My Advice for Painting Large Pieces
Working for myself and dictating what pieces I want to work on is a true gift. And it’s even better when I find photographers who are not only inspiring, but are more than willing to collaborate and allow me to paint from their photo as reference.
Recently, I fell in love with a photographer and her work. She focuses on wildlife and landscape, so you can imagine, it's a perfect fit for me. One of her photographs leaped out to me and I fell in complete love. I said, "I want to paint that...no, I NEED to paint that."
It's an epic piece. And I can assure you, one of my greatest challenges as an artist. But I believe in taking risks. What’s more, I knew I wanted to paint this at a larger size, because you can't paint "epic" small. And you know my rule for watercolors: start small.
So...large is intimidating, right?
Not if you have a strategy that is useful.
When I know I’m going to be painting a rather large and important piece, I to do mini "sketches" at a smaller scale to get a sense for how I want to approach the painting.
I always encourage new artists to start small to begin with, but even for more experienced artists, working at a smaller scale can give you a lot of practice and insight before taking on larger scaled pieces. Here’s why:
Smaller allows you to test, mix and understand your color palette, what paints you need and more around color theory.
It gives you the ability to test different techniques to see what will work best in achieving your desired results.
It helps you map out the process you need to take...the steps and the order of those steps...to go from first paint stroke to completion.
It allows you to make mistakes BEFORE starting your painting so that you may avoid them on the big painting. This saves time and money because you're less likely to waste materials.
If you’re thinking of painting a larger piece, try out the mini-sketch approach. Have you done this before? If you’re painting larger scale pieces, share your process below!