Making it Fit ASK THE ARTSPERTS by Kristine Meek and Juliana Meek

Dear Artsperts,
I love a painting in your gallery, but I am not sure it will fit in my home. Any suggestions?
Signed,
Spacey

Dear Spacey,
Artists today are creating larger works than was typical in the past. After we lost our Mercedes Metris van to Hurricane Ian, we used it as an opportunity to purchase an even larger Dodge Ram van to accommodate even bigger paintings. Our new van is bright red and we lovingly nicknamed it “Big Red”. We are always happy
to bring “Big Red” to you locally with the work to try in your home. There is never any obligation, especially if it does not end up fitting in the space in your home.

As an alternative, if the work is not for a local home, or if you just want to be sure it will fit before arranging with us to come in person, we can use Photoshop. The resulting image will give a surprisingly realistic idea of how the work will look in your home. We ask you to send a photo of the wall where you are hoping the painting will fit. It is also important to send us the dimensions of the wall. Take the photo as straight on as possible.

Although we can accommodate angles too with perspective tools in Photoshop. There is no need to move furniture. Take the photo as your home is, since that is how it will look with the painting. With Photoshop, we can “place” the painting behind furniture.

There are a lot of tools within Photoshop we use to make it appear as close as possible to how it will actually look in person. The dimensions of the wall are important because there are rulers in Photoshop and by applying some math we can determine how much wall space the painting will take up. We also add frames
to paintings and can change the colors of the frames to give you different looks. The final touch is adding some shadows around the painting based on the lighting in the photo you provide.

Recently we did exactly this process with a work by Reynier Llanes. One image is the photoshopped image the client requested while deciding if the painting she likes would fit. The other image is after she purchased the painting, and we physically installed the work. Even to us it is a challenge to spot which image is photoshopped and which one is real!

Can you tell which one is the photoshopped image?

Sincerely,
The Artsperts

www.harmonmeek.com
599 NINTH STREET, NORTH, SUITE 309 | NAPLES, FL 34102 |        239.261.2637