the size. I like to imagine how big the painting is. I usually use quarter imperial or A4 but I have just done two little pieces which are only 6 inches square and only did them as I have two spare frames I wanted to fill!
Posted
I have a question, when giving the size is it width first then height? Or the other way around? I'm never quite sure. And yes it would be great if people did say the medium, some don't. As for size I am more comfortable working sizes between 16x12" (width first here) up to 20X16" (the canvases I buy seem to all be sized in inches and my maths isn't good enough to convert them to cm).
Since our earthquakes people seem to be re-building McMansions and I've been told by an artist/gallery owner friend that really huge canvases are what a lot of people want. Some of them look to be larger than my whole wall (being a bit facetious).
Edited
by SandraKennedy
Posted
For watercolour I tend to work up to a quarter sheet as I've been a bit restricted in terms of space recently. I'm moving up to half-sheet this year though as I have a couple of frames that I need to fill with something. For acrylics I've only painted sculptures so far but I want to try out some canvases this year and I want the biggest ones I can fit in my house.
As for the gallery, I find it really off-putting when people don't tell us the size and medium.
Kay M
Posted
As a newbie, size is an interesting concept. I think the trap is to start too big or too small.
I've recently been painting on 30cm by 20cm Jackson's handmade linen boards, largely because it is a relatively inexpensive way to paint in oils on good quality linen and they are not too obtrusive for friends who have wanted one of my efforts.
However, I've also moved to 12x9in ultralite linen boards, by Jackson's again, but also have a couple of larger scale, 24x18 and 30x20 canvases on the go. I finished a bigger painting for my grandmother before Christmas and have worked on larger canvases.
And I've ambitions to paint on even bigger canvases, or supports...yet, where would they go? That's a big demand on space especially for an amateur..
Posted
Thank-you very much indeed John, this is exactly what I wanted to know. I'll stick to that convention now when I put the size. David, I know you replied too but I found it just a little confusing - did you mean width is the "first" number (it's not necessarily the larger). No-one putting the size actually specifies the format as well, can be seen from the photo.