Painting Large (for me)
Most of my paintings are small. This is for logistical reasons more than anything. I have a small apartment and my painting space is a small table in the corner. That means that most of my paintings are smaller than 9 x 12. Painting this size allows me to be economical with my space and, sometimes more importantly, my painting supplies. Paper, paint, brushes, this stuff is not cheap. So I have mostly painted small, which continues to be the perfect way to build my skills within my small space and limited budget.
Reference photo for my large painting.
I actually love large paintings. I love the staged home photos you see in magazines and online of a giant painting hanging on a wall. I love the look of framed paintings and stretched canvas. I have always been fortunate to have large original artwork for my walls thanks to my grandpa who was a watercolor artist and often painted large himself.
When I was asked to complete a house portrait project for a friend that included a larger painting, I was excited but also a little nervous. He wanted copies of his childhood home that included small 5x7 paintings for his siblings, a 9x12 for himself, and a 11x14 painting for his parents. I had never painted anything bigger than 9x12. The leap from 9x12 to 11x14 isn’t huge, but it was going to be bigger than anything I have tried. I didn’t even own paper that size. I’d never shipped something that large. The doubts grew, but I agreed anyway.
Long story short, I completed the project and I was pleased with the way the house portraits turned out. I also now had a full block of 11x14 paper that I wasn’t sure what to do with. That block of paper sat around for about four months before I decided to pull it out again. I had recently taken a close up picture of a flower that I thought would be an interesting painting. I have always enjoyed the idea of a macro zoom, where you get close enough to a subject to see the minute details that you might miss while just looking with your eye. I had this reference photo, but my normal size paintings just didn’t seem like the right fit. The subject matter just felt like it needed to be larger. My imagination pictured a painting that was huge, but I’m not at a stage in my practice where that makes sense, but I did have that 11x14 pad of paper. Decision made, I got started.
It was certainly a challenge. Working on the larger 11x14 paper required me to do things a bit differently…
Speed mattered a lot.
Watercolor is a fun medium because you never know exactly what the paint is going to do on the paper. It’s a delicate balance between water and pigment. Are you using too much water or too little? Do you have enough paint mixed to cover the area you are working on? Can you paint fast enough so that the color coverage is smooth and you do not have any awkward hard lines as the paint starts to dry.
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The ability to rotate my paper was key.
Creating smooth lines, blending, adding details all requires having your painting hand in the correct position. When the painting is larger, I need to move my whole arm sometimes to create a painting stroke rather than just my wrist. I also had to be careful not to drag my hand or arm across the paper where it was still wet.
I needed a lot more paint.
I chose to paint an orange flower because I have a lot of yellow, orange, and pink paint in my palette. They are not colors that I use very often. This was great for evening out my painting palette, but I also used a lot more paint for this larger compared to my smaller ones. I was constantly mixing up more painting because I always underestimated how much I needed for a particular section. I also have a limited number of paints, only 14 colors in my Winsor & Newton palette, so I often have to mix colors rather than just use them straight out of the pan.
My brushes were barely large enough.
I have a limited supply of brushes and the largest one is a round size eight. Brush size makes a difference. It determines how much water your brush can hold and how much pigment. A bigger brush means you can paint longer before needing to go back to you palette. I managed, but if I every want to paint large consistently, I’m going to need some bigger brushes. I also need to learn how to use larger brushes. It’s a much different way of painting when you are trying to fill a large area rather than working on tiny details.
Painting large takes a lot more time.
This painting probably took 15-20 hours to paint, which is much longer than the 3-4 hours my smaller 5x7 paintings usually take.
Overall I am in love with the final result.
I love the brightness of the flower itself.
I love the macro zoom nature of it.
I love the details of the interior of the flower.
I love the slightly abstract form of the leaves surrounding the flower itself.
Three painting sizes. Top 11 x 14 inch Orange Flower. Bottom left 5.5 x 7 Summer Rain. Bottom right 3 x 4.5 Kenai Fjords, Alaska.
This project makes me want to try even larger paintings, but that’s not quite in the cards with my current set up, but maybe one day soon!