New Studio

[Linda Nelson]

Perhaps you could give me some advice - we are adding to our house and I get to have a studio of my own in the new space. I plan to use the Lumachrome lights Marvin has been so happy with. I just don't know where to hang them (light them whole room, light to the side of me, etc.). Also I'm wondering what color the walls should be. I am worried to overlight the room or to give myself glare off the canvas.

I currently work only in the day near two sets of northern sliding glass doors. I've that same light in the new studio, but will now have the chance to light it so to paint in the evening, and have space to have live models, so that of course will change where I have the easel, and how I light the whole room during the day.

Since this is a new room I have carte blanche on where I put the electrical and how. (the ceilings will be vaulted - 10' and slope to 7'.

Any thoughts would really be helpful.

Thanks!

[Linda Brandon]

Congratulations! This is fantastic news, Linda.

I don't know much about installing electrical lighting so I'll leave those comments for somebody else. However, I would urge you to think about installing a high north window near the top of that 10' wall. As long as you're spending some money, make it a remote control adjustable shade that rolls up from the bottom of the window. High north light will rake in at wonderful dramatic angle for portrait work. It will be different from the full glass doors that you're used to. Place a podium setup where the light hits, and you'll have no excuse not to grab victims and paint from life relentlessly. (While you're building the podium, make it large enough for a sofa. I wish I had thought to do this.)

This means that you ought to have as big a space as possible. My ideal space would be an old high school gymnasium, I think. You need to be able to step back when you work from life, and if you are photographing the figure you'll get distortion if your camera is too close to the subject. Don't underestimate your storage needs; a vertical shelving system for canvases would be a great thing to have, for example. Also, it is pure luxury to have a lot of easels so that you can work on several things at once.

Don't forget that your studio also functions as a showroom for clients, so when you plan your lighting make sure you light some walls with spots to show off your work.

I have tile floors which are killer to stand on for long hours, so I went to Costco and bought black foam snap-together squares for extra cushioning.

Personally, I'm dragging my feet about painting my walls a dark neutral cool, but I know I have to get to it someday.

You're doing the right thing to ask for input while you're still in the planning stages. I've heard that there are architects who specialize in art studio design and you might try a search for them.

I know artists who work from huge computer monitors when they use their digital photos as reference. If I had a computer in my studio I'd try to figure out how to set a monitor up next to an easel, it sounds like a really good idea.

Oh yes, and get a good stereo system. Don't you love how I'm spending your money?

[Linda Nelson]

Thanks so much Linda! A ton of great suggestions - all of which I'll be using, I'm sure.

My husband's an architect and has done a great job giving me as much open space as possible. Now I need to figure out the interior finishes and the layout.

We're planning on just leaving the plywood subfloor exposed (that way I can be messy without guilt).

So for the walls, Linda, you say it's better to have a midvalue gray?


Thanks again,

[Leslie Ficcaglia]

Linda, when I was building my studio (by remodeling a very old riverside cottage on our property) I researched wall colors; at the time people seemed to recommend either a cream color or a bright white. I went with the bright white, but it's broken up by a lot of windows and I also have a sliding glass door onto a deck with steps down to the nearby dock (I actually watched a muskrat nibbling grass today - right outside the window - while I was painting). I also installed a fan to exhaust fumes, although I use very little medium. I wanted to include a dais for models, but unfortunately the stairs took up that room. Linda Brandon's suggestion is an excellent one.

What fun to be designing your own space!

[Timothy C. Tyler]

Linda, there is one thing to remember with lights. Learn this, and you'll know more than the lighting supervisor at most major museums-"the billiard rule". Light bounces in direct refraction like the balls in billiards. You get glare when it's to far behind you. Plaeced high and closer to the canvas you should have no problems.

[Chris Saper]

Dear Linda,

For years my studio was painted in a soft white -I have two of my four walls punctuated by very large windows. I had way too much light.

Bill Whitaker suggested painting the walls in a darker green fondly called "Leffel green", but which I subsequently learned would be more appropriately credited as "McGraw Green." One of the large studios at the Scottsdale Artists' School was painted in this mid-value grayed-down warm green.

The green that was used here (if you would like I can locate the formula) was a little more saturated and a little yellower that I felt I could live with. Instead I painted my studio in a color called Mesa Grey, from Home Depot. It is a Behr color from the Deck, Fence & Siding Stain series. I had it mixed in the new flat enamel surface. The color is a mid-value, very neutral, cool gray-green. Not only does it help mitigate the overabundance of light, every painting I hang on the walls looks better (my studio also functions as my gallery) but I have a beautiful background against which to photograph my subjects. The self portrait on my website was from a photo of me in front of Mesa Gray.

Linda Brandon has one room in her studio that is a beautiful, cool gray - I have bought a sample color in the same Behr line called Colony Blue, and will try it out in our guest room. I will tell everyone that it's the perfect soothing color for guests, despite my ulterior motives Then I will have an alternate mid-value temperature against which to photograph people.

P. S. Don't let anyone insist that you get white carpeting. Explore some of the new artificial "faux-tile" surfaces that are cushioned, and impervious to anything that might spill on them. And let us know what you find out!

[Linda Nelson]

Thanks so much everyone for all the great information!!

This is all so helpful for my planning. Chris, I will check out the colors you mentioned. I can see how having a mid value room color would not only harness the ambient light, but also I am imagining that having a midvalue vs. a white wall would be better in that, when painting, the wall behind the easel (what you see peripherally while painting) would be more condusive - But I wasn't sure if in doing that you actually shift the color of the light in the room and risk how you paint because of it. So this really helps.

Thanks, Tim on the billiards example - I didn't know if one should light the whole room or have single controlled directional light.

Leslie, I have the same treat in my space - a pond off the back of the house with tons of fowl - it is a great reprieve for the eyes and soul!

Thanks again all!

[Patricia Joyce]

I am fortunate enough to be moving to a new townhouse my fiance is having built and one of the rooms on the second floor will be exclusively for my studio! You can imagine how ecstatic I am over this. While it is not a large room (10 x 12) is is more than I have now (a desk in my bedroom!). There are two northern windows and one window to the west. The room has vaulted ceilings and we are meeting with the builder tomorrow to decide where I may want a skylight.

Could any of you give me some suggestions as to the placement of the skylight? The "sides" of the roof line are direct west and direct east. I am sure it will be on the small side and I doubt it will have the mechanisms to open and close it to light, without a large upgrade cost (I will get that pricing tomorrow). Would it be simpler to opt out and just live with the three windows?

Thank you
Pat

[Leslie Ficcaglia]

Pat, we installed a skylight in our 10x20' bedroom when we added on to our house many years ago, and recently we explored ways of shutting out that light. Special shades which would be opaque were about $600, which seemed ridiculous to me, and instead we simply cut a piece of wood to size and affixed it to the bedroom ceiling section of the skylight frame with mirror fasteners. The room is a lot cooler and more pleasant that way in the summer, and I don't miss the extra light in the winter - although we could remove the wood if we chose. Because of this experience I didn't include a skylight in my studio when I built it, although we do have a lot of windows facing southwest, which is the view I see when I stand at my easel. That wall is almost solid windows on the ground floor, and there are two large windows on the same wall at the next level, so that you have a view from the loft as well. They're fine, but I think a skylight would have been too much.

I think a skylight would be too much for a 10x12' room, too. But that's just based on our experience.

Leslie

[Kimberly Dow]

Pat - Congrats on that - I can see why you'd be so excited! You'll be suprised at how fast you will fill it up with 'stuff'.

I cant help you on your question. I've had big studios, small studios, and just a coffee table for my studio - but never one where I had any control over the natural lighting - but good luck!