Why do we draw so big?

[meeps]

Just wondering if anyone has an answer to this....in all my art classes so far at school, we do EVERYTHING on 19x24 paper, and it's such a pain in the ass to lug around.

Is there a reason we can't just do stuff in a sketchbook? Is it harder to learn or something?

[dark eagle]

I think its because you can harm your wrist through making small drawing somehow and when you use larger sizes you become used to using your arm and wrist rather than the wrist alone and it accustoms you towards rendering better somehow...

[~Faust~]

I'm interested in a good answer for this as well. As for the wrist-hurting: My wrist is just fine, although I spend hours and hours making very tiny marks, I guess everybody has a different anatomy and I don't like painting big because my elbowhurts after a while :D

So my advice would be to do it the way you feel comfortable and you have the most fun with > you will draw more > you will learn more regardless of the format.

Of course until someone hasbetter advice. Take his, then.

[Musselfarmstudios]

That's actually still kind of a medium sized drawing. but to answer your question the larger you are able to draw the more detail you will be able to infuse into the drawing . . . plus when you work smaller your smaller drawings will be that much tighter.

And also that thing that Pyrokid said . . . it's best if you draw with your body than hand . . . you get better fluid moves . . . it's like throwing a good punch, the power comes from your ass! this some how applies to drawings.

[eulalia]

its easier to draw bigger, you get more room for detail, and you could see it across a room and still see the detail

bigger is better

[~Faust~]

You can put any ammount of detail into a small drawing as you'd like, yes, it's harder, but on the other hand, it forces you to simplify and think about how you can induce those details without having to render them all.

About the body and the fluidity, I do not agree, with the right ammount of practice, you can gain the confidence to make fluid and dynamic lines in any format you want. Additionally, if you are used to always draw big, the time you go small yourlines get fuzzier because you're not used to make marks that close to each other (Ok, that's just my opinion), but if you can make controlled and confident lines in your scetchbook, it's easy to go big and make good and controlled marks there.

About the good punch, there's also hitting-techniques where you resemble allthe power on close-up by using the velocity of twisting your wrist and releasing the force on a small point (your knuckles), John Wayne is not a good fighter to copy :D,but that is off-topic.

I do not want to go into bashing the big-drawing, everyone should do what works best for them, it's always good to try out new things.

[Ilaekae]

i think it has something to do with penis sizes...

[Brushcommander]

Ther smaller you draw, the bigger it is, yes.
Did I mention that I love to draw miniatures?

[cmalidore]

I found it easier to learn big and apply it down smaller than to learn small and apply it bigger - It was as if I learned how to use my area space more effectively, and to focus on learning the foundation movements in say gesture work. You can do any of this stuff smaller yes - but for many people it's easier to learn it bigger.

I'm sure they're just trying to piss you off instead of teaching you something. That's what schools are for, right?

[DavePalumbo]

The explanation I always heard, and it makes perfect sense to me, is that when you're learning it's much more comprehensive if you work large. Your mistakes in anatomy are much easier to see and correct on a larger scale, and it forces you to pay closer attention to detail in proportions and placement of, say, facial features. Suggesting detail in a small drawing doesn't help you learn and retain nearly as much about anatomy and proportions as when you have to spell everything out in a larger piece. At least, not until you already have a pretty good handle on it.

I've also heard that for people who have trouble getting life and movement and energy in their drawings, larger scale is helpful because you use more of your body when you draw (why some instructors also insist on easel drawing and not table drawing).

[Justin.]

I've personally found I have alot more confident of a line when using the arm for motion as opposed to the wrist. This can be done even on a small scale, but drawing big forces you to stop using the wrist to draw. I'm not sure if it's a health issue, but definitely yields good results.. plus it's great for class critique so all can see it easily.

[BuckWeisel]

because you can make more fluid and confident strokes with your arm as opposed to your wrist. You can also get more variations in line quality with the proper posture. You're supposed to stand, with the paper parallel to your body on an easel about a foot away. That way you have full range of movement, you can see the entire figure or still life. You can also see your entire paper without distortion where as when your paper is laying on a table top, the farther away it is the more distortion. It is also helpful to stand as you can take a few steps back during the refining process to make sure everything is in its proper place. Standing keeps you awake and on your toes too.

Shame on your teacher for not explaining this.

[Black Spot]

I used to love drawing big, but now I’m just getting back into it, I’m finding smaller is better. Next week I might change my mind as variation is the spice of life, and feel the need to let loose my shoulder.

[nonie]

19x24 paper is also perfectly sized to use the maximum space without going beyond your cone of vision when you are at arm's length from it. That way you can draw with your arm straight, allowing big strokes to come from your shoulder, and still see the whole paper without having to move your head or dart around with your eyes.

Another benefit of this is that you can easily resume the same distance from the paper so that you don't change your viewing angle of the subject, as all you need to do to find where you were standing/sitting is hold your arm out straight and touch the paper.

[Sanny]

I can say one reason is that its easier to ahve the image look good form going large and then resize to smal in printing the work for publishing, if you go other direction the image can easy look bad or out of propotion.

[dark eagle]

I have to say working too big for me sometimes gives me aches in arms, getts pretty annoying because I have to take day breaks from a good rendering which is like a pain in the ass

[PixelRambo]

One of my anatomy class teacher explained it thus:

"The larger you draw the less chance you have of making errors. As you decrease the size the more obvious the slightest error will become."

[m0n3y]

Ever seen an old master drawing??
they are always small, they never had any problems with the the wrist falling off or proportions.

http://www.wga.hu/art/r/raphael/7drawing/14kneeli.jpg
279 x 187 mm

The only large old master drawings I have ever seen are cartoons for murals.

Most of the arguments in this thread for drawing big are silly.

[Blue]

Teachers are old. They need your picture bigger so they can see it.

[Ilaekae]

...you're dead, Cat... :P

[Musselfarmstudios]

Ever seen an old master drawing??
they are always small, they never had any problems with the the wrist falling off or proportions.
The only large old master drawings I have ever seen are cartoons for murals.

Most of the arguments in this thread for drawing big are silly.

Good point! . . . but you are talking about The Professional "Old Masters" and not some 18 year olds in a life drawing I class, or a 14 year old who likes to draw manga.

Part of learning how to draw big also goes back to the fact that Drawing is the first phase in Painting . . . some painters draw with charcoal as there under painting, there for it makes sense to start out drawing large, say, you don't think the "old masters" didn't do large under drawings . . . do you? . . . naw . . . probably not, I'll bet just those 10in x 7 in studies and then painted those really large paintings just by "eye ballin'."

Again note the fact that we are talking about students and not pros.

So yes, it is cool for "Old Masters" to do small studies . . . anyone can do studies in any size but if you look at a lot of new artists . . . even here at CA you will realize that if they just started to draw bigger they may in fact learn that much more faster and not be so anal about mark making because they would have that much more room to play and grow!

Drawing large helps people to learn that not everything needs a strong continuous outline. Line weight is a problem that a lot of young artists have . . . and drawing large gives them room to experiment and maybe, just maybe overcome their weakness in that regard.

It's a study about mark making as much as it is about content

I hope this answer is Silly enough . . . peace! :yayca:

[King Kobra]

it is up to you how big you draw if you feel more comfortable the way you draw draw that way

[nonie]

I dunno... I've always found proportions easier to manage in a small drawing. Larger ones it's a lot easier to get caught up looking at one section without relating it to others. You have to be a lot more careful. It *hides* mistakes - part of why you step back to check it is to make ti smaller in your field of vision and therefor easier to check the overall proportion.

Knowing it creates an opening like that though, does give you a chance to really learn to check and recheck everything against everything else and once all the proportions are good, there's plenty of room to get really involved in the form and detail.

Personally I do gestures and sketches small, and as the length of each pose grows, I draw bigger because I have the time to.