Going Big

Wendy names the fear of the large canvas directly — and reframes it.

The same design-first philosophy — and what changes when every mark on a large canvas costs more.

Bigger brushes, hardware store tools, and why mixing enough paint is a skill of its own.

How to source, stretch, and tension a large raw canvas — the infrastructure most courses skip.

How to adapt the shapes, value, and palette process for a surface that must be read from at least ten feet away.

Wendy reads a completed large work out loud — naming every design decision visible in the surface.

How to transfer a resolved composition to a large canvas — and why you step back every few marks.

Both wash layers on a large surface — charging from the shoulder, and the canvas swap that shows what overnight drying does.

Opaque marks at the table — permanent, defining, and physically demanding. Black arrives last.

The painting moves to the wall — glazing, shape merging, and the removal decisions that separate a painting that works from one that almost does.

What going big actually unlocks — and what to do when a large painting goes wrong.