canvy

[Bongo]

One thing that bothers me about posting paintings is that a 6"x9" painting comes across as the same as a "30"x 40" painting. Whereas in real life they have a completely different impact. Canvy.com is an online tool that allows you to stage painting to an accurate scale in a home setting. The program has over 500 rooms to choose from, with the ability to change wall/furnishing, frames, reflections, colors, hang multiple paintings, as well as crop and save to super hi-resolutions. I've seen staged paintings before, but wasn't aware of programs that allow you to do it so easily and professionally.

So to get an idea of what they look like, here are a few I did on canvy.com
E.M.P. 30"x40"

Weeping Beauty 30"x40"

That Day In The Park 24"x14"

 

[Hermes2020]

Some synchronicity at play here: I was thinking the same thing a few days ago. Thanks for the link, I will check it out.

 

[AES]

This is great! Probably the only way these will ever be seen on a wall too, since they're screenshots.

Maybe not the greatest "venue" though. They look kinda lonely...

Edited the frames. That's a little better.

 

[Bongo]

I have a couple of takeaways already. First - with Canvy you design the room to highlight the painting, so it's easy to go overboard making a room that is unrealistic (or unlikely) but that optimizes your painting. Looking at my "Weeping Beauty" example - mauve colored walls while not unheard of, are not all that typical. And when I made that room I was dialing back from something even more "outlandish" but that made the painting look real good. The majority of rooms and furnishings in Canvy have a decided upscale look as it is without over-customizing the furnishings for the painting. SO I see it as a dance. Design/pick a room that is both flattering to the painting yet not too design-centric.

A good number of my paintings that I like, look out of place in Canvy rooms. Mostly due to the subject matter. I've always found abstracts to go better in rooms than realistic paintings. The cracker-jack realistic painting looks fantastic by itself, but when it has to play with real room environments - it can be a crapshoot. Harmonious color, shape, size.. is one thing, but finding a painting that also has subject matter that won't completely change the nature of the room nor blend with the wallpaper, can be a challenge.

 

[laika]

Thanks for sharing this!

 

[Hermes2020]

I played around a bit, and Canvy seems to be fine for paintings, but then I thought it would be useful to have a similar tool for 3D objects like sculptures. I did a search, but couldn't find anything useful, so tried to do it using Rhino 3D, a program I use a lot. The advantage is that I can arrange the objects to get any layout I want. The Canvy interiors are a bit cluttered for my taste. I think I just need a standing figure, a dining table, and a few chairs to show the correct scale of paintings and sculptures. I used my own furniture: an Eero Saarinen 1200mm table and some Eames wire dining chairs.

 

[Artyczar]

Very cool Hermes. You done did well.

Bongo, thanks for the Canvy site resource. I can maybe use that for when some interested buys what to see more images of work. I can include some of these with higher resolution ones and detail shots. It will be a very nice addition.

On my website, I just have a simple yardstick on each painting page to show scale. It's not much, but it's better than nothing. Here is a sample: https://esart.com/artwork/paintings/rock-and-refuge/919

 

[Bongo]

Hermes, looks good. You might look into mockupeditor.com similar to canvy but for smaller prints and objects.
a desk/table in front of a wall - like canvy you can change, add person, chairs, objects, paintings etc.

It says you can upload your own custom objects - so I don't see why that couldn't be a sculpture. Haven't used it so can't say much about it.

Ayins - I think your type of artwork would really shine on canvy.

 

[Hermes2020]

Thanks for telling me about Mockup Editor, Bongo. I went there, but to try it one has to log in with a Facebook account which I don't have. I think if I need to do a mock-up at any time, I will just cobble it together in Rhino, which is easy for me.

 

[Artyczar]

I also do not have Fishface anymore.

 

[stlukesguild]

Something like this gives a small sense of the actual scale of a painting... although I have seen similar software in which the images are shown at various sizes and I rarely look at these digital presentations as offering any real sense of scale. I frequently photograph my own work in installation views in the studio... including objects like chairs or ladders to give more of a sense of scale. More than once, I have had someone online express surprise at just how big my paintings are... in spite of the fact that I almost always include the measurements along with the media. But then I'll admit that I have often been quite surprised at seeing some paintings in person, in spite of the fact that I have known the works through reproductions in art books which included the measurements. Ultimately, there is nothing like standing before the actual paintings. Being physically surrounded by the fields of color in a Matisse or Bacon, or confronting the life-sized figures in a Rubens or later Freud, or being drawn into the almost magical surfaces of a Vermeer, Ingres, Degas, or Bonnard are experiences almost wholly absent in photographic reproduction.

There is a statement about art in reproduction I have come upon more than once and that is that bad or amateurish art looks better in photographs while good or great art looks better in person. I have personally found this to be true. My students' work always looks better in photographs which disguise the crappy materials and the less-than-ideal craftsmanship. I can't say how many times I have been floored by great works of art that I thought little of (Matisse, Jackson Pollock, Mark Rothko, Bonnard, etc...) until I stood right before the actual paintings. Even with my own work, I often find myself disliking a painting while viewing it in reproduction only to find that upon seeing it again in the studio in person my point of view changes and I think "not bad after all".