Need advice: How to scale up a study

Judith2020 · #1 07-02-2012, 12:09 AM

I've got a 10x10" tightly cropped study of an apples in the interior of an apple tree. I need to scale it up to 40"x40". If I maintain the proportions, I'll end up painting huge apples 8" in diameter with foot long leaves! Yikes. I think the size will look grotesque. How do I solve for this? I'd appreciate any help you all can offer me based on your experience. Merci, Judy

Avena Cash · #2 07-02-2012, 01:59 AM

Personally, I think 40x40 seems too big for this particular subject since it is a close-up of something that shouldn't be larger than life. Unless you can happily handle the abstract quality of enlarged apples you should use a subject that matches the larger scale.

You could make the first study only part of the image, include other things in the painting, back the viewer up to "zoom out" somehow.

I'd change the subject or revel in the bigness, but not force the idea to be something that doesn't fit.

bobc100 · #3 07-02-2012, 09:03 AM

I was in a show once where my little 8"x10" painting was displayed right next to a painting of a single apple that had to have been at least 48"x48". As you got close to it, my poor little painting seemed to just get swallowed up by the big one. But the big one got an honorable mention and the juror made some comment about the power of "scale" when discussing his choices. So it certainly can be done.

There are alternatives, of course. You could simply repeat the image several times, perhaps using different color schemes, something like Warhol. You could paint a 15" decorative border around the 10"x10" image or maybe even paint a trompe-l'oeil frame. Or just add more branches and apples, even if it's done in an intentionally unrealistic manner (like a repeating pattern from M.C. Escher, perhaps). Just a few ideas, although it's hard to recommend anything specific without having any idea why you have to enlarge the image so much.

Judith2020 · #4 07-02-2012, 12:27 PM

Avena and bobc100 - Thank you for you immediate and thoughtful advice. Based on your comments, I've decided to scale the study no more than 30x30. I am studying with master artist Kevin Wechbach, who is an excellent teacher. He has asked our group of artists to scale up, without a grid. We will all run into the issues you both mention: appropriate subject matter etc. The goal is to encounter these problems and solve for them. Please keep other ideas and comments flowing. I'm going to try to upload the source image. You artists are WONDERFUL!

loft artist · #5 07-04-2012, 07:53 AM

There's the good old fashioned squaring up method where you divide the original into squares then copy each square onto the same equal and bigger number of squares on the bigger panel , painstaking but you'll have job done as good and as fast as organizing a projector

or beg , borrow a projector to copy the copy of the original ,

or just go for a mark one eyeball copy of your original source material , that one doesn't look too hard so I would go for the eyeball method .

bobc100 · #6 07-04-2012, 10:03 AM

I can easily imagine the image you provided turned into a 40"x40" painting. The problem is what effect you're going for when doing it. If you want it to be realistic but are working from a small photograph as your only reference, then you'd need to know a lot about the structure of the apples and the leaves in order to be able to provide the details that the larger painting needs to have.

I regularly work from small photographs and run into this problem all the time. I try to enlarge some small object in the background but realize that I have no clue what that object actually is. Just enlarging the patterns of light and dark doesn't always work, but if I don't know what I'm looking at, I don't know any other way to enlarge it.

If you aren't trying to be particularly realistic, then you have to some goal to guide your abstraction of the image. You'll probably be simplifying it in some manner, but you could be doing that to flatten the image or you could do it to emphasize the 3D form. Either way would work, and there are other possible goals as well.

Avena Cash · #7 07-04-2012, 06:25 PM

So huge apples it is! Making it big is the assignment so make the most of them: Make them look awesome, get into the patterns on their surfaces and don't worry about it. Pretend they're not apples just big beautiful round things (perhaps from another planet) that you want your viewer to be curious about. Based on what you say try to get the idea that they will look grotesque out of your head and just paint those interesting shapes and colors.

As far as scaling up without a grid, you have to estimate relative proportions in your head. Start with whatever looks easily visually measurable. Like you have a branch that angles from a point 1/3 across the top to one 1/4 up from the bottom right. Far left apple almost aligns with the branch where it touches the top edge. The greens change at halfway down the left edge, from warm close green to silvery background greens. Each element can be measured against what's already there using just your eyes. Doing it upside down might help.

**birdhs** · #8 07-04-2012, 10:12 PM

I think it will work at the larger scale very well, it will be spectacular in a large room. or a museum! Think Positive!!!!

The secret to painting a large version of something that is a small reference is to paint it from 4 to 6 feet away. Hold the reference photo in the hand you are not holding the brush in. Hold it straight out from your shoulder so that the "size" of the reference is the same as the canvas. Run up to the canvas and makes marks, run back to the same spot and see it they are somewhat useable marks, decide where to make the next marks and repeat.

Besides getting a very healthy workout it will let you see what is developing. I make very few marks at a time before stepping back. the other students in my last class just got used to my pattern of painting and stayed away from behind me. (I knocked one down- concentrating on my painting, not the world around me...)

try this on all larger paintings and you will get hooked on large canvasses. It is liberating to do BIG works. One student did a huge painting of just two bananas and it filled the room with a glow. (maybe he had the same instructor)

Go for it! and keep us posted on your progress.

Greg

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