Higher Quality Paintings
I often hear students talk about how they enjoy working on a large scale. While there's nothing wrong with painting big, maintaining energy and cohesion throughout a large piece is a challenge that not many painters can successfully meet. Size alone doesn’t make a painting better, nor should it be an excuse to charge more. If you can pull it off, great! But in my experience, many large paintings would have been more effective at a smaller scale, where greater energy and intentionality could have been applied.
A painting isn’t measured by its size. While a larger piece may have a stronger visual presence, that’s not what truly matters. What matters is the beauty of the work—its drawing, design, values, and color. These fundamentals should always come first. Consider that a single brushstroke on an 8x10 canvas equates to four brushstrokes on a 24x30. Very few painters can maintain that level of control and impact at a larger scale.
There’s no reason to paint large just for the sake of it. As an artist, you should be able to assess the quality of your work and choose a canvas size that allows you to maintain that quality. Too often, I see large paintings where the artist is still developing their fundamentals—design, value, color, and drawing. If your foundations aren’t solid, working at a larger scale can amplify weaknesses rather than enhance the piece.
You don’t want to look back and regret painting a scene so large that it compromised its quality. For artists still honing their fundamentals, a smaller canvas is much easier to control, allowing for greater precision and refinement. Focus on mastering the essentials first—scale can come later.
If your foundations aren’t solid, working at a larger scale can amplify weaknesses rather than enhance the piece
Painting larger doesn’t automatically make a painting better. It’s like putting an expensive frame on a low-quality piece—it won’t improve the art itself. The painting has to stand on its own.
There’s nothing wrong with working on a larger scale, but it’s not the best starting point for beginners. Maintaining energy and cohesion across a large canvas is far more challenging than on a smaller one. Until the fundamentals are solid, a smaller canvas allows for better control and consistency.
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