A common issue, in one form or another, is scaling up and developing paintings from preliminary studies. Scaling up is rarely a straightforward process – “gridding it up” is one thing, but making the motif work on a new scale is another. I commented on this a few months back in a previous blog post: http://www.breakabrush.com/2018/11/27/artists-question-scaling-up-paintings/
Here are a few things to think about:
- Something will be lost – the almost abstracted first look at a subject perhaps – so something must be added – perhaps a graphic design element or emphasis. This is what the Group of Seven and especially Tom Thomson did, their full size paintings being much more “Art Nouveau” than the sketches;
- An image itself has a natural scale, decide what that may be or change the image – perhaps re-study to interpret on the new scale better;
- You can’t just scale the brush – brushwork is going to be different. Although using a bigger brush is one thing, you need the brush to move in new ways;
- Colours that may look saturated on a small scale will wash out on a larger format – more colour!
- Similarly, line and value work differently with scale, the effect of scale on line work particularly is often underestimated – resulting in somehow “spindly-looking” line effect;
- Consider additional studio techniques that might help: wet on wet, impasto, masking, rollering – although don’t over use of course!
I encountered all of these issues when, last year, I developed a 30″ x 30″ painting from a smaller 16″x16″ painting that I completed a few years ago – which in turn was from an earlier life drawing sketch. More to follow!
Break-a-Brush!
David