The wisdom of smalls

Thanks for the “digital camera” thumbnail advice. It’s yet another way to see the work more objectively. Getting correct values is always a challenge. In the old days, David Hockney shot black and whites of his paintings with a Polaroid camera as they progressed.

Dear Robert Another tool to add to your excellent suggestions in viewing art on a smaller scale and from a different perspective is the use of various sizes of window mounts. As an artist/printmaker, when I look for inspiration in preparing plates, I often move a window mount over a design, old print, sketch or painting in order to capture a completely new image but on a smaller scale. The eye tends to simplify the design and composition and the artist can then increase the image into a larger artwork. Sometimes this method doesnt work on a large scale but it is worthwhile experimenting and you can use different size mounts for your particular purpose. I agree using a mirror to view your work in progress allows the brain to absorb fresh information & signal a different viewpoint to the artist whose preconceived ideas could be the stumbling block to a successful work. In printmaking the artist is constantly challenged working on mirror images in various stages i.e. the design, the transfer to the plate, the final print. Rosemary Mostyn, (Perth, Western Australia)

Couldn’t agree more, Robert. My feeling is that if my paintings don’t work better large then I have more work to do. I use the camera and Photoshop all the time to assess and correct. It’s those little things that can stop a painting from moving from ‘not bad’ to GREAT.

Dito Robert! The digital camera and photo software are great ways to critique our own work. I had not thought of flipping the image before, so I will do that also.

Wonderful post Bob. You’ve touched on so many important composition and evaluation tools. Now days, I see so much art where the artist has neglected to obfuscate shapes here and there, often leading to an overall stiff, cut-out look, lacking in both mystery and eye appeal.

Good advise Robert. What I do is turn my paintings upside down while working on them which is very helpful, especially for still life. When I did line illustration years ago while working for an ad agency, we always made our illustrations at least 200 percent larger than what was needed. This could be tricky because we had to make lines much thicker too. When they were reduced to their printable size, all the small imperfections didn’t show and they looked clean as a whistle. Maybe the same applies to paintings. I also wonder if colors intensify when they are condensed to a smaller size.

Robert, you have mentioned all my evaluations tricks with the camera except one. (It works with a mirror, too). REVERSE , or “flip” the image. Also view it upside down. You will find out lumpy places and weight issues this way– and it scrambles your assumptions about reality so you have an objective eye. Right brain stuff, y’know? Loving what you send us in your letters. Susan

I was one of those students of the late 80’s who was taught some of the serious work of art through color studies, but wasn’t given much instruction in actual painting… lots of inspiration and critiques and all, but not much on how to wash a brush.

Famous Australian artist Sidney Nolan, used to look through the “wrong” end of a pair of binoculars. It works!

Upside-down is good, too, if no mirror is available.

If you look at a large number of your works in thumbnail it enables you to see a consistency or homogeneity across the whole series as well… or not..

One of the few advantages of wearing glasses- I simply take them off for a “different perspective”! Now here’s another: Take a shot that’s purposely out of focus.

I have not tried to inspect my work with such painstaking scrutiny. I just leave the painting for a while and look at it with fresh eyes and try to see where improvement is needed. Perhaps this method of photographing them and studying them works for most people but I don’t know if it only minimizes the faults. I think sometimes the lighting would be different looking at photographs rather than the original work it self. Perhaps you have to have a really good camera to achieve this but then cameras are very expensive. Another concern I would think is the perspective, would it not be distorted viewing it in the photograph?

I have a “reducing” glass…it’s like a magnifier in the opposite….so no camera needed to see a reduction. I use the ‘squinting’ through my eyelashes trick.

It can be helpful to turn a painting or drawing upside down, also, which gives a lot of information. I find this helpful even with my calligraphy.

I had a similar experience last weekend at an art fair. To amuse myself and the passersby, I did a series of “mini” pastels, about 6″ square, throughout the day. The small size and short time frame forced me to simplify and restrain the level of detail, and these little paintings turned out to be gems! A lesson learned about clarifying the composition and not getting lost in the “frills.”

I spent last summer engaged in six weeks of daily painting, which also means daily photo taking in order to post. I cannot tell you how many times, as I uploaded the photo to post my daily work, the flaw in that day’s work came at me large as life. Of course then I had to fix it and take another photo.

With this in mind, yesterday my art teacher advised me to “take off my glasses!”

Just holding a work up to a mirror does the trick for me.

I just wanted to let you know how much I enjoy I your twice weekly insurgence into my inbox, your wit and artistic and other wisdoms! Don’t stop!

There are too many artists these days who are just “leaving the creativity in the hands of the gods”. Don’t they know that true accomplishment comes with strategy and applying all the tactics you can muster. Part of the problem is that there is so much bad work around that gets critical approval that people don’t think craftsmanship is important any more. Pity.

I have used a mirror, a digital camera, and turning the painting upside down, but I have yet to reverse the image in Photoshop. Thank you for the tip! I am a new subscriber and look forward to getting your letters. Cheers!

I hate it when i spend forever on a painting, get happy with it, then see it in the mirror and realize i painted the damn thing backwards!!!! They always look so much cooler in reverse.

You’ve become a creature of the digital age indeed! I was surprised you didn’t mention old tried and trues like the backwards binoculars, and the black mirror in this message. ( I know you’ve mentioned the binoculars before as I’m reading your excellent book) But one thing I have used and have never heard mentioned anywhere yet is good old “Myopia”, or it’s cousin “I need reading glasses”. As in, if you are near-sighted, look at the picture without your glasses to blur it, and if far-sighted,or 20/20, grab a pair of reading glasses and look through them and it blurs things nicely. Obviously blurriness varies according to prescription. A pair of reading glasses is cheap, super portable, and can be used to blur a scene nicely too to simplify it. If no one has ever heard of this before, I’m claiming it! Call it the Boast Blur! Akin to squinting, I suppose. I have to assume a small image also covers up overworked areas of the larger image? That may be why they look better.

Perhaps this has been mentioned before: often the reason an artist’s “gem” of a small painting does not translate well to a larger one is, the artist is still using the small brush with which he/she painted the little work. Shift to an appropriately larger brush – 1 inch or more – for a fresher large painting.

Regarding the Problems under glass letter, Robert is absolutely right. Works under glass are also not welcome in almost all commercial galleries in Montreal and elsewhere around the area. Unfortunately, the commercial side of art is not marketing some of the best creative works on paper. Worse still, the message that commercial galleries are sending unfortunately to collectors is that works on paper are inferior, which is totally false. One has just to look to history for the answer. If Degas, Lautrec et al were creating today, would the galleries not promote their works on paper? What a loss that would be.

Marilyn, I have never tried things this way round, but not long ago I grabbed up a sketchbook to capture some quickies of a pair of Egyptian geese, and the resulting sketches, done without my specs, are amongst the cleanest in the book. No fiddling with details, just simple lines and blocks of shadow. Magic!

I do admit, that this thought never occurred to me or any of these thoughts except maybe squinting. I’m surprised at how much I just learned in only 19 minutes of a new day, by just reading your letter and it certainly has been one of the few exciting blogs I have read. Now in my case I like seeing my paintings larger as I tend to pack, or shall I say jam a lot into them. More bang for the Buck.

One of the important tools in my studio is a diminishing glass (opposite of a magnifying glass) used with my glasses off (or on, depending).

Those are excellent ideas! Somehow, I get lazy about using technology for troubleshooting, while there is no reason not to. Just as you say, the “tyranny of color” gets to me as well, so the values, that I carefully planned beforehand, somehow get lost along the way. That is such a huge mistake and cause of many frustrations. I should be more diligent in doing those checks more often during the painting process. I think I should start by moving the printer from the 2nd floor office to my ground level studio – maybe that was the major deterrent why I haven’t been using it. It’s easier to keep mucking with colors than hike upstairs and print some check-point images. There is another bright side of this effect. I am definitely receiving more compliments about my appearance from my husband as his eyesight is going bad. I encourage him not to use his glasses.

Painters who wish to accelerate development of proficiency and style are advised to work small and work often. More discouragement and unsatisfactory work occurs when people try to make large masterpiece before they know what they are doing.

I’ve noticed how helpful these smalls can be and appreciate some new ideas for ‘critical’ viewing. Sometimes i paint w/o my glasses which also seems to help me to stay looser and when looking at my ref. am not so locked in to details. Thanks R.G.