How Do You Come Up With Ideas For Painting A Large Canvas?

Hi

On smaller canvases I do seascapes etc but for the more defined work I do it around 50" and larger

I do the seascapes on the smaller canvas as personally I find it easier to make water look ferocious on the smaller scale

I would LOVE to be good enough to do a huge canvas though of a seascape and am waiting

The one larger seacape I did was the Wanderer That is only 40" (all I have room for here) and I only did it that size because of the galleon http://pixels.com/featured/the-wanderer-isabella-f-abbie-shores.html Larger ones of mine have the more going on in them

I think the larger ones have to have ore interesting things going on in them, to use all the space wisely

Oh and I meant to say that most of my commissions have been up to 3' People just haven't the room for larger paintings in their homes here. We mainly live in boxes

Thanks Abbie. I am challenging myself to do something larger than normal. The current canvas I just built is 4 1/2 feet x 6 feet, (roughly 137 x 183 centimeters), not enormoous, but it lead me to post this discussion thread. Cheers!

As a former mural painter both interior and outside on walls I have learned it is much easier the larger it is. But the trick for me was to use an overhead projector to install the under drawing based upon my small original sketches or illustrations. I 'm experience in that I have a total square footage of painted images in the thousands if it all were to be added up. Your size of 4.5X6 feet seems still small however. You might try doubling this. My studio has an 8'X12' stage wall for the large stuff.

wow my biggest painting so far is 20"X12" seemed huge to me but did make the detail much easier,

In my creative process there are no differences if there is large or small canvas. Perhaps that's right when you want to do something extra meaningful you choose great canvas. But bigger doesn't always mean bolder, this lesson I learned paradoxically in advertising agency. My creative proces starts with inhaling. I absorb art in any form possible and wait for inspiration. I also like to absorb stories about art, that makes things more juicy and there is great affection added. After inhaling i exhale art on my canvases. I wish you very productive inspirations :)

Too much idea for painting, I just need larger space for bigger canvases :D!

The largest watercolor I ever did was about 36 X 36 inches. Generally I like a full sheet 30 X 22 inches of Arches cold pressed 300lb paper. I painted a lot of quarter and half sheets. The largest oil I ever painted was about 60 X 72 inches - I wonder what ever happened to that monstrosity? I usually have some image in mind before I start to paint - usually do a drawing or sketch first - just an idea that pops into my head - not something I 'work' at.

I once stood looking at a canvas that looked pretty big but probably wasn't (36"?). I was absolutely clueless where to start and getting frustrated so I took the canvas outside and rubbed it around on the grass. I then took my inspiration from the smudges and smears!! Scarily it worked!

I done some very large commission paintings some were wall size but I try not to do anything too large as they are very expensive to frame, ship, store and hard to sell. if a buyer already own other paintings a very large painting could be over- power the others and not to mention it needs a large wall.As one of my friend said, she never paints anything could not fit into a cab.

I started painting on large walls and people told me what they envisioned and I put it on the wall with latex paints. Usually my customer's had a preference for the colors they wanted. An example of this is this.


I was commissioned by a gentleman that wanted this painting in the entry room of his home. It was 8 Feet tall and it was a 14 foot long wall. I was in shock that someone would want a wall like this, but it was fabulous. He directed the shapes and colors, bought all the material and kept me at it until he said it was done. I really enjoy doing people's walls but don't have the time. When I used to do this full time, I never took pictures of my work because I was in other people's homes working professionally.

I have done a few paintings in art studio classes. Larger being about 3' x 2'. You blow everything up proportionally.

My Calvin from the comic strip Calvin and Hobbes is an inch and a half square blown up onto a 3' x 2' canvas.

One assignment on a drawing pad that was 3' was to take a magazine ad and make four copies in about an hour. We were using water colors. I was the only one to succeed that day. I did something about a cave. The cave in my pictures, four of them, kept changing color and the surroundings took on other colors. We hung them and it was good.

Dave

Painting a large painting is like painting a small painting only you use bigger brushes and more paint.

This is the largest canvas size that I paint which is 48x60. I try to make the larger ones very dramatic but stay in my usual bird and wildlife theme. I actually prefer painting large because I see better and therefore can paint better! This painting sold in a matter of a week or two after I brought it to a gallery. People like large if they can afford it. You just have to hope that someone sees it with deep pockets.

I simply wished to create largest bead embroidery art and see, how long it will stay largest picture, made in this specific style and using such materials and who else will be able to make same quality beadwork. Because that is not easy to sew each bead to canvas ;) Yes, that is all handwork, not machine-made. Painting/beadwork size: 40x50 inches.

50x70 cm

Six feet, six inches wide by eight feet, six inches high; hand made half-oil ground gesso, on quadra-weave Belgium linen...Almost one year to prepare the canvas; three years looking at it and never thinking what would arrive on it; not even when I started painting...had to turn it several times before deciding the forms to follow and cultivate. After that a year to wait before adding a glaze...
I never think about an image; it arrives as I am in the process...no matter the size or medium.
I am amazed at what arrives as an image and amazed that they most often are very mythic in subject...for myself: what arrives is real...
tdp

Interesting comments. Thank you all for sharing!

Most may know how to do this but I would like to expound upon the technique anyway.

If your artwork is detailed then you can reproduce it in a scale sized very large in minutes by making a transparency and projecting the line drawing up onto a paper pattern or the canvas and or wall itself. If there are people or objects you can project on paper the outlines.

Once this is done you can take each pattern to a table and punch holes through the paper with a sewing wheel. Then tape the pattern to the wall or canvas and pounce powdered charcoal or baby powder through it. Then go over the lines with a marker after removing the paper.

One art historian said that the secret of successful large painting is when you paint it that way that the viewer looking at it from far distance loves it. Then, coming closer, loves it again.. And then, coming super close and observing tiny details - falls in love!!

Cheers!
Have a great productive day.
Irina
http://www.artirina.com/

Definitely use bigger brushes as already mentioned, mainly to keep that momentum of energy flowing thru the painting and get main colors blocked in but then you can use smaller brushes for end details. Irina, I agree with the art historian you quoted, who was she? or he, not that it matters that much. Robert, my goal is to paint bigger for myself in spite of living in a box with hardly room to swing a cat, not that I would ever do such a thing. I'm thinking I'll do expressionist abstracts or some contemplative nudes. I've already got commissions lined up which include a gun toting cowboy on a horse, a cow a dog and a goat. Yep, big and bold I reckon.

I made something large today, so I decided to share.
Can you see my picture? I see it all in white.